[birds chirping]
[machine whirring]
[Dick] I have 50 years of mining.
But business is tough.
Now, I'm 76-years-old and...
I don't wanna go broke.
I've tried not to my whole life.
But you got a big gas bill,
you got a big maintenance bill.
If we don't do something, we're gonna lose 50 years of blood, sweat and tears
that Dad has invested in the goldmine.
We can lose it all this summer.
If we ended up losing everything,
I think it would break his heart.
You just smell that river water.
-[Eric] Yeah. -Yeah.
[Eric] I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure that the mine is successful.
I'm putting a lot of faith in Freddy and Juan.
We need a miracle.
[dramatic music swells]
[Freddy] Let's dig some gold, guys.
[narrator] Freddy Dodge...
There's no guarantees in gold, buddy.
[narrator] ...and Juan Ibarra...
All right, well, let's do it, huh?
[narrator] ...have mastered the art of getting gold out of the ground...
[Juan] Look at that.
[narrator] ...in the most rugged places on earth.
[Juan on radio] I'm feeling a little sick, Freddy.
[narrator] Now, they rescue struggling miners...
Ooh, that's not good.
[narrator] ...who risked it all to be rich...
[objects clattering]
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Shut it down.
[narrator] ...but are about to lose everything.
Eyeballs!
[narrator] To revive these failing mines,
Freddy and Juan engineer the impossible...
[Juan] Well, I've never heard of under sluice before.
[narrator] ...deliver some hard truths...
This material you're digging now is totally worthless.
[narrator] ...and track down the gold.
That's what dreams are made of right there.
[narrator] But if they don't at least double the miners' gold recovery,
they won't take a dime in return.
-It was ten times the amount of gold. -[whoops]
-[Juan] That's awesome. -[all laughing, exclaiming]
[birds chirping]
[guitar music playing]
[brakes screech]
[Juan] This way, Fred.
Good looking plane.
[Freddy] It's a beautiful plane.
[Juan] We've had a lot of pilots take us to gold mines,
but we've never actually helped miners that are pilots as well.
I've always wanted to fly.
I wonder if they're mining out here, Freddy.
[Freddy] Let's go try to find to find 'em.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan are in western Montana,
in the valley of Bear Gulch,
summoned by a father and son team
making their last stand at their mountain mine.
Gold was first discovered here in 1865.
The site was mined hard by the first prospectors
who left Montana with over $30 million of gold.
Seventy-five years later,
miners use the bucket line dredge
to recover nearly 14,000 ounces of gold nuggets
worth over $25 million in today's money.
[Juan] Hey, guys.
-Hey, good morning. -[Dick] How's it going?
[Juan] Good.
-[Eric] Welcome. -[Juan] Thank you.
Eric. Nice to meet you.
-[Freddy] Nice to meet you, Eric. -[Kelly] Kelly.
-Nice to meet you, Kelly. -[Freddy] Nice to meet you, Kelly.
[Dick] Hi, Juan.
-You're looking great. -[Freddy] Nice to meet you, sir.
[narrator] Mine owners, Dick Komberec
and his son, Eric,
spent the last decade mining a five acre claim.
They were joined in 2019
by wash plant operator, Kelly Brown.
Over the last several years, we've built up a pretty large scale mine.
But right now, we've got some pretty tremendous expenses in heavy equipment.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -Diesel fuel is expensive.
Trucking costs are high.
[narrator] Without significant increase in gold production this season,
the Komberec mine that Dick built
is on the brink of collapse.
A possibility that would devastate Eric.
[Eric] All through my childhood, essentially,
I was always dad's sidekick.
He's not only my dad, but he's my best friend.
Even more so now,
seeing that I've got an interest in continuing to...
to run everything, essentially,
he's spent the last 50 years to build.
I don't want to let him down
and I want to keep this for my family
and my grandkids,
and hopefully, generations after that.
[narrator] With a full time career as a commercial pilot
until 2008,
Dick would mine as often as he could.
[Dick] Well, I would say I got gold fever.
I'd be flying, gone around the world
and I'd come home more interested in the gold.
And Eric would go with me.
Eric started mining with me when he was two-years-old.
And, you know, when he was eight-years-old,
he was running D&A tractors and excavators by himself.
[narrator] But the Komberec struggles run deeper than the mine.
Following in his father's footsteps,
Eric established an aviation charter company
that is struggling in the troubled economy.
[Eric] COVID has kind of changed the dynamics
of the tourism industry and what people are out doing,
so we're in a tight spot
between pilots and mechanics,
and we've got about ten employees.
and we've got about five aircraft.
Obviously, the whole world is in shambles.
I mean, everything is twice as much money nowadays.
[Dick] That's why I'd like to get more gold, huh?
[Eric] We need some help figuring out how to capture more.
So, what did your season look like last year?
I think at the end of the year, last year,
we were able to get about 60 ounces, is all.
All right.
That's taken, you know, a lot of work.
Yeah.
[Eric] Sixty ounces just really isn't gonna cut it.
[narrator] Running their mine and keeping their aviation business afloat,
costs the Komberecs close to $200,000 a year.
What do you need then to get profitable this year?
At least 100 ounces to be able to cover expenses
and increase the profits.
[Freddy] Couple $100,000 worth of gold?
-[Eric] Yeah, at least. -Gold.
-[Eric] Yeah. -Yeah.
[Eric] Kelly and Dad, what do you guys think?
Yeah, that'd be great.
Hundred ounces.
[Freddy] You have any of the gold?
[Dick] Yeah, this is some of the gold that Eric got last summer.
-Oh, look at that. -[Freddy] That's some big flakes, huh?
-There's some fines in it. -[Juan] Yeah.
And those fines that are in there, that real fine stuff,
that's where we'll help you the most.
Unfortunately, this is one of the wettest springs that I ever remember
and we're already a month behind schedule in mining.
We've got a really short window,
we've got about, we figured 50 days to get that 100 ounces,
so we need to get going.
Well, where's your plant at?
[Eric] Well, it's just a few miles up the road.
-[Freddy] Let's go have a look at it. -[Eric] All right.
-[Eric] Sounds good. -[Juan] All right.
Thank you for coming.
[Freddy] These guys, they're trying to run two businesses.
Sometimes, the gold makes money,
and sometimes, the aviation makes money.
But right now, it's up to me and Juan,
we're gonna try to make it where the gold is making money all the time
and more money than it is now.
[Juan] This is your baby, huh?
Well, guys, I built this almost 50 years ago.
[Freddy] Really?
It's been moved several times.
And it's always run,
but without Kelly in the last few years,
it wouldn't be what it is.
[Kelly] Hopefully, when you guys watch this test run and everything,
you can tell me more whether I'm messing up.
I'm kind of proud of the way that it works.
-[Juan] Looks pretty stout. -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] It's well built for sure.
-Let's do a four hour run. -[Kelly] Yes, sir.
-Let's fire it up. -[Dick] Let's do it.
[engine spluttering, starts]
[narrator] After a season delayed by torrential spring storms,
the Komberecs have just 50 days to make 100 ounces.
With both their mining and air charter businesses at stake,
they need every flake of gold they can capture.
[Juan] There goes, first bucket. Ready?
First bucket.
[narrator] Eric feeds paydirt into the hopper...
[water splashing]
[narrator] ...which travels through Dick's 50-year-old hand-built trommel.
The fine gold is washed from the rocks
before passing into three eight-foot long sluices.
[Juan] Let's take a look inside the drum.
We're losing a lot of water pressure up front.
There's no sense in having sprayers up there
'cause most of the dirt is submerged.
[narrator] A common problem on struggling mines,
the spray bar in the trommel is too weak,
so fine gold isn't being washed off the rocks
and ends up in the discarded tailings.
They got water going where they don't need water.
Kinda like you wash your hair in the shower,
but all the water is hitting your feet.
Yeah, exactly.
Those riffles are all the same and too narrow.
[narrator] Freddy spots another common and costly problem
with the sluice runs.
[Juan] Well, feel 'em, they're packed.
[Freddy] I can see it.
Right now, the problem is,
all that material, the heavy stuff, the gold,
most of it is going down in one run.
-[Juan] Yeah. -[Freddy] That's wasting that.
[Juan] Yeah, we'll start pushing gold out because it's overloaded.
So, basically, we have two runs here
-that are just getting material, no gold. -Right.
Less and less.
[narrator] Gold bearing material
flows unevenly down the plant's three sluices.
The riffles pack up
and wash fine gold off the end.
We both know, Freddy,
if the gold gets out here, what does it want to do?
It wants to go back to the center of the earth.
And it's our job to stop the gold from getting there.
[Juan] Here we go. Another load!
[narrator] Dick Komberec
passed down more than his love for mining to his son.
Eric has also found a purpose and passion...
in flying.
[Eric] My primary job is I'm a large airtanker Captain.
Essentially, we take really large, big heavy airplanes
and fly 'em really low and slow.
We respond to wildfire devastations,
so it's a really demanding type of flying.
A lot of times we're flying right into amongst the mega fires.
This is paramount that we succeed here.
I hate to say it, but we're putting
all of our eggs in this wash plant.
Well, Freddy, there it is, buddy.
Last bucket.
Last bucket!
[narrator] Four-hour test complete,
the crew pulls the mats to look for gold.
[Eric] No big shiny pieces.
[Juan] Couple little pieces in there.
[Freddy] Yeah, I've seen a few.
We got a lot of, a lot of things to think about
as far as your plant goes.
You guys clean it up and we'll be back in the morning.
-[Juan] Sounds great. -[Eric] Appreciate you being here.
-[Juan] Awesome. -[Freddy] See you later, guys.
I'm excited to hear what Freddy and Juan have to come up with.
I'm excited to see what's in the box.
I'm gonna do something to feed my family
and praying for a successful summer.
[Dick] We're very anxious.
I really don't know what to expect.
And we just want to be successful.
Freddy and Juan will certainly come up with a plan to help.
[Freddy] The goal here is to get as much gold as we possibly can.
And when Dick turns it over to Eric,
Eric will have the skills that he learned from us while we're here,
plus his dad.
Because, you know, he's got a family he's raising.
And when times are slow with his flying business,
he's got an ATM in the ground here
that he can rely on to give him some money.
[crow cawing]
[Dick] Look at that.
Now, there's one with quartz and it's got gold in it.
See it, right there.
[narrator] In Bear Gulch, Montana
the Komberecs have cleaned up the gold from the first four hour test run,
ready for a gold weigh.
Picking through rocks?
[Eric] Picking off a few nuggets.
-[Freddy] There you go. -[Juan] Good to see you this morning.
Good morning.
-[Freddy] See how much gold is here, guys. -[Eric] Okay.
[narrator] The Komberecs want to see an ounce of gold
to be on track for their 100 ounce season target.
[Freddy] Some pretty gold.
Point-six-O.
So, six-tenths of an ounce.
[narrator] Worth $1,140,
just over a quarter of the gold they need per day.
-[Eric] Disappointing. -[Juan] Absolutely.
Yeah.
[Juan] You guys did a hell of a job building the plant.
I know you said it's 50-years-old,
but I think there's a few things that we can do to help you guys out.
[Freddy] Well, I guess we'll go put some numbers together
and we'll come back to you guys and see what you think.
-[Juan] Yeah. -Okay.
Sounds like a plan. Let's do it.
-All right? -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Dick] Okay. Thanks, guys.
[Eric] In order to pay some of these bills
throughout the rest of the summer
and get through the winter,
we're gonna need a lot more gold than that.
[Kelly] We messed around quite a while
not getting as much gold as we wanted.
And I get a percentage of the gold.
So, whatever they wanna do, we're gonna try it.
They're the men that are supposed to know, that's what they're here for.
[Juan] Dick built that plant about 50-years-ago
and that's just kind of a testament that
you know what, Dick knows what he's doing.
But we did find a few things that we can fix in the time that we do have.
Where they need the most help here
is in fine gold recovery,
which we happen to know really well.
[birds screeching, chirping]
[Freddy] What do you think, Juan?
[narrator] Freddy and Juan face uncharted waters
in their task to retrofit an aging wash plant
to capture the finer gold.
But it must succeed for the Komberecs to reach their ambitious gold goal.
You know, the sluice box, the way it's set up right now...
[Freddy] Yep.
[Juan] ...it's three runs.
[Freddy] All the material with gold in it
is running down one side of it.
[Juan] We can definitely do a three way splitter.
Yep, we've never done it before, but let's try it.
It's gonna increase the recoveries for sure.
What do you think about that sprayer inside the trommel?
[Freddy] All the pressure is here and then when it gets down there,
-where we really need it-- -[Juan] It's barely dribbling out.
-[Freddy] So, we plug some of those off... -[Juan] Mm-hmm.
-[Freddy] ...and get more pressure down here. -[Juan] Okay.
Did you see those Hungarian riffles?
They're too tight together.
That's packing up.
So, if we take this and we do a system
where we got a bunch of different changes in here...
-Mm-hmm. -[Freddy] ...I think it's gonna help.
What do you think as far as cost?
You know, these guys, obviously, you know,
their business is not doing the greatest.
I don't wanna kill 'em with what we need to charge.
What do you think, 3,000 material and three ounces of gold?
If we increase more.
I'm willing to put our money where our mouth is, Fred.
If we don't double their recovery... Free.
They pay the material and that's it.
-I'm good with it. -All right, let's do it.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan have identified three problems with the Komberec's plant
that is stopping them from capturing the finer gold.
First, the trommel spray bar
isn't washing the pay off the rocks powerfully enough
throughout the drum.
They will block off half of the nozzles
to increase water pressure where it's needed.
Next, uneven water flow out of the trommel
is packing up the sluice box on one side.
In a first for Juan,
he will fabricate a three way distribution box
to evenly spread the pay between the sluices.
Finally, the mats in Eric and Dick's sluice box
are getting blocked up with material.
Freddy will replace the mats
and install his signature riffles
to allow fine gold to settle.
-[Freddy] How's it going, guys? -[Eric] Hey, guys.
[Juan] So, we got a few ideas.
One of the things that we did see is that your material is not feeding properly.
What do you suggest for cure of that?
[Juan] We're gonna actually have to build a new design
for the three sluice run.
Your riffles are too close together.
The fine gold is gonna get thrown out.
So, what we talked about is build new trays,
different spacings and different riffles in there.
Yeah, that makes sense to me.
[Juan] There's one more thing that we wanna do inside the trommel.
We wanna make sure that we concentrate that water flow
that we do have on the material,
so it actually washes a little bit better.
Sounds expensive.
Are we gonna be able to afford this?
Probably looking at about 12,000,
paying Juan and myself and materials.
Wow.
l liked the idea that it's gonna last for years to come
and increase the production.
And if we've got the labor and they're willing to do it,
we can be mining here in a few days.
[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] I'm from Nevada, so double or nothing--
[Freddy] If we don't double it,
you don't pay us for our labor,
just the materials.
[Juan] So, during our first run,
it was six tenths of an ounce of gold, right?
It's gonna have to be 1.2 ounces of gold
for us to be able to get paid.
[Eric] What do you think?
You started out as a babe with this
and I appreciate your advice and willingness, you know?
Yeah, let's do it.
[Eric] Let's do it.
Well, I'd hate to out guess you, but game on.
[Juan] Let's do it.
All right, I'm happy with that.
-[Freddy] All right. -[Juan] We'll get to work, then.
[Eric] I'm all for it. I know, it's a lot of money,
but we'll make it back.
[Juan] I'm really happy that Dick, Eric and Kelly went for the deal.
I know what we're gonna do for 'em
is gonna help 'em out tremendously.
[narrator] Juan's first job,
tackle the water pressure in the trommel spray bar.
-[Eric] Do you just have some caps for these? -[Juan] I do.
The spray bar inside the trommel,
it's working, but it's not working as efficiently as it can be.
We're gonna go and we're gonna eliminate
half of the spray nozzles that they have in there,
and then open up the other nozzles that they have.
We wanna concentrate all that extra water pressure on the rocks
where they can actually get washed and screened
and drop into the box.
We're gonna cap all these.
No kidding. Well--
[Juan] Yeah, the issue that we're running into is, you know,
this material is underwater.
[Eric] Yeah, okay.
[narrator] By capping off half of the jet holes at the front of the trommel,
Juan increases the pressure where it's needed.
-Well, the nozzle is here. -All right.
Your dad didn't mess around when he built this.
[Eric laughs]
[Juan] So, look at you, you know, your dad,
he's the one that sparked that interest
for you to be here at the mine site.
Yeah, yeah, I was fortunate enough to grow up around here.
Right around with him in this.
With heavy equipment, trucks.
So, what are your feelings?
You think when your dad says, "Hey, I'm ready to give up the reins."
Are you ready to take this over?
[Eric] You just gotta step up to the plate
and I can be here at the ranch and in the mine
-and keep this operation going. -[Juan] Yeah.
Where do you think you need to focus on?
[Eric] Beginning at the right spot
where you're out running the right type of material.
It doesn't matter how great your wash plant is.
If you're not finding the gold or--
[Juan] Yeah, that's exactly right.
[Eric] What makes me nervous is I don't have 50 years of experience to rely on.
That's the hardest part of mining.
If you don't know how to read the ground or where to go
-or how to do it... -[Eric] Right.
...it means absolutely nothing.
Yeah, I wish I had paid more attention
to geology class in high school...
-[laughs] -...than chasing girls.
I can't wait to see it run.
He's learned a lot of the gold business from his dad.
He really wants to make his dad proud.
Well, that's it man. I think we got it done.
That was real simple. We just had to put those caps in.
Right on, buddy.
It will be a good change.
-Let's get out of here. -Let's get out of here, yeah.
-[Juan] Kind of a tight spot in here. -[Eric] Yeah.
You know, I'm not gonna lie to you,
there's a lot of pressure to being a mine boss.
I'm sure it comes with a lot of unknowns.
Assuming Freddy and Juan's fixes work,
that's gonna give me the leg up
to be a great gold miner
and grow the operation
and the expansion of the gold mine.
[birds chirping]
[Juan] All right, let's do it.
[narrator] In Montana...
[Juan] We kind of have something new that we're building.
[narrator] ...at the Komberec mine,
Juan builds his first ever three-way splitter
to even paydirt distribution
across the wash plant's three sluice runs.
[Juan] A lot of the splitters that we've built over the years,
they're really, really simple.
Basically, you build a funnel,
you funnel the material into an area to get concentrated,
then you actually fan it out
to be able to split it off two ways.
This splitter is gonna be a little different,
because we're gonna have to go three ways.
If this works, this is definitely gonna be a game changer.
All right, Kelly, you got it. Right there.
The great thing is Kelly is very experienced,
so he'll be able to help me out on this.
Ah, look at you. There you go.
[Kelly] I've fabricated most all my life
and Juan is real good at it.
He's a perfectionist.
I'm hopeful that it can up their percentage.
[Juan] Perfect.
[Kelly] I'm a machinist and a millwright
and welder.
My grandfather was a hardrock miner.
And they taught me a little bit about all kinds of mining.
Dick and Eric came to my shop,
needed some work done on one of his airplanes.
So, I made all the pieces for that old airplane and put them on.
And then, they asked me if I wanted to work
in a gold mine with them, so I started there.
I've always been interested in gold
and the machinery it takes to dig it
and wash it and separate it.
I just turned 75-years-old here about a month ago.
And I'm kind of afraid if I quit, I'll just die.
Something to get me out of bed every morning and get me going.
You know, the whole point of what we're building here
is to try to split the material equally.
That's the whole point of having this distribution box.
We wanna make sure that the flow that goes into each chamber
that goes to the sluice boxes is as equal as possible.
Isn't that right, Kelly?
Whatever you say.
[both laugh]
It's always a really tough thing
when we come in and we build something new that we've never done before.
-[motor whirring] -[Juan] We may not be right on our measurements,
we may not be right on our angles.
I'm hoping that once we get it in there,
it's really gonna help the production.
But ultimately, we don't know until we actually put it in place and try it out.
[Freddy] Hey, Dick, you wanna give me a hand cutting some parts?
Yeah, Fred, where are you starting?
[narrator] Across the claim,
Freddy devises a more efficient gold catching riffle system.
[metal clanks]
[narrator] First, measuring and cutting the steel.
Oh, we're gonna build a new set of riffles for the sluice box.
I think they're missing quite a bit of their fine gold.
The big gold is easy to catch, it's that fine gold.
Every speck counts.
So, your riffles before were too tight.
Your nugget riffles, too close together and all the same.
So, what we're gonna do here,
we're gonna open 'em up a little bit,
so we get a better vortex behind 'em.
And do multiple changes in there.
Different wets and a few different style riffles in it.
Boy, Fred, that makes so much sense.
[narrator] Next, Freddy welds steel bars
at differing angles and spacing.
Known as Hungarian riffles.
They slow the water current
and allow the gold to fall and settle.
[Freddy] What we'll do is we'll start with our top riffle here.
I want that corner touching there
and this corner touching here.
That gives me the angle that I want.
So, if you'll hold her.
-Okay. -[Dick] Yeah. Eyeballs!
[Freddy] You can see the different changes here, right?
-[Dick] Definitely. -[Freddy] Change is good.
'Cause that piece of gold that doesn't like this situation
may really like this one.
The more little subtle changes you can do,
it's like Goldilocks, right?
-Yeah. -This one's too soft,
this one's too hard, this one's just right.
[Dick] Perfect, Fred.
What you're doing is replicating nature.
[Freddy] Trying to.
-When you're mining... -Yeah.
...certain parts of the bedrock held more gold, right?
-Yeah. -You know?
-Just the shape and the pit texture. -Yeah.
You know, the fracturing in it
holds more gold than that place over there did on the same.
Oh, yeah.
Things with Freddie and Juan are going excellent.
I would have never come up with this in ten years.
You know, I thought about it,
but they knew how to do it.
[Juan] First off, I wanna get in there
and we wanna cut that old sluice box off.
[narrator] At the wash plant,
Juan and Kelly remove the old sluice
to make way for their new three-way upgrade.
[Juan] We can figure out where we're gonna put that splitter chute.
I'll get to two-two parts out,
then we'll throw some lifting eyes on there.
[narrator] Welding on tailor made lifting irons
will make it easy to move the sluice away from the trommel
without damaging it.
I've messed with the water
trying to get it to do what I wanted to
and not having very good results.
And they got a good idea, so we're going for it.
[machine whirring]
[Juan] It's almost there.
Careful, in case if it swings.
[Kelly] I've been around a little bit,
but I've learned a lot from Juan on fabrication.
How the machine works.
And I have complete faith in those guys.
I can't wait for the run and see how it's gonna go.
I think this device is gonna double our gold.
[Juan] There you go.
[narrator] Coming up...
[Juan] That's not good.
I originally was gonna build a top for this.
We just didn't have enough time.
It's not [bleep] working here.
Just let us [bleep] work.
[Dick] This is what we'll be hauling today.
[narrator] There are 48 hours remaining on the Komberec's Montana rescue.
[Dick] I'm anxious to see your opinion.
[narrator] And with an ambitious gamble to double their recovery
or they pay nothing,
Freddy hedges his bet with a look at the family's cut.
[Freddy] So, this is where you get your pay, huh?
It's where we got our earlier stuff.
This area right here has produced a tremendous amount of gold.
You know, the old timers got a lot of it,
but there's a lot of it still to be had.
Good old high bench.
-What are we, probably, 75 feet above the creek? -Yep.
-Somewhere in there. -Yep.
And just a couple miles from your plant down there.
[Eric] Yeah, we're about three and a half miles
and this is about 4,500 feet above sea level.
[Freddy] Okay.
[Dick] Yeah, and this is the bedrock.
[Freddy] When the creek was up here,
you know, who knows how many millions of years ago,
but there's other stuff, slip rock.
So, the stuff on top of it, you know, covered it.
-[Dick] Yeah. -[Freddy] Covered it all.
And then, the creek kept eroding its way down
to where it's at now.
-Yeah. -Down the bottom.
-[Freddy] I mean, see these flat rocks? -[Dick] Uh-huh!
-[Freddy] All right. -Yeah.
[Freddy] So, you can read within some reason
which direction a stream was flowing
-when these rocks were laid there. -Uh-huh.
-See that one? -[Dick] Yeah.
Okay. The wide end is that way.
So, this one,
when it finally found its resting spot here,
-the water flow was this direction. -[Dick] Wow.
[Freddy] It's called shingling.
-[Eric] Let the rocks point the way. -[Dick] Yeah.
[Freddy] So your skinniest part of the rock is downstream
and it points you in the direction
of the way that water was flowing at the time.
It can kind of lead you in the direction
that this channel is going to be going to follow it.
This is your roadmap, your GPS.
Follow those flat rocks and they'll lead you.
-They will lead you the way that creek was. -Yeah.
[narrator] Freddy's route map to gold
means the Komberecs can run the most profitable pay through their plant.
[Eric] Obviously, it's really exciting.
It's great to learn new things.
We're in the right place, we just need to fine tune it now
and which direction to dig.
We just need to follow where the rocks tell us to go.
[Freddy] We've dug a lot of ground here.
And looking at the channel that I just looked at now,
it looks very promising.
They just need to stick here and mine.
It looks pretty good.
[honking]
[metal clanks]
There you are.
Ready to go in.
[narrator] At the plant...
[Eric] Wow.
Well, you guys worked your butt off.
Oh, yeah, a thing of beauty.
[narrator] ...Juan is installing his brand new three-way distribution chute
designed to feed equal pay into the plants three sluices.
[Juan] Well, I'm happy we're done with it.
We're gonna get it all siliconed in and bolted up
and we will keep on putting everything together.
That's good. Perfect.
You ready?
This is the first time Fred and Juan have ever built
a three-way distribution sluice box,
so it's a bit of an experiment what we're gonna find out.
[Juan] Fingers crossed.
There it is.
Looks good, guys.
[Freddy] Well, what do you think? Go run the plant?
Yeah, let's go do it, Freddy. It's time.
[narrator] It's the day of reckoning at the Komberec mine.
[Juan] I'm excited to watch it run.
[Freddy] Yeah, me, too.
[narrator] A second four-hour test
will determine if Freddy and Juan's fixes will pay off.
-[Juan] Morning, gentlemen. -[Freddy] Morning.
[Juan] How are we doing?
-[Dick] Morning. -[Eric] Hey, guys.
[Freddy] Do you have enough pay to run four hours?
[Eric] We've got plenty.
-Well, let's run a test run, huh? -[Juan] Let's do it.
-[Freddy] See how much gold we get. -[Juan] All right, let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
We're praying for the gains today
and we need them.
We're putting all our eggs in this basket.
We're gonna find out if Juan and Freddy's fixes
are gonna either make or break us.
I can't wait for a run to see how it's gonna go.
First run is point six,
six tenths of an ounce that we made on our own.
And we need 1.2 to double it.
Let's get to mining.
[narrator] Over the last three days,
Freddy and Juan modernize the 50-year-old plant...
[Juan] We got water!
[narrator] ...increasing water pressure in the trommel's spray bar
to wash pay more efficiently.
Added mats and Hungarian riffles
to collect fine gold.
And designed a new three-way sluice distribution system.
Here we go, Juan.
[Eric] Here's the first bucket of paydirt.
Let's see what she does.
There it is, Freddy, first bucket.
Start the timer now.
[motor whirring]
Hey, Juan, the spray bar looks a lot better.
It's washing really good now on this end.
[Juan] Looks way better, Freddy.
[Freddy] Yeah, and clean.
-I like it. -Way cleaner than it was.
[Juan] Yeah.
[Freddy] Juan.
[Juan] Oh, no! That's not good.
[narrator] At the distribution chute,
water from the trommel is overflowing,
risking significant gold loss.
[Juan] We gotta get a piece of wood over that.
[Freddy] Hurry, hurry, hurry.
[Juan] That's not good.
-Look right here. -[Freddy] Holy!
It's got a lot of water coming out the end here,
so we're just trying to get it under control.
I originally was gonna build a top for the top of this.
We just didn't have enough time.
[water splashing]
[Freddy] It's not [bleep] working here.
Just let us [bleep] work.
[Juan] Can you give me that clamp right there?
[Freddy] Are you [bleep] all right?
This should seal it up, eh, Juan?
[Juan] Yeah, it should be close.
[narrator] A temporary cap stems the overflow
and forces the water to run faster through the chute.
That's better.
-[Freddy] Yeah, it's a little more even now. -[Juan] Yeah.
Here you go.
You use what you got.
There's never been a plant put together that they didn't have to change stuff.
We're adapting on the fly.
[Juan] We had a few hiccups,
but all-in-all, it's running really well.
So far, everything is looking really good.
The new chute's working great.
You can see our material coming down here,
it levels out, evens out,
and we got a perfect flow in all three sluice boxes.
[Freddy] Well, are you ready to pour a bar?
Yeah, I am, Fred.
[Freddy] Here we go.
[narrator] At Bear Gulch, a mobile forge
makes quick work of the Komberec's gold.
What's it about, 2,000 degrees, Freddy?
Yeah, right now, we're a little over 2,000, probably.
Pure gold melts at 1,930.
A few more seconds.
Three, two, one.
Look at that. That's a beautiful bar.
[Juan] Yeah, it is.
-Pretty, huh? -[Dick] It's pretty, Fred.
[Juan] All right, starting now.
Well, there it is, Dick. She's done.
[Dick] My goodness, look at that.
Unbelievable.
[Eric] Awesome. Good news.
Looks like it's working great.
[narrator] After a week of fixes,
the Komberec's wash plant
now runs at 25 yards an hour.
Twice the amount it did in the first test.
[machine whirring]
[Eric] The biggest surprises to all of us
is the sheer volume of material running through the sluice box.
I couldn't be happier.
[Freddy] These feel good, Juan.
[Juan] Yeah, it feels better now.
[Freddy] Look how even it is?
Last bucket!
[Eric] Last bucket!
[upbeat instrumental rock music playing]
Good run, Fred.
You know, we had a couple of little issues,
but really, it wasn't bad.
And that box is sluicing really well.
-That splitter. -[Freddy] Yeah, it's pretty good.
First three-way, Juan.
[Juan] First three-way. [laughs]
[Freddy] Shut her down!
There, you see it all in there.
In here, too.
Come check this out, guys.
It's like Christmas.
You got gold in every box now.
You got gold there, you got gold there, you got gold there.
[Eric] Awesome.
Honest to God, we'd never see gold down here like this. Ever.
[Freddy] Well, let's clean it up, guys.
[Eric] Let's find out.
I was really impressed
with the amount of production that we were able to put out.
We were able to run longer, faster,
so I'm thinking we're gonna have some pretty good recovery.
I'm shooting for one ounce to be my target
to meet our 100 ounce goal.
[Freddy] We've seen gold in the box.
That puts smiles on all of our faces.
But you never know till you get it on the scale.
Until we get it on the scale, I'm always nervous.
[cricket chirping]
[birds chirping]
-Hey, guys. -[Eric] Hey!
-Brought you one last gift. -[Eric] All right.
That splitter we built worked really good,
but it did need a cap on top of it
to cover that material from boiling over.
-[Dick] Yeah, little bit splashed off it. -[Juan] Yeah.
Just take this right on there and be done with it.
-I'm sure we can handle it. -[Juan] Awesome.
Did do you guys get the gold all cleaned up?
[Eric] Yeah.
[Juan] Well, let's weigh it up, huh?
[Freddy] I'll grab my scale and something to dump it in.
[narrator] To hit their 100 ounce season target,
this gold weigh needs to produce at least one ounce of gold.
[Freddy] Well, let's weigh it up.
Well, let's do it.
[narrator] But if Freddy and Juan don't see at least 1.2 ounces,
they lose their double or nothing wager.
[Freddy] Well, there's 0.6, guys.
Yeah, that's what we got on our first run.
[Freddy] That's what we got on the first run.
[Eric] Keep going, keep going.
[Freddy] 1.18.
-[Dick] Elated. -[all laughing]
[Juan] Awesome.
[Dick] What a job, unbelievable.
[narrator] Worth over $2,200.
Almost twice the gold made in their first test run.
-Ooh. -[Freddy] Oh, my God.
-We're so close. -[all laughing]
[narrator] But two tenths of an ounce short
of Freddie and Juan winning their bet.
No, no fricking way!
Dang near doubled it.
Missed it by...
-Just a little bit. -...that much.
But honestly, either way, I'm happy.
Nearly doubling it, that's a big jump.
[narrator] Over their 50-day season,
Freddie and Juan's fixes could now net the Komberecs
20 ounces more than their 100 ounce target.
In total, worth almost a quarter of a million dollars,
enough to keep both the mining operation
and the aviation company afloat
and secure a legacy for Eric and his children.
Fifty days of running, there's your 100 ounce goal,
but I think you'll beat it.
Your improvements definitely added the efficiency that we needed
to make this profitable.
Remarkable. I'm extremely thrilled.
And those improvements are for life.
It's been a great learning experience
and growing experience for all of us.
I think we'll remember for the rest of our lives
and we have Freddy and Juan to thank for it.
I think they've honestly changed the outcome of the mine for the better.
This is genius, what you just did,
both of you.
My legacy is gonna be continued with Eric
and I'm very proud of him.
In the future, it will be a great improvement
thanks to Freddy and Juan.
Well, we hate leaving you,
but we gotta get on the road, guys.
-Thanks, Fred. -Thank you, sir.
What a pleasure.
Great working with you, buddy.
-Dick, thank you, sir. -Thank you, what a pleasure.
Likewise.
Go get there safe.
We almost doubled it, right?
Almost 100 percent increase.
So, when you can walk away with that,
you know you've done your job and you've done it well,
and you've helped people's lives
and help put more money in their pockets,
it's always a good day.
They can catch more gold for today, tomorrow and the future.
No matter what generation of this family is mining it.
[upbeat music playing]
[Eric] We worked hard at the mine for most of the summer.
After Freddy and Juan fixes, we're able to run about
three times the amount of material
per hour that we were before.
We're able to catch more gold,
our cleanups are faster,
so all-in-all, general productivity and gold recovery is up
by ten to 15 percent.
We don't quite have a total gold count yet,
but I think we're gonna be pleasantly surprised at the end of the season.
The time I got to spend with Freddy and Juan was priceless.
And I'm excited for what the future holds for my family in this goldmine.