I didn't came here for camping.
I came here to do a job.
[water splashing]
For us, it's been like a curse.
[eagle screeching]
We're in a hot mess.
Fred and Juan might just run away.
I think every aspect is a problem.
-[thuds] -[bleep]
We genuinely might be screwed.
[thumping]
[Raul] Everything is on the line.
I have to sell an excavator to eat.
We've never been mining this area as far as I know.
Right? We've got tailings, tailings.
This is tailings.
[Raul] One of the biggest nuggets in the Cariboo
was found on this property,
specifically where we're gonna be digging.
[Freddy] It had a lot of gold at one time.
But somebody else has that gold now.
You know, as the old saying goes,
a gold mine for sale,
there's a hole in the ground with a liar standing above it.
[narrator] Freddy Dodge...
I would rather have gold in the bank
than gold in the mountain.
[narrator] ...and Juan Ibarra...
[Juan] Not bad for built in the field.
[narrator] ...want to make you rich.
It turns your dream out here into a reality.
[all laughing]
[narrator] In the past five years,
the value of gold has doubled.
-There's a $3,000 nugget right there. -Whoo!
[narrator] But rookie miners find it more elusive than ever.
If we don't recover more gold,
then we could lose everything.
[narrator] But there is hope...
Miracles, they do happen.
[narrator] ...to turn desperation into fortune.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan have one week...
What you just did is genius.
[narrator] ...to deliver a golden payday.
They have a future and they know what they need to do.
[exhilarating music playing]
Well, Freddy, Raul and Helen are the people we're gonna go help.
And, uh, Raul...
he's originally from El Salvador.
Roger that. I'm glad we...
worked on my Spanish a little bit before we got here.
I know lots of cuss words.
You've taught me a few of 'em.
The good ones, I taught you.
Just don't tell my mom that. She'll be upset.
[both laughing]
[narrator] Early summer in the foothills of the Cariboo Mountains
in British Columbia,
and Freddy and Juan are responding to a "Hail Mary" call
from a husband and wife team with a struggling mining operation,
who have invested over $400,000 so far
with no return.
Raul reached out a little while ago and...
was telling me that he sunk every dollar that he had
into the operation.
He's right at Quesnelle Forks.
So, historically, there's been 150 years of mining in that area.
[narrator] A half mile from the Paredes Mine,
where the Quesnel and Cariboo rivers meet,
is Quesnelle Forks,
the Cariboo region's first great gold rush town.
It's here that European and Asian miners discovered a gold rich valley
in the summer of 1859.
It produced over 120,000 oz of gold,
almost $280 million in today's money.
[Freddy] Hello.
[Juan] Hello. How's it going?
[Helen] Oh, my goodness.
Much better that we see you guys.
-Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.
-Juan. -Raul. Mucho gusto.
-I'm Helen. -Hi, Helen.
-[Raul] Nice to meet you guys. -[Juan] Well, it wasn't hard to find you at all.
Right off the side of the road.
Very nice.
How long you guys been out here?
-[Raul] We came last year. -[Juan] Mmm-hmm.
And this year, we came on board, I mean, again.
Give it another shot.
You know, we try, we try, we try, and...
didn't happen.
So last year was your first year out here and just the two of you.
That's correct. David is our kid. He's involved,
but he only came only two to three weeks in his time off.
It's good to have you guys, your expertise on board here.
We can learn lots off you guys.
-Well, we'll do the best we can. -[David] Yeah.
[Juan] Are you guys mining full time, then?
Yeah, we're here every day. I mean, from 7:00 to 6:00.
Prior to us, there was somebody else mining this property
-three years ago... -[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
[Juan]...and he was getting at least an ounce-and-a-half to two ounces a day.
He mentioned to me that it was...
the gold was really good over here.
-[Freddy] Hmmm. -Really, really good.
Mining is...
[sighs] It's my passion. It's my love.
My dream for this mine is we can make it as a family business.
Now we've got water.
I'm originally from El Salvador.
It's in Central America.
Coming to Canada was a second opportunity to start a life.
[narrator] Two years ago, Raul Paredes and his wife, Helen,
staked a 700-acre claim in historic gold country.
Do you have the red pipe wrench?
[Raul] I came to Likely
because there's still a lot of good gold here.
We got our own ground
because people before me has been getting gold.
Since I came here, I've been trying my best.
It's been testing me to the limits.
[Helen] Hey, Raul, I think we need more pressure.
[Raul] Helen has been with me since the beginning.
She's the one that look after the plan, and...
I couldn't do what I do without her.
The dream of getting into gold mining, actually, is both of ours.
We started with smaller wash plants
and really, really enjoyed the process.
But, actually, having a big wash plant,
I'm struggling.
We called the wash plant "The Octopus."
That's the first thing I thought about when I saw this big monster.
All these tubes going all over the place.
I'm probably in way over my head
and we're having constant breakdowns
that, um, we haven't been able to really financially support
to get things on the right track.
[Raul] My situation at this moment is terrible.
Barely make it to pay my rent this month.
If I don't see something that can change or something like a hope,
it's not gonna happen.
[Freddy] How much gold did you do last year?
I'll say probably an ounce-and-a-half.
We washed probably 500 or 600 yards.
[exclaiming in grief] That's not good.
What about this year? How much have you ran so far?
This year, probably, we've been running 200 yards.
And how much gold have we got out of 200 yards?
Eh...
Probably eight grams.
[Freddy] Yeah, that's...
-[Juan] That's not good. -[Freddy] No.
[Raul] Well, the old timer,
he mentioned to me that it was really, really, really good, he say.
[Raul] Well, you know, you hope people have the best of intentions,
but sometimes they're just trying to drop it on you
-and get their investment back. -[Freddy] Yeah.
What's your gold look like?
[Raul] There it is.
-[Freddy] Pretty chunky, huh? -[Juan] Yeah.
Nothing real substantial, though.
[Freddy] How much gold do you need per day?
To make a living ourselves, we'll be happy
with an ounce of gold a day.
If things don't work out here,
this is it, I'm done.
[somber music playing]
What do you have invested in this?
Time and blood and sweat and tears invested in this.
-Yeah. -[David] Yeah.
-It's very emotional because we love what we do. -[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
And, uh...
[voice shaking] Oh, my God!
[Juan] The best thing for us to do is what we like to do.
We come in, we wanna watch your operation,
watch it... watch a test run.
And then, after that, we'll come up with a game plan.
[Raul] Thank you very much.
-[Juan] All right. -[Freddy] Let's have a look around your plant.
-[Juan] Let's do it. -I'm excited.
[Juan] Meeting Raul and Helen,
immediately you can tell that they're just really sincere, humble people.
But his love and his desire to wanna be a miner,
has gotten to the point where it's now detrimental to his finances.
They're looking at us as their Hail Mary to help them,
you know, kind of, pull their mine out of bankruptcy.
If we don't do what we need to do here,
essentially, Raul and Helen's mining career is over.
[Freddy] It's your plant, huh?
[Helen] This is "The Octopus."
[Freddy and Juan] The Octopus?
-[Freddy] 'Cause of all these green hoses. -[Helen laughing] Yeah.
[Juan] Last year when you were running,
were you running this plant?
[Raul] That's correct.
I look at the long term, you know,
hoping that things we're going to get better,
recovering some gold.
Well, let's fire it up and run it.
[Juan] Okay, let's do it.
[exhilarating music playing]
[motor whirs]
[water splashing]
One thing's for sure. They're in a tight spot.
I think they're about broke.
Hopefully, we can help 'em.
[Juan] But, you know, the plant in itself
-is an issue, you know? -Everything.
[engine starts]
[Freddy] Holy [bleep] That's loud!
I can hear that screen on the dark side of the moon.
Holy cow!
Okay, we're rolling.
[Freddy] First bucket.
Start a timer, huh, Juan?
Yeah. Let's get it going.
[narrator] First, Raul feeds paydirt into a 10-by-6-foot hopper,
a vibrating punch plate screens out the large material
before the gold bearing pay falls into Raul's four 10-foot-long sluices.
I'm nervous, stressed.
I want everything to run well,
but I want it to be realistic to what's happening in our daily lives.
It's not running well, and they need to see that.
So they're gonna see why we need a lot of help.
[Freddy]
Probably, the most ineffective screen I've ever seen.
The material is being screened too big.
And right now, they're not classifying their material.
Can't have proper concentration without proper classification.
[narrator] Classification is when a screen or punch plate
divides out large rocks,
allowing the smaller gold-bearing dirt
to run into the plant's sluices.
[Juan]
The sluice boxes are absolutely just...
in rough shape.
[somber music playing]
[Freddy] There we go.
[Juan] In order to be able to get this operation into a position
where they could be cash positive,
every aspect of this process needs to be worked on.
[Raul] David!
David!
Up!
[Freddy and Juan] We just lost water.
[Freddy] That's not good.
[Raul] We've got an issue with the pump.
[Freddy] Shut her down.
-It's coming out of the cap. -[Juan] Oh! It looks like a crack.
[Raul] Every day something happens.
It's been like a curse.
[Juan] I wish we could have done the four hours, but...
that's what we got.
-[Raul] Well, let's pull the mats, huh? -[Freddy] Yep.
[narrator] Pump cap out of action.
After just one hour, Raul and Helen are forced to shut down
and pull the mats.
You know, it's disappointment
'cause I put my heart and soul in this.
[Freddy] I just wanted to look at this material you're running.
It just doesn't look good.
I'm gonna tap a couple of pounds of it and see, uh...
what we see in it.
This is right out of the pay pile,
the stuff that are running through the plant.
Are you guys testing at all as you're mining?
Like, panning much, or...
If I've had more time over here, I would...
-pan more. -[Freddy] Yeah.
That's the most important thing, though.
I know. We've kept you too busy fixing stuff.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -[laughs]
[David] What are you looking for?
[Freddy] I'd like to see 20 colors.
Twenty colors. Yeah.
[Freddy] Nothing. No gold.
Not a color.
That's not good.
Sorry, guys.
[Helen] No. That's good to know.
[Raul] I had a guy
that came up to me and he say, "You wanna make a quick dollar right away,
right away?
In a week, you'll have five grands, ten grands whatever, you know."
He said to me, "Come down here."
And...
I even ask him.
I say, "Are you for sure?
Anyway, it is what it is.
I guess sometimes it is my fault,
because nobody put a gun in my head and told me to do it, right?
I did it. I took the risk.
[Helen] That's dead...
for gold.
Raul's got a big heart, and he wears it on his sleeve.
You know, he's the good guy.
So... you hate giving people news
they don't wanna hear, right?
[Juan] The difficult part about this rescue
is we're starting from scratch.
You know, the ground that they have, we know has no gold.
The plant has to be re-engineered.
I'm a little nervous about being able to get it done in time,
and more nervous about trying to find better ground.
[Raul]
[theme music playing]
[Juan] Getting out here and meeting Raul and Helen,
you can tell right from the beginning they're great people.
-They are great people. -[Juan] You know, the way that Raul speaks
and he's very compassionate, and very emotional.
-You can tell he's a real caring person. -Yeah.
But I think his desire and his motivation to mine
kind of trumped going out there and actually...
-Testing. -...testing and figuring out what was there
before he committed.
You know, that's the problem with listening to hearsay.
You know, everyone has a story about how the ground is so great.
Grab a gold pan, grab a test plant, grab a high banker, whatever.
-You know... -You test it yourself.
I'm... I'm really hoping that we can deliver on this one, Freddy.
[Juan] Moment of truth.
-Good morning. - [Freddy] Buenos dias.
-[Helen] Good morning. -How are you doing?
[narrator] In British Columbia,
after a cracked pump cap shortened their test run to an hour,
Raul Paredes and his wife, Helen,
have the gold they cleaned from their mats.
When we need that, you know it's not going to be a good thing.
[Freddy] Holy cow.
Very sad.
-[Juan] Well, it's not weighable. -[Freddy] Yep.
You can't buy a can of soup with that.
[narrator] Raul and Helen need to make an ounce of gold a day
to run their plant and pay back their investors.
[Freddy] He had a thousand-dollars' worth of expenses
for fifty-cents worth of gold.
If you were getting, you know, a quarter ounce for, you know, for the day,
that... that's still a death,
but that's a really quick death.
-Yes. -[Juan] That doesn't even cover
the fuel that it costs to start the equipment.
So where do we go from here?
[Freddy] We can fix your plant,
but we need to go look at your ground.
We need more understanding and more...
[both] More information.
...more information about the ground.
-[Freddy] All righty. -[Helen] Sounds like a plan.
[Raul] Thanks, Freddy.
-[Helen] Thank you. -Thank you, Juan.
[Juan] That's probably one of the worst gold weighs we've ever had.
There's no way they're ever gonna be able to pay back their investment
or, uh, their investors mining like that.
Unfortunately, Freddy and I, we're not miracle workers.
The gold that's in the ground is in the ground.
So it puts a lot more stress on Freddy and myself
to be able to go out and perform
and do something good for these people.
[exhilarating music playing]
[Helen] Hey, Raul. What's going on?
Let's not waste any more time down here,
and I think it's... actually I think it's a really good lesson.
You've got to do that testing before we set up these elaborate... setups
and then find there's no gold.
[Raul] We believe a few people.
Maybe it was not true.
I always listen to other people.
Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
[Helen] And I think that imagination runs a little bit too wild.
We've got to get wiser at how we mine
to get these debts cleared up
because we're getting too old to play this game this way.
-All good. -[Helen] We'll figure it out.
Raul is a very determined person.
He's met challenges in his life
most human beings shouldn't have to go through.
He came to Canada to escape the situation
that was happening in El Salvador.
[Raul] I came as a political refugee in 1991.
By that time in El Salvador, there was no democracy.
[indistinct shouting]
[explosion]
[narrator] In 1979, El Salvador plunged into a 12-year civil war
that saw over 75,000 people die.
At the time, Raul worked at a Jesuit university.
One fateful day,
the Salvadoran army raided the building he worked in.
[Raul] I took 10 minutes early for lunch,
and that's when the incident happened.
[narrator] They murdered six Jesuit priests
their housekeeper and her daughter.
Everybody that was at that moment in the building was murdered.
They didn't get me.
[narrator] Known as the Jesuit Massacre,
it's one of the most high profile religious crimes
in modern Latin American history.
[Raul] My dad came up to me one day and he said, "You know what?
I don't wanna live with my conscience
that tomorrow they found you on the road dead."
The next day at 7:30 in the morning, I was in a plane.
And that was... That was it.
That's the last time I ever see my family.
It was tough for me to leave my country.
I came to this country with $7 in my pocket.
Didn't know how to speak English.
Coming to Canada was the second opportunity to start a life.
It's been tough on me.
I have to find the gold.
[somber music playing]
[exhilarating music playing]
[Freddy] What are you thinking on the plant, buddy?
Well, the plant itself, Fred, you know, we have a lot of issues.
-I can see why they named it "The Octopus." -[Freddy] Yeah.
-[Juan] We call this the screen, right? -[Juan] Yeah.
[Juan] The screen, here's the hopper feeder that they have.
-[Freddy] Yep. -[Juan] First and foremost,
most of the racket that we're hearing
is that punch plate that they have.
That's one of the loudest screens I've ever heard.
It's not installed properly.
But more important than that,
-the punch plate's too big. -Too big.
-Way too big. -We've got two-inch rocks going down the sluice box.
[Juan] So I think what we may have to do is build new punch plates.
Okay. What about the sluices, Juan?
[Juan] Right now, there's no room for gold.
The material, it's blowing it out of the box.
I'm gonna pull everything out, Fred,
getting rid of those three or four runs that he has
-and just make two runs. -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] And then, what I'd like to do
is put one of our distribution boxes in there.
Our standard chute, where it comes out, has a splitter,
and then it perfectly divides that material between the two runs.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -Those are the three big key things
that I need to get done on that plant.
But more important than the plant,
if you don't have gold to put to the plant,
it means nothing, right?
[Freddy] Yeah. Well, I'm gonna go prospecting.
[Juan] Honestly, I think, uh, we could use a little help.
What if we bring Alex and Travi in?
Yeah. I think that would be better.
-All right. Let's go do it. -Let's do it.
[narrator] On Raul's plant, nicknamed "The Octopus",
oversized rocks jammed the system and packed the sluices.
Juan will fabricate...
[narrator] Juan will fabricate two tear-drop holed punch plates
to screen out oversized pay.
Then, to give the plant a chance to collect every speck of fine gold,
Juan will reduce the sluices from four to two,
to better control the water flow.
And design a two-way V-chute distribution box
to spread the pay between them to allow the sluices to flow evenly.
Freddy's main mission will be to decode 150 years of old timer mining,
to track down a pocket of gold
that will save Raul and Helen's operation.
-[Raul] Hello. -[David] How's it going, guys?
[Helen] We're a bit nervous.
[Juan] We did a little bit of, uh, figuring out.
-While you were running, we saw a lot of issues. -[Freddy] A lot.
-[Juan] One of them is that you're screening too big. -Right.
[Juan] So we're gonna pull what you have out, build a whole new top deck,
and then we're gonna build a new system
to go on the site to actually tension the screens into the screen.
Nice.
Your sluices are not good.
Yeah, it's just... it's too... too messy.
What we're gonna do, we're gonna do two traditional sluice boxes.
But before the sluice boxes, we're gonna actually put a distribution box in.
So both runs are gonna get equal amount of material and water.
-And we'll fix that pump cap for you. -[Helen] Right.
-Essentially, we're gonna rebuild the whole wash plant. -[Helen] Wow.
So it's no longer gonna be an octopus. We're gonna have to rename it.
[Juan] Um, and then Freddy is gonna try to
dedicate most of his time to prospecting
because you're gonna be out there, you know, pounding the pavement,
trying to find some decent ground.
[Freddy] Well, you've got a lot of property here,
but there's been a lot of people on it before you.
-Everything I see is tailings. -[Helen] Right.
So we've got multiple things going on here
that are fighting against us right now.
-So we need to go punch a bunch of holes. -Okay.
[Juan] Yeah, it's a lot of work.
We talked as well.
-So we aren't gonna charge you anything. -[Juan] Yeah.
You know, considering where you guys are at and everything you got going on,
we understand your guys' financial situation,
and both Freddy and I have been very blessed,
so, um, we're happy to do it for nothing.
You know, material and labor. We're just gonna pick up the tab on it.
Oh, wow, that's amazing, you guys.
-We can't thank you enough. -Thank you very much.
-[Juan] Yeah, no worries. -Hopefully down the road we can...
-That's fine. If not, not the end of the world. -...do something different.
I, uh, appreciate very much the help from you guys, you know.
I mean, this is... this is our life.
There is hope for us to...
to continue what we love to do, eh?
-Deal, then. -[Juan] Yeah.
[speaking in other language]
[Raul, in English] I'm blessed to have Freddy, I'm blessed to have Juan,
but they can see that we're struggling
and hopefully he can find good material for us. It's not over yet.
-So, we're gonna have a new plant. -Yes, I know.
And maybe... and maybe some gold to put in it.
[Freddy] These guys are in a pickle, for lack of better words.
So hopefully, fingers crossed,
we can find them some gold for their future.
-[narrator] Coming up... -There was a lot of gold right here.
It's now in somebody else's bank account.
You can tell by the [bleep] look right here.
The whole thing is built off.
We're gonna run out of time on this one.
You know, this has really turned into a [bleep] show.
No, not that far. Raul!
What we're trying to do here is learn.
[narrator] Before Freddy attempts to find Raul new ground,
he must seek advice from a local expert.
I kind of consider myself a redneck geologist, but I don't know this area,
so the more knowledge I can get
from somebody that's grown up here, that's mined here,
that's worked here, that knows the geology of the area,
is gonna be of great benefit for Juan and myself.
How's it going?
Not too bad.
-[Freddy] Alf, right? -Right.
-[Freddy] Nice to meet you, Alf. -Freddy.
-It is. -[Freddy] This is pretty cool.
Old steam shovel.
I've never seen one of these in real life.
I've seen them, you know, in pictures and in books.
[Alf] Took a whole crew to run this one.
Gold fever has been here since the 1800s.
Question for you. Over Earls, across the valley,
is most of this gold in the surface?
They said it was a mile deep here.
-[Freddy] Oh, I imagine, yeah. -So, it's unbelievable.
So when did you start mining here?
-1980. -Nice. When gold spiked.
-Gold spiked and we all got the fever... -Yeah.
...and we all come running out here.
I didn't move here until '96.
-And then... -[Freddy] So 44 years, huh?
Yeah, off and on.
Now, this is one of better nuggets I got.
-That's my souvenir from gold mining. -Oh, it's beautiful.
-Yeah, so... -Absolutely beautiful.
That's one of the prettiest nuggets I've ever seen...
-[Alf] Yeah. -...with the quartz like that.
So over the decades you mined here, you know, was it up and down?
Very. And a lot more down than up, actually.
[Freddy laughs] Yeah.
Do you think the gold's the same over Earls?
[Alf] It's a crazy place to mine.
You just think you're on a nice...
-on a channel... -[Freddy] Yeah.
...cuts right off. The gold's here and then it's...
-shifts over here... -[Freddy] Yeah.
-...The river is coming up and down and moving around and... -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Alf] But here we've had two glaciation periods.
-And move it around again. -Yeah. And glaciation screw everything up.
-They're the world's biggest bulldozer. -That's for sure.
The ground's very erratic.
You'll hit good but you'll be a lot of poor in between.
There's still gold around here to be found. I'm sure about that.
You've got to get through all the lean dirt to get to the good dirt.
[Freddy] You know, you put it in my head, that it's spotty, right?
[Alf] Yes, that's right.
[Freddy] Bulk testing is the way to do it?
-That's what I recommended. -Yeah.
I really appreciate your help.
-See you later, sir. Thank you. -Yeah, have a good one.
[Freddy] Gold mining, essentially, it's a treasure hunt.
The guys that were here before us, they took most of the treasure.
But there's got to be some gold left here.
[Helen] So this is where the magic happens.
[Juan chuckles]
[narrator] Back at the Paredes mine,
Juan begins to fix the wash plant's cracked pump cap
that brought the first test run to a standstill.
[Raul] We've got an issue with the pump.
[narrator] Over time, pressure changes in the pump
creates weakness in the metal known as fatigue cracks,
which eventually buckle the cap.
[Juan] Oh, looks like it's cracked.
[Helen] So how long does it take to build something like this?
[Juan] We should be able to get it done in about a half an hour.
That's fast. Oh!
Wasn't expecting that.
[narrator] In minutes, Juan's 25,000-degree laser
cuts the pump cap pieces out of a 3 gauge steel sheet.
Well, that was absolutely amazing. I've never seen anything like it.
-[Juan] That worked out good, huh? -[Helen] Yeah, it did.
-[Juan] Well, let's put it together real quick. -[Helen] All righty.
I can see how amazing it is to have the proper tools on site
because if we're not running, we're not making money.
[Juan] What's it like working with Raul?
He doesn't give up easy?
Most days, we just have a blast.
But it does have its challenges
when you're with your partner 24/7, that, um,
uh, you can have disagreements, but, uh,
we believe in a more positive outcome in mining
-than what we've been experiencing. -Yeah.
[Helen] Raul and I met each other
about 13 years ago on a dating application.
Well, he just kind of had it. He was cute.
Long black hair, the sexy accent,
and I thought, "Okay, I'll bite."
Raul was first offered a job in the Yukon gold mining. He fell in love.
And then, a couple years later,
I also helped on that journey,
and I thought, "Okay, this is it. This is our lifestyle."
After 13 years, we have our tiffs,
but most of the time it's a beautiful journey together.
Raul has my back at every step. Um, I love him.
-Hola. -[Juan] We got it done, Fred. Let's see if it fits.
[Raul and Juan speaking in other language]
[Raul, in English] The seal looks pretty good.
-We can try it. -[Juan] There it is. Perfect.
[Helen] With this cap, we don't have to be too worried
about the pressure we put on that.
[machine starts]
[Juan] I'm proud of what we did there.
It seems like it's working out.
[Raul] Only somebody like Juan could make it that fast for us.
So we're... we're good. I'm happy.
[machine turns off]
[Freddy] These are the maps of Raul's claims.
And he's got roughly 700 acres here.
[narrator] With five days to put Raul on the gold,
Freddy plots out his prospecting plan.
It helps to have an aerial view sometimes, right?
You can definitely tell, you know, this lower area
where we're at right now has been hit hard.
That meant there was quite a bit of gold here, right?
But I can see on here, and I could see visually on the ground
that river used to be there and before that, it was up there, right.
So I don't know if it's been mined,
but that's where we need to start.
[narrator] Freddy aims to follow what looks like an old river channel
and has identified three promising locations, with the first in the North.
[Freddy] One thing Raul didn't do here is prospect his property.
So he's kind of up the river without a really good paddle right now.
But that doesn't mean there's not a hope left here.
This area has produced a tremendous amount of gold.
The easy stuff's probably gone,
But there's still a lot of gold around here. We just gotta find it.
[narrator] In the next valley to Raul and Helen's property,
the famous Bullion Pit Mine is a lasting legacy
to the incredible richness of the ground.
From 1892, this placer mine was operational for 50 years
and pulled out over 175,000 ounces of gold
worth $400 million in today's money.
[Freddy] But right now these guys are in a desperate spot.
Every ounce of gold, every speck of gold
we can help them get means everything to them.
So basically, the pressure is on me now.
We've got to find mineable ground that's fairly easy to get to,
to put money in his pocket or they won't be mining very long.
You said you had to sell your house to keep mining?
Yes, at one point, we decided to sell our own house.
And we always knew that was a gamble.
You haven't paid any bills. Just going in debts
every year and more and more and more.
[Freddy] One big deal is, uh, you need to do some testing on your own.
Let's say you want to buy this piece of property
and the owner's got all this paperwork from years past,
sometimes that doesn't matter in gold mining, though, if the gold's not there.
Don't trust what they've got wrote down most of the time
unless you really know the people.
You know, trust what your own eyes tell you.
Get in there and do some sampling.
That's right.
You can work your hands to bloody nimbles and, uh, still not make any money.
Trying to figure out what's going on with the creek.
-Is that the same creek that goes into your mine now? -Yes.
[narrator] Freddy has identified a section of ground
he believes was once part of the Quesnel River,
a major tributary for the famous gold rush Fraser River
of the Cariboo district.
[Freddy] See now, this is truly a bench.
Seeing this is too steep to hold gravels here.
So here's the bench, but I don't know how much of it's been hit.
[narrator] Over millions of years, a bench is formed
when an ancient river carves its way down a mountain.
As it changes course, it leaves gravels that could be rich in gold.
Freddy hopes that this area, if not hit, might give Raul some high grade pay.
[Freddy] So they've knocked all the trees down.
All these trees are, you know, a couple of decades old.
It's just hard to tell what's been played with.
So let's get an excavator up here and punch some holes and see what we see.
-Okay. -See what's tailings and what's not 'cause
with everything growing on it, where we're standing,
did they mine this and then backfill it or, you know...
Yeah. Okay, we'll do that.
You know, there's hope.
He's throwing me a life jacket so I won't drown.
Hopefully, it can change my life.
The old timers hit it hard.
It looks like, you know, they hit it hard,
probably in the '30s and in the '80s and in the '90s.
So there's a lot on the line for these guys. A lot.
How's it going, guys?
-How we doing? -[man 1] Good.
[narrator] In British Columbia,
Alex and Travis arrive at the Paredes mine site to provide some extra muscle.
[Freddy] Bring your gloves?
Gloves and a third welding truck.
It's kind of scary when you two say you need a third welding truck.
-[Juan] All right, guys, let's get to work. -[Alex] Let's get it.
-Guide me for my tips. -[Travis] Down a little bit.
[narrator] With Freddy focused on the prospecting mission,
Alex and Travis help Juan with Raul's new sluices.
[Juan] So this sluice box looks really wide,
but it's actually two sluice boxes in one.
We're gonna put a center divider in it,
and then we're gonna have two runs that are two-and-a- half feet wide each.
For that plant to run efficiently, it has to have a five-foot box.
We'll build one box and split it down the middle.
You know, if we ran just one big box,
there is no guarantee that you'd get an even flow.
But by being able to put it down to two and a half foot each stream
we're able to concentrate it a little better
and actually get better recovery with a smaller box.
[narrator] Juan will remove the overcomplicated octopus hose feed system
and install two custom-made 10-feet sluice boxes to better capture gold.
[bleep] hot.
[Juan] This is perfect welding weather.
You know, when it's over 100 degrees it's perfect to weld in.
Uh, it really makes it enjoyable. [chuckles]
I'm really hoping that Freddy going up there and taking a look at the cut
might kind of open up some options for Raul and Helen.
That's a lot. We just got to keep our nose to the grindstone
and keep on working right now.
Let's go!
[Freddy] Here's the bench.
You want to punch one over here.
-[Raul] You want to try one here? -[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator] To the north of Raul's claim,
Freddy digs deeper into the first location he's identified.
[Freddy] This would have been a gold bearing bench in this area.
But looking at it, I can't tell
if what we're standing on has been mined already.
We're just gonna have to look around here
and, uh, start punching some holes and see what the material looks like.
Thank you.
It's tailings.
[Raul] This is, uh, this is, well, the old timer you mentioned to me that
he did two yards of a bucket over there
and it was really, really, really good, he said.
I don't know if I believe whoever he bought this place from.
Everything's tailing.
-[Raul] There is no point to-- -Every rock here has been washed.
There was a lot of gold right here.
It's now in somebody else's bank account.
But if there is a 10-foot-square area here,
well, number one, it's not going to be enough to mine,
and number two, finding it...
That's like finding a needle in the haystack.
Wear your track out trying to find a little sliver of something.
The more time goes by, the more worried I become.
[Raul] Well, that is reality.
Just right now, I don't have the answer, where.
So cutting this punch plate's gonna probably
take a little over an hour and a half each plate.
[narrator] Back at Juan's build site,
as the rescue crew continues to work on the sluices,
Juan and David kick off the wash plant's punch plates.
So the design that we're doing on this is a teardrop design.
It's something that Freddy and I have used in the past.
That way, the material, when it goes over the top of the screen,
has a chance to relieve itself.
And also we leave it a little bit bigger.
That way, if there is the odd chance of that bigger nugget,
it still has a chance to be able to make it through.
[narrator] Fixed onto the hopper's screen deck,
the plates will allow gold bearing material through into the sluices.
[Juan] Be careful.
That looks good, David. That's probably plenty.
You know, as, uh, as, when we put that in,
as the material goes over the top of it, it will wear it out...
-[David] Okay. -...so it will push all that out.
It's not a big deal.
How come the teardrop design
-you have going on here... -It's a design we've kind of done over the years.
It starts out about a quarter of an inch and goes to half an inch.
-It's pretty effective for when you screen material. -[David] Oh, awesome.
So quick question for you. How did you get involved in all this?
My parents come out and, uh, mine every year,
so I just, I come out and help whenever I can. I... I really enjoy it.
I love the prospecting of gold mining.
Sticking the shovel in the ground and into the pan
and seeing what... what's gonna come up.
[narrator] David spends his time between his role as a firefighter
and his passion for mining,
and has become a key asset to Raul, and mom Helen's operation.
[David] I am a very hands-on type of person.
If you give me a book, I'm horrible at the book.
But, like, give me a piece of equipment and I can run that all day.
I also bring energy to the team.
Bills have gotta be paid, and the job I have is very secured.
But if the gold was stable and consistent,
I'd come out here and help Mom and Raul because they absolutely deserve it.
[Juan] Hold on. Watch your fingers.
[Travis] I thought it'd be lighter with all those holes in it,
but it's still pretty heavy.
[Juan] They're not light, are they?
You want to get these guys set up with a slag hammer
and then start poking all those out.
[David] Okay. Yeah, I can do that.
[Juan] Very good.
-This your property? -That's correct.
Now this property almost go up to the Cariboo River.
[narrator] Back out on the hunt for gold,
and after one failed prospect,
Freddy moves on to his next location,
in the middle of the bench formation.
[Raul] People that we bought the property...
-[Freddy] Yeah. -...find a few colors in there.
He said to me, "Well, you can start from there."
I mean, we run some.
Yeah, we find colors, but nothing...
nothing to make us super rich.
[Freddy] None of this looks good to me.
This is just what they dug out when they made the pond.
When they dig a pile out like that,
and then they don't sluice it,
when they have a plant set up in here,
that tells you a story, right?
Looks like they were going broke.
And they took the "quit going broke" way and got out.
It was our own life savings money.
Maybe it was my fault to listen to other people.
The lesson that I learned,
you know, is do your own testing,
because it's very tough to learn it this way.
[Freddy] You can see that the old timers haven't done much.
The modern people haven't done much, and there's a reason,
because from what I see so far,
there's not much gold in the ground up here.
Like the old saying goes, "A gold mine for sale
is a hole in the ground with a wire standing above it."
[Helen] This is a real horrible part of the day.
[narrator] In British Columbia, facing an uncertain future,
Helen struggles to pay bills.
[Helen] It's overwhelming, like we've got people
that we need to pay back.
Then we've got our regular bills,
like our rent and all our fuel for the equipment.
The reality is we need to get into that gold.
Like yesterday, we've made autonomous days,
definitely identifying the ground.
You've got to be on the gold.
And then that wash plant is too much.
It's too complicated.
I wish I had been armed with the information
that Freddy and Juan gave us.
Before I started this journey, I would be way wiser
and probably still have a lot more money in my pocket.
Lead the way, Raul. Let's go look at this up there.
[Raul] Okay.
[narrator] After drawing a bust at the first two locations,
Freddy is down to his last option,
a patch of ground to the south of Raul's claim,
Fifty yards from his main cut.
We're just going to have to look around here
and see if there's any ground that's still mineable.
The old-timers hit it hard.
So trying to read this, I can't see into the ground.
But I know one thing's for sure.
We're running out of options fast.
Let's keep looking around, huh?
[Raul] Yes, sir.
[Freddy] This is tailings.
See the tailings here, tailings there.
Hang on one second.
I like the look of this stuff.
[Raul] You like this stuff?
[Freddy] Yeah, it's better than anything else
I've seen that isn't tailings.
[Raul] Okay.
[Freddy] See how the rocks are shingled in there?
[Raul] Uh-huh.
[Freddy] See the difference in the material looks
-compared to what you were digging, right? -[Raul] Yeah.
[Freddy] I don't know how much of it's here, though.
We need to find out what's under here.
-Under here? -Yeah.
Let's see what we got.
This may be our last chance.
Freddy, I'm going to get on the excavator, okay?
I'm very excited!
[narrator] Freddy's discovered what he believes to be
virgin ground surrounded by tailings.
[Raul] Kind of a little excited to know that maybe there is
a pocket of gold over there and change my life.
[Freddy] Hang on one second, Raul.
No, you don't have to go that far.
Not that far.
No, just scrape the face.
Raul!
Just...
Just scrape the face from right there down.
[Raul] Okay.
You'll have to back up.
Okay, now reach out and scrape it.
Don't take the whole hill down.
That may be the only virgin material we got.
[Raul] What did you see, Freddy?
[Freddy] You know what? It looks good.
Take a snapshot in your brain
of how this material in the bank looks, right?
I want to show you something in this hole.
You can tell it's virgin material
because just the way it's laying in there.
In nature, that rock right there, right, when it's in a stream system,
isn't going to stand up like that, is it?
Water's going to hit it. It's going to fall over.
So that tells us once upon a time, water flowed through here
and, uh, helped concentrate the gold.
So in the future, you know, look for this
and look for your shingled rocks.
[Raul] I will.
I want you to keep punching a hole down.
Hopefully it gets you enough gold in your pocket
where you can keep going.
Well, the past two days have been kind of
a real pain in the butt, for lack of better words.
You know, look here, you know, it doesn't look good.
Look there, it's all been mined, all tailings.
But there's a little glimmer of hope because we just found
some virgin material over here,
and it looks good to me.
Just leave it right there, Raul.
[Raul] What's your opinion?
[Freddy] So there's definitely a division on what's going on here.
We've got two types of material in there.
It could be spotty ground.
We've got tailings and virgin ground.
We're in a situation, do you go broke fast
or do you go broke slow?
So we need to test that material
and see if it's worth digging it up.
Yeah. Yeah.
[Freddy] Bulk test is way better than a gold pan.
Instead of doing, you know, 10 gold pans, let's do 10,000 gold pans
and see what lives in it.
Let's get this thing knocked out.
We're running out of time.
[Raul] Last season, one of the guys,
he left the trommel over here.
The chain broke down.
[narrator] To bulk test the new material,
Freddy eyes up a broken down test trommel
he's seen in Raul's bone yard.
[Freddy] What do you think?
[Juan] I like it, Fred. I like the idea.
This is the test trommel, huh?
[Raul] This is a trommel.
[Freddy] Have you used it?
We washed two yards, then since once our...
-The master link, it broke. -[Juan] Mmm-hmm.
[Raul] Another issue that had,
it doesn't have a spray bar in the trommel.
[Juan] The motor run?
[Raul] Yes, it does.
We had it to start just with a rope here.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -[Juan] Okay.
[Raul] But yeah, it runs.
What we might be able to do here is,
even if I do another section of sprockets,
and then we'll put a spray bar in it,
get these two tied into one manifold so we have one pump
feeding the whole system instead of multiple pumps.
[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator] Five times cheaper to run than the main wash plant,
Raul will be able to use this trommel
on every piece of promising ground.
[Juan] It's a big weight on our shoulders.
Freddy and I want to do the most that we can here
to help Raul and Helen, and that looks like it's going to be us
having to work on their test trommel
and also on their main plant.
So it's really a two-in-one rescue,
and that's a lot of work.
[narrator] To provide Raul a way to bulk test his spotty ground,
Juan will resurrect the test trommel with a new spray bar,
then design a bespoke manifold
to maintain uniform water pressure throughout the system.
To keep gold-bearing pay moving through the plant,
they'll add a custom-made sprocket and chain
to efficiently rotate its drum
and add Freddy's signature riffles in the sluice
to catch fine gold.
These were something that they added onto the trommel
to be able to guide the chain, but they didn't really work,
so we're going to pull this complete assembly off
and build a whole new assembly for it.
That was a better one.
The sprocket's going to actually be a two-piece sprocket
that we weld on the outside of this drum.
That way it can actually turn the trommel.
Okay, Fred, I'm going to be spinning this for a second.
What I'm doing is I'm just getting it lined up,
and I'm about ready to start welding it to the drum.
We want to make sure that it's perfectly aligned
with this drive sprocket, so that way when it runs, it runs true.
The true, we can get it right now when we're setting it up,
the better it's going to run in the long run.
Put the clamp on it, then bring the piece of chain over here,
and we'll do the same thing over here.
Fun times, Freddy.
[Freddy] Fun, fun.
[narrator] With the chain connected to the trommel's drive system...
[Juan] There you are. You can let go of it.
...Juan takes the drum for a spin.
[Freddy] Charge her up.
[bleep]
[Juan] How did that get far off?
I went right on my line.
See?
It's built off in this.
[Freddy] It is. It's crooked.
-[Juan] It's not built square. -No.
[narrator] The base for the motor that runs the trommel
is welded on out of line.
[Juan] I'm just going to have to readjust.
This is going to slow me down. The whole thing's built off.
Yeah.
And you can tell by the [bleep] look right here.
-They've got a quarter-inch difference from here to here. -Yeah.
[Juan] I'm going to cut the motor off and shift the whole thing.
That's the only option.
That's the only way I can [bleep] get it close.
[Freddy] Yeah, it is.
We genuinely might be screwed,
so really the pressure's on now.
We have a lot more work than what we originally anticipated
because we're going to run out of time on this one.
[Freddy] It's always something, Juan.
[narrator] At the Paredes Mine in British Columbia.
Whomever built this, you know, they had great intentions,
but unfortunately they didn't know
how to read a measuring tape.
[narrator] After fixing up the test trommel,
Freddy and Juan discover
the motor's mount is off-center.
[Juan] I assumed things were square and straight.
You know, the gearbox, the way they had it set up,
it wasn't perpendicular to the drum,
which created a lot of problems.
But that's how it goes.
We're just going to have to make it up somewhere.
Once you think you've got something figured out,
something else pops out
and bites you right in the ass.
So are we still square on your sprocket down there?
[Juan] Yeah, pretty square.
-Okay, that's good. -Yeah.
[Juan] Let me weld it right there.
We're good.
[Juan] I like it, Freddy.
Someone built that in their garage.
They had the best of intentions.
They tried hard, but unfortunately nothing was right.
Um, but I'm really happy the way it turned out.
Okay, we're going to lift this up.
[narrator] With just two days to go,
Juan puts the main wash plant on hold
to carry on with the work on the test trommel.
[Juan] That thing is hot, Travis.
[narrator] Next up, fabricate its main spray bar.
This is going to be the end of the trommel right here,
right around there. It's going to turn this way to the left.
It's going to be a left-handing turn.
But what we're going to do is, since the material is going
to turn to the left, it's going to be piled up right here.
That's about where the material is going to start sliding,
actually right about here.
I want this coming out at a 90 right here.
That way it can curl over.
So reality is, the spray bar should be spraying
roughly right there.
Put some more lube on there, Freddy?
[Freddy] Yeah, we'll throw some on here.
Where's our soap?
[narrator] After adding the drum's brand-new spray bar,
Freddy uses bubble soap to ease the hoses onto the trommel.
[Travis] Good thing your little bubbles worked, Freddy.
[Freddy] Yep.
-[Travis] Still-- -Tiny bubbles.
[Travis chuckles]
[Freddy] Okay, well, let's move this to its new home.
Coming up!
[narrator] After 24 hours' work on the test trommel,
it's finally ready for the bulk test.
[Freddy] Doing good, Alex.
Looking good.
There's your trommel.
[Alex] Unreal. Wow!
Well, thank you very much, you know, I mean...
Well, we are here to help you, buddy.
-Thank you very much. -We're here to help you.
-I really appreciate it. -Okay.
Let's run the bulk test, see what's in it.
Okay, we'll do that, Freddy.
[Freddy] Firing up!
[narrator] Freddy's plan?
Run 50 buckets of pay through the trommel
to get a dollar per yard result.
First bucket!
So far, so good.
It's clean.
Juan.
I'm going to turn the water up a little bit more.
[Juan] Okay.
Right now, the bulk test is going pretty good.
Between the sluice box, the way it's running,
the trommel is doing an excellent job of scrubbing and washing the material.
And the drive system is doing great.
So, I couldn't be happier.
Hopefully, there's going to be gold
in the sluice box when we're done.
It's working well enough for us to do a bulk test, right?
We've got water flying all over the place,
and it's not ideal.
But, I need a shower anyway.
[Juan] We've got one plant done, Fred.
-The test plant, one more to go, huh? -[laughs]
I don't know who built this plant,
but they shouldn't build anything ever again.
[Juan] The design and the concept is pretty good.
Just their execution wasn't great.
I'm going to get back to welding.
-Okay. -See you in a bit.
Last bucket!
[Raul] Okay, Freddy.
[Freddy] Well, let's see what we got, eh?
Shut the trommel off, Raul.
[Raul] I'm excited to see what is in there.
This is it. This means everything to me, this test.
[narrator] After running a 50-bucket bulk test...
[Freddy speaking Spanish]
[in English] Thank you, sir.
[narrator] ...Freddy cleans up the mats.
[Freddy] So, this is roughly five yards of material, Raul.
[Raul] Yes.
[Freddy] There's gold in it. That's for sure.
So, we've got one, two, four...
Sixteen, seventeen.
Well, there's well over 20 colors there, 21, but there's a few more.
[Raul] Wow.
This is the most I've ever seen,
you know, I mean, since I've been here.
[Freddy] We might not even weigh it. We may just eyeball it.
Let's have a look at it.
It's $20 a yard.
[Raul] Wow. This is amazing.
Since I've been in this claim,
it's the most gold I've ever seen
in only five yards from that little piece.
Freddy was the one that discovered that.
[narrator] In just one five-yard test,
Freddy recovers more than 10%
of what Raul has found all season.
But I tell you what, if it was gold was everywhere,
it wouldn't be worth much, would it?
Well, right now it's $2,300 an ounce,
so every one of those specs count.
You just got to help catch more of it at the plant.
I know. I'm very excited.
I'm very excited to see gold, eh?
[Freddy] There's some material to run right there.
$20, $25 a yard. It looks good.
I mean, that's pretty good pay.
Juan-o!
That's pretty good.
Out of five yards. $20-some dollars a yard.
[Juan] That's a hell of a whole lot better than what we saw last time.
[Freddy] Three specks.
That's a huge improvement, Fred, from not being able
to pay the gas bill to start the water pump
to actually being able to maybe make some money there.
That's exciting, Freddy. I'm actually excited about that.
[Freddy] So we're going to go run those old-timer tailings,
see if it's worth running.
We'll do a side-by-side comparison.
[Juan] Okay, and see what that does.
-All right, buddy. See you in a bit. -See you in a bit, Juan-o.
[Juan] Freddy's found some ground, but the pressure's still on.
We've still got a lot to do.
We still have to install everything
and, uh, do a test run.
So we're out of time. Makes it tough.
[Raul] How's she going?
[Freddy] Go ahead and shut the trommel off.
[narrator] At the Paredes mine.
[Freddy] Time to have a look at it, huh?
[narrator] To make a comparison,
Freddy runs a second bulk test on the old-timer tailings,
which surround the pocket of pay.
[Freddy] The old-timers didn't have pumps.
They didn't have heavy equipment. But you do now.
Let's see what gold, if any, lives in this.
This is 50 buckets.
[Raul] Yeah.
So we're apples to apples.
[Raul] Helen!
What are you looking at now?
There's not nearly as much black sand in it.
[Raul] It's no good.
[narrator] Black sand is a highly mineralized material
and often an indicator of gold.
[Freddy] That's a bad thing.
See, we got some gold there.
-[Raul] Yeah. -But not much.
[Helen] How's it looking?
[Freddy] Well, you can see the one on the right here, Helen.
We're figuring that's right around $20 a yard.
[Helen] Okay.
[Freddy] Okay, now here's those old-timer tailings.
It's probably got 10% the amount of gold, right?
You can run 20. You can make money on 20.
Yeah.
Two, go broke.
[narrator] The bulk test confirms the old-timer tailings
are not worth running.
And in order to be profitable,
Raul must focus solely on the virgin ground.
[Helen] Do you think there is more?
-There's more of it in the bank up there, right? -[Raul] Yeah.
[Freddy] But it's just hard to get to.
[Helen] Yeah.
So what I think we do is get this pond drained.
-[Raul] Okay. -We look at the walls of this pond here
and we'll start there, right?
Thank you, Freddy.
[Freddy] Yeah, let's make some stuff happen.
-That's a start. -[Raul] Thank you.
[Helen] To have this glimmer of hope,
it's just super amazing.
And hopefully, we can start paying our bills
and have a forward direction.
[narrator] Raul drains the pond
by cutting away the berm wall
to see if the pay pocket extends further.
[Raul] I'm very excited
that Freddy found us this little piece of ground, uh,
you know, what's hiding from us in this corner.
I would like to see what is in there and,
and go from there, right.
Travis, you wanna plug in that other welder
and start welding this other box out?
[Travis] Yeah. Sounds good.
[narrator] With the ground found
and 24 hours to go before the final test run,
Juan races to finish fixes for the main plant.
[Juan] So, this is the beginning of the V-chute.
You can see the outline of it.
The material is gonna get funneled into the V-chute,
concentrated in the center so it's even.
And then what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have a splitter right here.
And then this one will come over to this side,
drop in to the left hand sluice box
and this will have a down spout over here
for the right hand sluice box.
The reason we're doing this is because
right now, the way he's running,
the boxes, one's getting a lot of material,
one's getting nothing.
And so, it's not effective at all.
[narrator] The V-chute will separate material equally to the sluices,
allowing them to capture fine gold.
14 by 14 right there.
Then I need the 47 by 14. That one's perfect.
There's a tremendous amount of calculations
figuring out where it's gonna go, how it's gonna sit.
We still got a tremendous amount of work to do.
We're only halfway through this.
We're gonna get this all jigged up,
and then we'll finish welding it out.
Fortunately, I have Travis here with me,
so we're able to get a lot more done,
uh, with the time we have,
but we better get back to it.
Thank you, Trav.
[Freddy] Hey, Raul.
[speaking Spanish]
[Raul] I'll give you all the time in the world for you, bud.
[narrator] Out on the claim,
Raul's drained the pond next to the pocket of pay.
[Freddy] This is all good pay. All this is good pay.
I had a feeling
-that that pay continued through there, right? -[Raul] Yeah.
[Freddy] You can't see through muddy water.
[Raul] Wow.
[narrator] At $20 a yard,
Freddy's find could stop Raul and Helen from going broke.
It looks like it's going back into this hillside,
but it's just hard to get to.
-Once you get these tailings off the top... -[Raul chuckles] Wow.
...somebody made a mess for you up there.
-[Raul] Yeah. -So, it's gonna be a bit of work to get to it.
Yeah.
-This is all good pay, Raul. -[Raul] Yep.
[Freddy] Like, uh, that's tailings there.
-[Freddy] You don't wanna take any of that. -[Raul] Yeah.
[Freddy] I'd follow it back first.
And then I'd plop those tailings out of there,
you know, get it all cleaned up this way,
away from the hill.
That way you can throw those old timer tailings over the top
without worrying about, you know,
-covering up good pay. -[Raul] That's right.
[Freddy] But you can see even here, right?
-We got pay in there. -[Raul] Yep.
So, just look for those shingled rocks.
[Raul] Thank you very much.
[narrator] Old timer tailings are stacked on top of virgin material
which will need to be dug out with precision,
so that the pay is not diluted.
[Freddy] Start digging some of this material over here
and get it stockpiled to run.
Dig away.
[Raul] Well, I've got good news.
Freddy found a really nice spot over there.
-We're all gonna be-- -[Helen] I am so excited. [laughs]
[Freddy] It's the first smile I had all day is when I seen that.
[Raul] I got something to look forward in the future
that I can continue my passion for gold mining.
[narrator] At the Paredes' mine site, with hours to go,
the rescue crew races to complete the final fixes.
[Freddy] Basically, we're out of time.
Everything we've had to do here
from prospecting to, uh,
getting that test trommel going,
it's gotta be all hands on deck now,
'cause literally,
our hourglass is damn near to empty.
[Helen] Are we taking out all of the sluices?
[Raul] All of the sluicers, we want them out.
But he said, I mean,
we're just preparing the job for him.
[Helen] So, once we take all these sluices out,
it's not going to be an Octopus anymore, is it?
It's not gonna be an Octopus.
[Helen] We're gonna have to come up with a different name, you guys.
That's right. Maybe an oyster.
-Because oyster-- Oyster has pearls. -[Helen laughs]
So they've got value. [chuckles softly]
-Okay, let's do it. -[Helen] Let's get at her.
[narrator] Raul's mission,
strip down the old plant
in preparation for the new sluice runs
and distribution box.
Yeah, we don't wanna damage any of these beams,
because we don't know what, um,
Juan's gonna be using, right?
-Yeah. Okay. -[Helen] So, let's not, um, damage anything.
[Raul] I couldn't do what I do without Helen.
She's the key in this operation.
Without her, I couldn't do it.
She's the one that look after the plan and...
We start this adventure together
and we hopefully, we end up together.
And hopefully, we can be winners together.
Helen, you guys wanna move out of there, please?
[Helen] Yeah, I guess just stack 'em all over here.
This way.
[Helen] Yay, we've got one down, three to go.
[Raul] I gotta go more that way.
So, when I lift it up, I'm not pushing it this way.
You gotta let me know. You're my eyes, buddy.
I can't really see from here, okay?
[man] Nice and slow, Raul, watch the chain.
All right, let's unhook that chain.
Nice job, Raul.
[Raul] Oh. Good.
[Helen] Now, for the rebuild.
[man] Pull on that, Raul.
[narrator] The crew prepares to weld in the V-chute box
into Raul and Helen's plant.
[Juan] Today is gonna be a big day. We're completely out of time.
Luckily, we have enough help here.
Travis and Alex are here to give us a hand.
Still got a lot to do, but we're getting closer.
[narrator] The custom made V-chute
needs to sit tightly under the hopper.
[Freddy] Ouch.
[narrator] The only way Freddy can weld it in
is from the inside of the five foot long box.
[Freddy] This is really gonna [bleep] suck.
[Alex] I'll be right over here.
-[Freddy] Huh? -I'll be right over here if you need me.
[Freddy] Where's that grinder?
Alex? Alex?
I need you.
-[Alex] What's up, buddy? Yeah. -[Freddy] Alex!
Hand me that grinder, would ya?
[laughs] Grinder.
[Freddy] Thank you.
I'm gonna get fried in here.
It's comfy in here.
[Juan] So, we'll slide it in through the front here,
and then we'll, we'll walk it over.
[Travis] All right.
[narrator] Right above Freddy on the shaker deck,
Juan and Travis install the new punch plates.
[Travis] Pardon me a little bit.
[Juan] What we're gonna do is we're gonna get the punch plate lifted in place.
We're gonna have to get one side tacked in,
then we'll have to push down the other side
so we can get that bow in it
and be able to tension the plates.
All right, let's get to [bleep] work.
Push this side down hard. Are we tight?
-[Travis] It's tight. -[Juan] Uh-huh.
-Thank you, Travi. -[Travis] No problem.
So, we thought we would have to use a bottle jack
to add pressure to push the plate down.
But after Juan and I stood on it,
there was enough weight between the two of us
-to be able to pin her down, so. -[Juan laughs]
Hold her good enough.
[narrator] Juan and Travis's body weight bush fix
is enough to tension and weld the punch plates into place.
[Juan] I guess that means we need to go on a diet.
[both laugh]
[Juan speaking Spanish]
[in English] As the material comes down, it can come over,
and it's not going too far over where it can't get screened.
So that way, it'll still hit the, the holes.
[Raul] It still hits all the holes.
-Yeah, it's still got the perforations. -[Raul] Nice.
You've done an amazing job here, Juan.
Wow.
I get pretty emotional.
This is means a lot to me.
I mean, this is, this is my life.
I appreciate that you're giving me the tools that I can go and start,
start all over again.
[Juan] And honestly, it's been a pleasure, you know?
And you came to Canada with nothing.
You know, you started a mine,
and you know, this is yours.
And to me, that's...
You know, that's the sign of somebody
that's put a lot of effort and a lot of time
and a lot of heart into what they do.
You know? Not everybody does that.
So, I totally understand that that...
You know, the story,
because my family has done it as well.
And you know, they gave me the opportunities
to, to be the person I am now.
-It's our pleasure. -[Raul speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
-[Freddy] Hey, Alex. -[Alex] Yes, sir?
[Freddy] Can you hand me my stinger?
-I have no [bleep] idea where... -[Alex laughs]
-I think you're laying on it, buddy. -Yeah.
I can't [bleep] turn my own head around in here.
[narrator] Beneath Juan and Raul,
Freddy finishes welding in the five-foot V-chute.
[Alex] I'm not like Freddy.
Freddy can fit into tight places.
Um, I don't think I could've done that when I was five.
-[Freddy] It's hot [bleep] in here. -[Alex] Oh, I bet.
[Freddy] It was already 100 degrees in here
before I started welding on this plate.
Now the plate's a couple hundred degrees.
How long was I in that [bleep] thing?
[Alex] Uh, you were in there for a solid hour?
Well, it was a tight fit in there, that's for sure. And hot.
And you know, without something on the back of your hood,
you get the reflection off the steel that goes in there.
The flash burns your eyes. I can feel it right now.
They're, like, itchy.
[clears throat] So...
wasn't any fun, but at the same time it had to be done.
[Juan] Good. You're doing good. Keep coming.
[narrator] The last step of the wash plant fix...
[Juan] Little more.
[narrator] ...install the 10-foot sluices.
[Juan] Perfect.
-[Freddy] Here you go, buddy. -[Juan] Thank you.
It was a tremendous, uh, undertaking.
And I honestly didn't think we were gonna get it all done.
I'm hoping that this plant is gonna work properly
and we do the final test run,
because Raul and Helen,
they've put a lot of trust and confidence in us...
[Freddy] There you go.
[Juan] ...and, yeah, we wanna deliver.
[Juan] You've gotten a little bit of, uh,
-time with your drone, Fred? -[Freddy] Not much.
-Crashed it a couple of times. -[laughs]
[narrator] One mile from Helen and Raul's claim
is the Bullion Pit Mine
which was hydraulic in the 1870s,
using huge water cannons.
[Freddy] Well, one time at home,
I, uh, piled up a drone
-into a pile of black sand from cleanup. -[Juan laughs]
-[Freddy] It got in the motors and everything... -[Juan] Yeah.
[Freddy]...just completely destroyed it.
What drone is this? Number four or five?
-Six. -[Juan laughs]
Think, Freddy, you've gotten better.
[Freddy] No, I haven't.
Went through the widespread trees instead of the narrow ones.
You didn't wanna go to the narrow gap, huh?
If there was only one tree, I could find a way to hit it.
[Juan] How's it looking? Oh, wow.
It's definitely bigger than it looks from the ground here, huh?
[Juan] That's a lot bigger than what it looks like.
I think I read they mined out
about 22 million tons of gravel.
Yeah. That's quite a bit.
[Juan] There's a lot of material there.
But like you said Freddy, you know,
there's a reason they mined all that material.
-It must've been pretty decent gold. -Yeah.
[Freddy] You ready, guys? Let's fire it up and run.
-Let's do it. -[Helen] Start the pump, thanks.
[David] Starting the pump.
[narrator] At the Paredes mine
with the pump cap and large wash plant fixed
and new pay found,
Raul, Helen and David start the second test.
[Raul] Hey, hey!
No more agua. We're good.
[Raul] I'm very excited. This is my day.
I've been waiting for this for a long, long time.
[Freddy] How's it look?
-[Juan] Looks really good in here, Fred. -[Freddy] Yeah.
First bucket.
There you go, started the timer.
[narrator] The stockpiled pocket of pay
will keep the plant running for an hour.
Enough time for Freddy and Juan
to assess their fixes on the big plant.
[Helen] The difference is amazing.
Now it's even. It's running beautifully.
[Juan] Looks good.
The plant before,
there would be no way I could even hear you.
But now the plant's actually running pretty decent.
So far, the material coming off the end looks really clean,
so I couldn't be happier.
[narrator] The new fitted punch plates screen out the worthless rock.
[Freddy] Well, the V-chute looks good.
The sluice looks good, the punch plates.
[narrator] Juan's custom-made steel V-chute
separates material evenly,
allowing gold rich pay to settle in the riffles.
-[Freddy] Much better. -Yeah, that's good.
[Raul] Hopefully, things can change
for the better.
I'm gonna be able to,
to pay the people that I owe money,
pay my bills and doing what I love to do.
Be everything to me,
will mean everything, the whole world, right?
[Freddy] I can see tailings in that bay there, feeding into the plant.
That's not good. That's really gonna water it down.
[narrator] Freddy has identified old timer tailings
mixed in with the virgin pay,
lowering the value of the material.
[Freddy] Last bucket roll.
Part of it was tailings.
-[Juan] We dilute it a little bit, uh? -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] We probably lost quite a bit of gold.
[Freddy] Probably 50% of it.
-[Juan] Yeah, I would imagine that. -Yep.
[Juan] Well, let's clean it up.
-[Freddy] Yep. -[Juan] Let's do it.
-[Juan] Hello. -[Freddy] Hi, guys. Moment of truth, guys.
-How we doing? -[Helen] So, how does that look?
-Good, good. -Well, we got gold there.
-[Freddy] Weighable amount. -[Juan] Yeah.
But there's some issues we wanted to talk to you about.
-There was a lot of tailings. -[Freddy] Lot of tailings in it.
Let's say our, our pay was diluted 50%.
-[Raul] Mmm-hmm. -So, when you start, you know, following that channel,
you need to make sure that you just take the pay layer.
[Freddy] And you've seen what we did with that test trommel, right?
-[Juan] Yeah. -We got a gram of gold out of that out of five yards.
[Juan] Yeah, it's gonna be a huge improvement
when, when you actually get in there
and actually run straight pay,
you're gonna see a night and day difference.
You ready?
-[Helen] Yes, we're ready. -[Raul] Yeah.
-[Freddy] Here goes nothing. -[Raul] I'm excited.
[narrator] The first test run produced just 50 cents worth of gold.
[Freddy] Point zero three.
Point zero three, guys.
[narrator] After an hour running 30 yards of dirt,
Raul and Helen make almost $70 worth of gold.
You know, point zero three out of one hour run,
it, it's gold, it's here.
Honestly, I see hope there.
It's a heck of an improvement from the first gold weight.
-Yep. -[Helen] And we're happy.
[Juan] Now you know you have some decent ground on the, on,
on the property to run.
[Freddy] Stay in that pay channel.
-[Juan] Yeah. Stay-- -[Freddy] And in those shingled rocks.
But there should be enough material here
to get your pockets lined with a little bit of money.
But in the future, you're gonna have to find more ground.
And then two, now you have a proper-- test plant
that you can take anywhere to do testing.
And your wash plant is working amazingly.
[Freddy] It's running really well.
It's gonna pay off.
-You know, you're in a spot where you can make some money. -Yep.
Two hundred percent improvement, eh?
-I mean, from what it was. -[Juan] Oh, yeah.
-[Raul] It was, yeah. -Two thousand percent.
[Helen] Yeah, 2000.
[Raul] Well, thank you very much.
You guys, uh, give us hope. I mean,
-if it wasn't for you guys, no one... -[Helen] We wouldn't be here.
[Raul] We wouldn't be here.
-[Freddy] You're very welcome. -[Raul] You guys changed our life.
[Helen] It's no longer the battle that it was.
-We're off and running. -[Freddy] Yep.
Well, guys, we've got another mine to go to.
So, it's been an absolute pleasure.
[Helen] Yeah, thank you.
[Freddy] I'm proud of what we did here.
Even if Raul and Helen don't stay on this property
or they mine it out,
they've got the tools and the knowledge to go somewhere else
and have a lot better start than they've had here.
[Juan] Senor.
[speaking Spanish]
Aww.
[Raul speaking in English] The hope that Freddy and Juan has given us, priceless.
I'm on my way.
I'm feeling really awesome right now.
For the future of our mining,
this is gonna be really exciting.
[Juan] Please let us know how you get on.
-[Helen] Definitely. -[Freddy] Yeah, do.
Freddy and Juan, [kisses] I love you.
And we can't thank you enough. You've changed our, our world.
Honestly, I feel that these fixes
and what we've done here for 'em,
it's gonna, it's gonna be life changing.
You know, I'm happy that we had the opportunity to come out here and help 'em.
It's great to meet people that need the help
and that when they receive the help,
they're, they're truly appreciative
and the-- they definitely are that
After Freddy and Juan left,
we thought it was gonna be way too difficult for us
to get to the dirt with the current equipment that we have.
So, we decided to move on to find better grounds.
The gold isn't so difficult to get at.
We did a lot of testing with the trommel.
[Raul] I couldn't be any more happy,
because without that trommel,
I wouldn't be telling you what I'm telling you.
I found the ground.
[Helen] If we run a day on this pay
and this is being conservative,
we should be just over the $3000 mark a day.
Pretty phenomenal.
Freddy and Juan have really breathed so much new life
into the future of our gold mining.
And we're so excited for next year to get, um,
started and see what's in that ground.
[Raul] Bills are gonna get paid,
we'll be able to make some money as an income.
I did everything as they told me, and it was good.
It was good. I'm happy.
I'm counting the days for next year.