[man] Yee-haw!
[Rob] The Hoffman family is back.
- Oh! - How you doing?
[all exclaiming]
[Rob] And they're on the gold.
[Jack] It has the potential to really make a lot of money.
[Rob] This season, they got the machines...
It's almost like going to war and this is your tank.
[Rob] ... to get the job done.
[Todd] Holy crap!
Popping nuggets left and right.
[Rob] But when Hunter takes his family's future into his own hands...
I'm basically asking you if I can run my own wash plant.
That caught me by surprise how much he doesn't wanna work with me.
[Rob] Can he deliver the goods to keep the Hoffmans afloat?
Go big or go home, you know?
I think these guys might be a little bit out of their league.
[Rob] Or will it be a huge distraction
that threatens to bring down their whole operation?
How about when you guys say you're gonna have a 650 over here,
don't do the opposite of that?
Knock it off. Be quiet. Let us handle this piece.
I think we're gonna have to take over this little operation.
[Hunter] The [bleep] are we doing? Honestly, this is embarrassing.
[Todd] Start throwing in the back
and start grabbing scraps.
Those valves, throw everything back to quad.
Lay flat.
Everything.
Right now, we're at this point where we need to run.
We're getting everything out of the way,
going through our checklist in our mind.
That's Dakota up in the hopper. He's working on the Sway Bars.
Sluice box is all set. We'll probably check that one more time.
Hydraulic riffles are being built right now.
Electrical, Randy's on that.
So good. It's all good.
Last minute wiring here in the, uh, in the panel.
This is all ready to go.
Generator running and...
let's get this baby turning.
Todd's got a lot of money wrapped up in this.
Build is starting to stack up.
He needs to get some gold in his pocket.
Right now, we're running on fumes.
What's going on, man?
- You got a minute? - Yeah, sure. What now?
So,
basically, Hunter wants to go out on his own.
- He wants to run his own plant. - Yeah.
He wants me to fund it, give him a go-ahead and a blessing on it.
Yeah.
And it caught me by surprise how much he doesn't wanna work with me.
You know, it's like everything I do is wrong right now and it's like...
[Jack] Todd, if you could financially swing that,
I think it's gonna be good for your relationship and his, too.
[Todd] I am way out on a limb.
So, it's just scary. The whole thing's very scary.
You could lose your livelihood. You'd lose a lot of money.
But what I don't wanna do is, I don't wanna lose my family.
If we had two plants going,
we have a better chance at hitting our gold.
But if this turned out to be a very bad experience for him,
it's not gonna really help Hunter in any way, shape or form.
You know, being a father is tough 'cause you wanna protect your boys
from the world and even themselves, but...
you know, if you hold them back,
you know, later, they're gonna resent you for it.
You know, you can't keep taking care of me.
You let him do it?
Part of me says no, but,
but most of me says yeah.
He's gonna sink or swim
with this
opportunity.
It's up to him.
All right.
- Thanks, Dad. - Yep.
[Todd] All right. So, I got something to talk to you about
and it affects everybody.
Hunter came to me and he said he wanted to run his own plant.
[scoffs]
Oh, geez!
That's you... What?
Yeah.
Wow!
Hunter, I wanted to give you the floor for a couple seconds
and to just tell them what you're feeling.
Well, this is like our family business.
I'm your oldest son.
Like, I've been doing this since I was ten years old.
You know, this is my tenth season.
So, I've always wanted to run my own plant
and for me, I'm just like,
I wanna be able to have a little bit of say and also, you know, I feel like,
it's like grandpa always says, no guts, no glory.
From what I know about gold mining, growing up and uh,
watching other gold miners and watching, you know, what we've done, I think
we need a second plant.
None of us can afford to go home with a loss and I think we're behind schedule.
Bottom line, it's gonna take two wash plants to get a 1,000 ounces.
We have the best machines. We have the best crew. We're on a good mine.
Why not run two plants?
I'd rather have more fire power than not enough.
So...
You know, I think you're right. I, you know, no guts, no glory, you know,
really.
For us to attain our goal
with one machine, it isn't gonna work.
Hunter,
the Holy Roller, though, has gotta come first. That is our business plan.
It's gotta come first.
I get it. Like...
Do we have enough equipment you think?
Logistically, it's gonna be super tough.
Everything's gonna be a stretch.
So, it's a big gamble. It's a huge, huge risk.
- It's not going to be easy. - No.
I know we're spread thin, but my mind's already made up.
I'm already committed to doing what it takes.
Okay. So, that's it.
We're gonna take a risk on this plant,
and if it becomes where it's, kinda, hurting us,
then, I will pull the plug.
Hunter, can you agree to that?
I will commit to that deal.
[Todd] All right. Go to town and try to find yourself a plant.
Okay.
I wouldn't be here if we hadn't divided and tried to start our own thing, too.
I'm really appreciative. This entire thing is a gamble
and my dad's sticking his neck out.
All right, guys. Let's go.
So, I hope that, just for everybody's sake, that we succeed.
So, right now, I'm heading into Nome.
I'm gonna go meet with this guy, Nate.
Everybody tells me if I need to find something in town, this is the guy to go to.
I'm gonna try to see, you know, what he has for a wash plant.
But I've been through Nome.
There's a lot of wash plants, but there's not a lot of them
that are worth a damn.
So, we'll see what happens.
- Hunter, man. How are ya? What's going on? Come on in. - Hi.
- Grab a seat. - Thank you.
- Dude, thank you for meeting with me today. - Yeah, no problem.
- So, what's going on? - So...
I convinced my dad to
- invest in me doing my own operation this year. - Okay.
He is giving me the go-ahead to come here, try to find a plant.
You got anything more for me than just a plant?
'Cause I got big, small, I got them all.
I know beggars can't be choosers, isn't it?
I'm in Nome, where everybody is looking for a wash plant.
- Right? So, I just, whatever you have, - Yep.
um, just show me and we'll see if it's something we can make work.
Good.
You know, it's a long shot, but in a perfect world,
you know, Nate will have a wash plant that can do at least 300 yards an hour,
similar to The Holy Roller, so we can double our results.
- That's it right there. - Yep.
[Nate] So, here she is!
[Hunter] This thing's great.
[Nate] Yeah, it is.
- [Hunter] Dude... - You think this will do what you need?
[Hunter] Uh, yeah.
This is what I'm talking about.
- This thing is crazy-looking. - Yep.
Looks like a pirate ship.
[Nate] She's worn, but she's still got a lot of life left in her.
I got the parts you need to make it run this season.
- Wow. - Just gonna be a lot of man hours.
[Rob] While The Holy Roller is enormous, weighing close to 50,000 pounds,
this wash plant weighs a staggering 80,000 pounds.
Jeez. Now, we're talking.
You know, like, how much gold dig out this thing?
Man, they were in this trommel for six years before we bought this place
and she worked well. She's probably seen 30,000 ounces or more.
This plant's got 30,000 ounces?
[Nate] At least. At minimum.
- How long has it been sitting here? - 2016.
So, she's been sitting here just gathering rust for a while.
- Damn. You know anything about the motor on it? - Yeah.
- It sat with no, no protection for years so, - Yeah.
fifty-fifty shot she's locked up.
[Hunter] I mean, this entire thing is a huge gamble.
This plant needs a lot of work, but right now, this is the only plant in Nome
that can even handle the kinda yard during the run, so...
I'm gonna have to go for it.
- This is the plant I need, so... - I think so.
I just don't want you to bite off more than you can chew.
It's gonna take a lot to move it.
[Rob] The fully assembled wash plant is 50 feet long, 18 feet tall and 18 feet wide.
Too large to make it across the bridge in one piece.
So, Hunter will have to cut the plant into three pieces,
the base, the trommel and the hopper.
By separating each section, they estimate this will afford the largest section,
just inches of clearance as it enters the bridge.
I think it's gonna take at least four trucks to get everything out there.
[Hunter] No guts, no glory.
- Good. - This is exactly what I was looking for, so,
- I'm ready to go. - We'll see if we can put a deal together.
- That's good. - [Nate] Okay.
[Hunter] It's gonna take a lot to get this thing
up and running the way we need it to,
but I feel like God's on my side right now.
Finding a plant that is this size
is beyond what I thought I was gonna be able to pull off.
- You know, fire the pump. - Yep.
[Todd] And if all looks good, no major changes couple days of running.
Dialing everything in best we can
while we first clean up.
First off, though, we gotta run.
Today, we're finally gonna get The Holy Roller up and running
and we wanna get this ancient river dirt through this
and hopefully, at a really, really decent pace.
I'm excited. We've been waiting for years to, to try to run this plant
and this kinda paydirt.
Okay. Let's warm up the generator.
Andy, get ready on the excavator.
[Andy] What could go wrong?
Everybody, clear?
[Todd] Go for it.
[Andy] Okay, here we go.
[Rob] After days of preparation,
the Holy Roller and the systems that support it
are ready to churn out gold.
The ancient riverbed's paydirt is piled.
The generators are full speed ahead.
- [Todd] it's like that kid's first day at school. - [Andy] Good to go.
Bring the water. Bring it up.
[motor revs]
[Rob] And the water is flowing.
- [Andy on radio] How much are you at? - 875.
[Todd] They've gone off. Give me 1,100.
What I wanna see is 20 fire hoses
beating that frickin' paydirt off.
[Rob] The high water pressure ensures that their paydirt will break down properly
and allow the sluice to trap gold.
[Andy on radio] Let's go to 1,400.
- Fourteen-hundred. - [Andy on radio] 1,400.
[Todd] 1... 4... 0... 0.
Thurber, how's the sluice?
[Jim] Sluice is looking good.
[Todd] I like the water.
Andy, push off the paydirt in, boy.
[Andy on radio] Push off dirt.
[Todd] Getting this thing up and running is huge for everyone.
But we're a long way from right now and right here, where we're starting
to getting to a 1,000 ounces.
We did it.
Keep it running.
Good job, everybody.
Whoo!
[Hunter] I've never been this nervous about loading a wash plant before.
First time loading my own plant.
Everything about this wash plant is a huge risk.
Biggest trommel I've ever seen and we literally have to
cut the entire thing into pieces just to get it
through the bridge to get it out to the mine.
I've never seen something like this done, so we're taking our time
cutting carefully to make sure that
we can actually get this thing put back together once we get it out there.
At some point, we're gonna have to cross
that bridge and if it doesn't fit, then we're screwed, so...
I mean, this is it, dude. We got the drum loaded. That was uh,
kinda my main concern.
We're gonna rig the hopper there, get that on, get the motor on.
- Don't get under it, Cub. - Okay.
[Hunter] Rest the frame and then, that's all the pieces.
It's more stressful when it's your own plant,
especially, when you don't have any replacement parts or anything like that.
I've never seen my brother this focused and determined.
I think it's good right there, yeah.
Yeah, if he believes it, I believe it.
[Hunter] There she goes. Wow!
I'm praying to God it gets there in one piece.
I hope everything fits through the bridge.
Odds are kinda against us, but I feel good, dude.
Good work.
Thousand ounces or nothing.
Hey, Tater. Tell me, tell me about material.
[Todd] On the Holy Roller, we've redesigned the sluice.
We got new types of sluice boxes.
We have hydraulic nugget traps
because I watched last year, us shoot gold right off into the box.
[Rob] Mining paydirt that is heavy with clay is not an easy task.
The clay tends to block up the riffles,
causing gold to flow over them and then, out of the sluice box.
Hydraulic riffles, or hydraulic nugget traps,
solve this problem with a series of half pipes
injected with a steady five pounds of water pressure.
This process keeps the paydirt loose
and allows the gold to sink to the bottom of the traps
before it even hits the sluice box.
[Todd] This thing is dang near brand-new.
With the right team, equipment and everything, we work hard,
we should come out of here with enough gold to make it worth it.
[Hunter] Guys, this is kind of our one shot.
But I have faith in us.
[man] Same here, brother.
We just gotta keep, keep pressing on.
[Rob] With The Holy Roller running, but no results yet,
Hunter's new wash plant could be the extra firepower the Hoffmans need.
to meet their season goal of 1,000 ounces.
Think these guys might be a little bit out of their league.
- These dudes are dorks. - [man] Complete dorks.
I think they think that we don't know that they're there.
Yeah.
You think they can tackle this thing?
Here they come.
That thing is huge.
That is a convoy.
[Todd] I've never seen nothing like this.
What are you calling this thing?
You know, when I first saw it, I thought it looked like an old, like a pirate ship.
I was like, dude, we should call this thing the Black Pearl.
I believe in the Black Pearl. Let's sail that baby to
- a land of treasure. - I love that.
- [Hunter] Go big or go home, you know? - 100 percent.
I think everything should fit, but...
we'll see. Hopefully, uh,
this [bleep] doesn't fall off the truck.
My concern is just this frame.
It's barely gonna make it through the bridge.
It's not a lot of room for error,
so, we'll just go slowly and we'll just kinda keep an eye on it.
I looked it over here. How you guys looking?
So far, so good.
- [Hunter] How's that looking? - [on radio] They got like, eight inches back in.
Yeah, this, I got two, three feet on my side.
I'm really nervous for him right now.
[bleep]
[Cub] My side's got three feet.
We got like, two feet.
Hey, you're about five inches off the uh, outside edge over your...
Wow! That thing is frickin' huge.
That is by far the biggest wash plant
that we've ever had fooled with around.
[Hunter] So far, so good.
I like it. I feel a lot better.
[man on radio] Three more to go.
[Hunter on radio] How're we looking over there?
- [man] Yeah, we got like, three feet inside. See? - [Hunter] Yeah. Okay.
Let's think this up. 20 to 25 feet of trommel.
It's got a lot of time to get beat up.
[Hunter] Isn't going too bad, actually.
Look at the size of the hopper.
[Hunter] There she goes.
Once we get this piece across, then, uh,
I'll be feeling a little bit more confident.
[Todd] Is he in the clearance?
- [Hunter] Yeah, we're good. - [Cub] That's, that's clear. We're in the money.
[Hunter] This is the last piece of the Black Pearl right here.
Money.
We cut everything perfectly. We measured everything and everything went...
how we wanted it to go.
We're gonna keep pushing on to the mine and then, get some excavators
to offload all this stuff, drag it in and then, put it back together.
It's easy to take things apart.
It's not easy to put it back together.
They got their work cut out for 'em.
[Tater] I'm over here checking the sluice runs,
make sure the dirt isn't packing up.
I think everything's working great.
We will win it.
I'm excited.
[Rob] After days of fine-tuning,
The Holy Roller is running paydirt.
Hey, Thurbs. This came out on my hand out of the riffles.
That was stuck to my finger. is that gold?
- Yeah, first piece of gold, dude. - [laughs]
[Rob] And Tater has stumbled into a small, but significant clue
that it's doing the job that it was designed to do.
I think your riffles work.
- First piece of gold. On your hand... - Ah!
- It's your first piece of gold. - [Tater] Look at that.
- The riffle's catching gold. - The hydraulic riffles are catching gold.
Let's run this, let's run this little paydirt.
[Tater] Man, I'm excited.
[Rob] While Todd has Andy in the 650
stacking pay from the ancient river cut...
Little right, little right. Right. There ya go. Come on back.
[Rob] ...Hunter's wash plant has arrived at the mine.
[man on radio] Get it all loaded, get these guys rolling.
Out to make money.
That drum makes that rock truck look small.
[Randy] You know what comes with big trommels?
Big problems.
[Jack] Big gold, sometimes, you know?
It's gonna be interesting, that's for sure.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, what I'm thinking is, me and Dakota will get in excavator.
I'm gonna need the 650. You guys chain and rig it
and once we get it off of his truck,
we'll let him flip around, get outta here, have the next truck come in,
- do the same thing. - Yeah.
[Rob] In order to unload the massive sections of the Black Pearl,
Hunter needs their most powerful excavator, the 650.
It's superior lifting capacity of nearly 70,000 pounds makes it the right tool for the job.
[Rob] But there's a problem. The 650 is busy hauling paydirt to The Holy Roller.
Hey, we need the 650 over here.
You guys said you were gonna bring the 650 over here.
Hunter doesn't quite understand that The Holy Roller comes first.
That is priority one and the 650 is running pay
because this operation needs gold and we need to get paid.
Exactly what I was trying to avoid.
- What is that? 360, 490. - We got 360 and the 490 right there.
I guess, they're giving us those two.
So, me and Dakota are gonna try to get these two excavators in position here.
We're gonna both rig it
and try to lift it at the same time.
Oh, we gotta get these perfect or else, this will be a freakout.
[Cub] How are we doing this?
[Dakota] Grab that chain, we're gonna grab that chain,
I'll grab that chain over there.
[Cub] Just going over the top?
- [Dakota] Yeah, we could hook him up. - [Cub] Are you sure?
[Dakota] Yeah.
What's he doing over there, man?
Hey, Hunter. Come on. That's not how we do it.
Can't do it that way.
I don't really know what the [bleep] he wants.
Let's do it the impossible way.
[Todd] This is heavy equipment that we're dealing with here
and I'm responsible for it
and I don't want anybody getting hurt.
[Todd] Okay. Hold on.
I think we're gonna have to take over this little operation here.
This is the biggest thing we've ever lifted, so...
- This is [bleep] - Listen to me. Knock it off. Be quiet.
Let us handle this piece. You have that block?
Well, this one ain't doing any good. Stick that over there.
[Hunter] You guys said you were gonna bring the 650 here.
- So what? - That was the whole plan in the beginning.
You guys said you were gonna bring it over here and then, you didn't do it.
So, bring the 650 in. We'll hook him up there.
Then, you come over here on this side 'cause I got Andy
driving the 650.
Why don't you just let him pull that side,
- Nope. Nope. - why don't you get on this one?
- You wanna do it? - Yep.
[Todd] Okay, Andy. Bring the 650 in.
Here's the deal.
If you guys make a mistake on this,
not only is it costing these truckers
$250 an hour,
- so that's $750 an hour. - Well, then, how about
when you guys say you were gonna have the 650 over here,
- don't do the opposite of that. - He's gonna run it.
- What do you mean? What're you talking about? - He's running the 650.
You're not gonna run it.
[Andy] We love the guys' enthusiasm and everything,
but this stuff is really dangerous.
When you got stuff this heavy
and your machines are at their max,
sometimes you don't get a second chance.
You make a mistake, you kill somebody, so I know that
they're not very happy that we're here, but...
we've done this for a lot of years.
So, we're just gonna help 'em. It's what's best for them.
We gotta do this right. Otherwise, we're gonna hurt something or, who knows?
It's turning into a big, big nightmare.
You guys have to be careful.
You got that in blocked or is it gonna roll off?
Where is it blocked? Well, I don't want anybody getting hit.
I don't know anything, I guess.
Go, swing over. [bleep] move it.
When he's in a mood like that, he's very dangerous to be around.
Andy's hooked up.
[Hunter] Please don't come unhooked.
Okay, Andy. You call it.
[Andy on radio] Real slow.
Woah, woah!
We gotta get a different plan here.
Come around.
We think we can get that hopper off and get him out of here.
Hopefully, we can lift this.
[Rob] In an effort to create more space for the excavators
to attempt their lift with the trommel,
the heaviest and most crucial section of the Black Pearl,
Todd decides to unload the hopper first.
[Todd] What are you thinking?
- Can we just pick it? - [Jim] Come around this, hook it,
around that, hook it.
- All the four-- - Where? To install?
- Yeah, to install. - Okay.
- Right there through that hole. - Yep.
Dakota, hook that there yourself. There ya go.
It might work!
Everybody, heads up.
- Watch out for those cables. - Hang the bucket in the middle of this.
Chain all four equally. Pick it off.
This is taking like, an hour.
[Rob] The entire weight of the hopper's hefty steel frame rests in the operator's hands.
One wrong move could send it plummeting to the ground,
causing permanent and costly damage.
Truck driver, when we lift up, go forward, okay?
- Get ready. - This [bleep] is funny, man.
Hold on.
Let's stop.
I can't even look at this [bleep].
Everybody, clear.
Now, watch. Watch it spin.
Easy.
[Todd] Hold on. Hang on. Hold on.
[Hunter] Look at this [bleep].
[Hunter] Look how you guys rigged it.
- How're we gonna weld it back together-- - Don't worry about it.
Just get unloaded first.
There you go!
[Hunter] I don't know why they would do it like that.
[bleep] are we doing? Honestly, this is embarrassing.
[Todd] That machine is probably
$500,000, $600,000 bucks.
Maybe $800,000.
They really need to be careful with this equipment.
If something goes wrong, it is not cheap to fix.
There's actually a chance of injury and maybe even,
somebody getting killed out here.
So, I gotta talk to Hunter. I don't want the Black Pearl to jeopardize
the whole operation.
Hey, guys. I think we need to have a talk.
We need to all get on the same page here.
Here's the deal.
The only reason why I wanna step in,
is if it's because of a safety issue.
It's gonna affect the mine
and it's gonna affect your livelihood, yours, yours, and yours.
That's all I'm gonna say about it.
But if we have to step in on anything like that,
just let us do it. Okay?
If one of us didn't come home,
or got hurt,
our mine's gonna get shut down
then it's gonna affect all of us.
It's nothing personal to you, your leadership or anything else.
You guys are the future of this mine.
Not us. We know that.
I just want everybody to come home.
I hear you and...
I'm in the wrong for putting anybody in danger.
I don't know everything.
But my personal opinion,
as a leader,
I feel like you're in the wrong
for not coming in an appropriate manner and showing some guidance.
I feel like you came in and made us all feel like we're stupid.
It makes it feel like you guys don't respect us.
I just feel like everybody should be treated with equal respect.
It's always hard to work with your family
and so, I'm just trying to figure out
the best way to navigate and communicate with my dad, you know?
He's in this season a lot of money,
so, I'm gonna try to keep a cool head,
but at the same time, like, the respect needs to be mutual
and I think I deserve that.
I'm sorry for coming in there and stepping on your guys' toes.
It scared me and it scared Andy.
We could've handled it better.
I have a lot to learn and do better with.
I love you guys. I'm sorry.
Sorry for my part of it.
Mining's hard,
but parenting is, let me tell you, is a hell of a lot harder.
We just wanna complete this mission that we went on,
to get the plant actually here.
I know that you're paying for it, but for us, I would like us to complete the task.
Here's the compromise I'm gonna offer.
I wanna see you guys get this trommel
because we do want you guys to have experience
and we want you to get your plant up and running.
But you use Tater and follow his lead.
Are you willing to do that, Hunter?
I'm willing to do it however you guys would like it.
We're all willing to listen to you guys.
You guys have a lot more experience.
Do you trust us to do it or not?
- I trust you guys to do it. - Okay.
I'm gonna follow your lead.
Okay, we're in agreement.
I'm gonna tell you right now.
You guys will have lifted the biggest piece of equipment that we've ever lifted,
and if you mess up,
it's on you guys.
Tater, you're in charge. What's the plan?
Dakota, you're in the 490.
- You in the 650, Hunter, if you're good with that. - Yep.
- [Todd] Okay. - All right. Let's do this.
[Hunter] I'm open to learning new things
and Tater has a lot of experience in rigging and doing this kind of stuff,
so, try to give us a little bit more of an advantage because
this thing is extremely heavy.
I've put Tater up against anybody in Nome or anywhere else,
as far as operating, this guy's an expert.
Bravo!
[Tater] I'm gonna need another qualified operator.
If you don't mind, we'll get Andy down here.
Get him on the third haul and then, we'll work out the rest of it.
- Okay. - [Tater] All right?
[Tater] Get Andy over here.
Could we get you over here on this third excavator?
- Just being safe. - Yeah.
[Hunter] Plan is, we're gonna get a third excavator on here on that far side
and just try to relieve a little bit of that weight.
All we wanna do is just get it off this trailer so, we can get this thing outta here
and then uh,
at least it's off the truck.
You got two big excavators on there and they're strong so,
now, we're gonna have to use three, but
we've never even moved anything this big.
Nothing's impossible.
[Tater] The excavator's designed to pick low, not up high.
When they were lifting yesterday, they were pointing down.
The way they had it, it no strength, no boom left.
[Rob] In order to help,
the team has built ramps to provide the optimal lifting angle.
What we're trying to do is get it up a little higher.
To be able to have more lift, to pull it,
it should have the power to pick it off like that.
We have a plan now that's gonna work.
Maybe.
Yeah, this is just ridiculous.
- What do you want me to do? - So, we're gonna put you on the other side with the 650.
Yeah, we're just picking straight up.
- [Andy] That'll work. - [Tater] Okay, let me know when you're already.
[man on radio] I'm ready.
- Ready. - [man on radio] Good to go.
I'm ready.
There, there. Everybody out.
All right. Everybody, pick.
Nice and easy.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
Dakota, stay where you're at.
Yeah, yeah, a little more.
I think we're clear.
We're clear.
We're good to do.
Good to go.
[indistinct radio chatter]
What could go wrong? A 50,000-pound drum.
[Tater on radio] Everybody, start going down real easy.
[Todd] If it broke, snapped,
rolled off, it's gonna bend the whole end of the trommel,
and it's over, game over.
Really, really bad.
Hold on.
Stop.
I need you guys to not make fun of Tater.
He's a little sensitive about his head.
My name is Rob, but my nickname is Tater.
I had a really big head as a child, so people called me Big Head.
As I got older, it morphed into Tater.
[Todd] Good job, Tater.
[Tater] I've 30 years of experience at excavation and construction,
mechanic, welding, operator, truck driver.
- And he's good looking. Full package. - [laughs]
It's always been a dream of mine to come up here and do this.
- Yas! - The guy's really cool to work with. He's funny.
I'm gonna another short chain for this.
I'm right here. You don't have to call me short. [laughs]
The best operator I've ever seen.
[Tater] Wouldn't say I'm the best. Wouldn't say I'm the worst.
Truly an expert category. The guy is phenomenal.
[Tater] For every year, you have half a year.
What I hope is that Tater doesn't get any bigger of a head than he already has.
[Todd on radio]
[laughs] I won't.
[Todd] Hold on.
Stop.
Okay, we gotta get some spare weight under it.
We gotta be little gentle with it when we put it down.
Those trommel's got an eight-foot drum, over 50 feet long.
This is one of the biggest trommels I've ever seen.
[Tater] Cut it to all the way down please.
[man] Okay, you guys take it right now.
[Hunter] We gotta just be careful.
We gotta just take everything easy and not get in a hurry.
[Tater] And we're done.
- That's a wrap, my friends. Proud of you guys. - Thank you, Rob.
You guys did an awesome job.
- Thank you. Good job, guys. Sweet. - You did a good job.
We work as a team.
- [Hunter] That thing is heavy. - [Tater laughs]
And I'm just glad that we got it off.
Just we're one step closer.
- Now, we can work on it. - Yep.
[Hunter] Let's get going.
The boys did good. Everybody's safe. Nobody got hurt.
That's what we want.
They got her done. That's what's important.
So, this is dirt that we dug out of the ancient river channel.
Big moment.
Better have some golden box.
Check the bypass. Check the bypass.
Okay. Over, up.
[Todd on radio] Shut the trommel down.
Today is our very first clean-up.
Yeah, we got a few ounces underneath the old plants, but today,
this is big.
This clean-up right here is what matters.
I really want all my gold caught in these hydraulic nugget traps.
- See anything, Tater? - Not yet, but just grabbing big, old handfuls.
[Todd] Here it comes, Framer.
We're just trying to get all
the concentrate out of the hydraulic riffles right now.
[Todd] Look at that gold coming out, guys. Look at that.
- Woah! - What do you got?
[Todd] Look at that honker.
You know what? That's pretty.
- [everyone cheering] - Look at that one.
And, that means, guys, out there in the world right now,
getting nuggets handed to him by a guy named Tater-Tots.
Oh, yeah!
- [Todd] Look at that one. - [Tater] Todd, look at my hand.
Look at this. Look at Tater's hands.
All gold, man.
You think Tater's got gold fever? I think he does, guys.
Putting on little nuggets planted here, fellas.
- Look how much gold is right here. - [Andy] Lot of gold.
[Todd] Popping nuggets left and right.
I think we're just starting something really, really wonderful here
and you know, with all the hard work these guys are putting in,
I'm starting to see nuggets and guys like Framer and Tater,
they're all excited.
I see Andy. He has a smile on his face, you know, and...
I don't know, makes it all worth it.
Lot of gold. Be careful.
Be careful right here.
We've waited a long time for this.
Know what that smells like?
Right there, guys?
Smells like we're starting to win.
We're on the path. I think that we just figured out what this creek,
you know, needed, as far as catching the gold.
But till we get done with the clean-up,
we don't really know how good we did.
I wanna see the clean-up.
[Jack] Oh, my God!
This is very green.
- That's solid gold. - Yeah.
You can poke someone's eye out with those nuggets.
The last time I saw gold like this was back in the '80s.
The ancient river is absolutely a great place to mine.
This is literally
the best stuff we've ever done.
[Jim] It's good-looking stuff.
[Rob] In order to hit their season goal of 1,000 ounces,
the Hoffmans need to average 90 ounces of gold a week.
Let's try and wait, see what Todd's got.
[Todd] All right. Holy Roller's up,
kicking ass it looks like to me.
It's probably a little bit of adjustment,
but this is kinda like I envisioned it.
I think we got the right angle on it and everything.
Yeah, really nice.
All right. Give me an update on the Pearl.
Everything's still in pieces.
But uh, it's just a lot of work, dude.
It's a huge plant. Gotta put the hopper back on. Put the drum back on.
We gotta change out center roller.
So, we're looking at
probably weeks of welding, day in and day out, so...
Hey!
Oh, that's good. He came in with a bottle instead of a little white jar.
The jars are getting a little small. Here we go.
- You ready? - [Todd] Yeah. [clears throat]
- Fill it out now. - Falling it out, I'm not...
Twenty-five.
- Forty. - 40.
- Sixty. - Nice.
Sixty-seven.
Seventy.
Four, five.
There. 76. That's like, $125,000,
$130,000 on our first clean-up.
- Take it. - [Todd laughs] Yeah, I'll take it.
This is beautiful stuff, you know? This is kinda chunky.
So, do you guys give the hydraulic nugget traps
- a clean bill of health and-- - I give your hydraulic riffles a two thumbs up.
[Jack] The only bummer about that we're after 90 ounces. This is only 76.
[Rob] The Holy Roller's first clean-up weighs in at 76 ounces.
The Hoffmans now need 924 more ounces of gold to reach their 1,000-ounce goal.
Now, we need 92 ounces per week.
We're kinda falling back, but we're going forward. That's a lot of gold.
The main thing is that our plant's actually catching gold.
That's what I was worried about, not sending half of it down the creek.
And, we got The Holy Roller back five years. That sucker, it catches the gold.
The 76 ounces is a great start, but we did not get to our weekly goal of 90 ounces.
So, it's a little bit bittersweet, but you know what?
I have faith now in this paydirt.
So, hopefully,
all goes well.
We're gonna turn things around here.
It's a good first step. All right?
Get some sleep, guys. We got a big day tomorrow.
- Okay? - Yep.
See you guys.