This could be the week
where we really decide which plant is better.
[narrator] It's halfway through the season,
and the Hoffmans have only reached
284 ounces of their 1,000 ounce goal...
Nothing good comes easy.
[narrator] ...but with both plants
finally running full tilt...
We got water pumping, baby!
[narrator] ...will the competition
push them towards their goal?
I guarantee you, this thing here
is gonna be hard to beat.
It's game on.
[narrator] But will they push their equipment too hard?
Holy [bleep] .
[Tater] Holy cow. That is not good at all.
[narrator] It's father versus son...
It's gonna be a little bit of a bitter surprise
when they see how much gold we get out of this cleanup.
Whether they can beat us or not, I doubt it.
-[Hunter] Clear! -[narrator] ...and it's all on the line.
[Sparky] Let's get it on, baby!
[Tater] Damn, we're putting the flag up!
You ready?
[Tater] Yeah.
Nice and easy, boss.
Heads up!
[beeping]
Look at that, boys!
[Tater] Looking good!
We're right behind the generator.
-You can see the bolts there, right? -[Todd] Yeah, I see it.
-I'll turn it right on, there. -Okay.
I just don't want it to fall and hit one of you guys.
Oops.
[[Tater] You all ready?
So, now we're in a really precarious position.
Yep, we're [bleeping] .
Hold it, hold it, hold it,
hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.
[Tater on radio]
[Randy laughs exultantly]
-[Tater] Now, that was just hot! -[Randy] Oh, jeez!
[Todd] Our flag is flown for our faith,
our patriotism towards our country,
and we tip our hat
to the people of the armed services.
[Hunter] Let's fly this bitch.
[Sparky] You got it?
What's up, baby?
Here she is, boys.
Money. Oh, dude, that's sick.
[Hunter] Let's hook her up.
We're the bad guys this time.
[Sparky] Okay, this is gonna look sick.
[Hunter] You know, we're using
this old, pirate ship-looking wash plant,
we're here to get treasure,
and this is a good way for me to prove myself
as a gold miner.
I wanted to prove a point.
I wanted to prove, you know, to my dad and to these guys
that we could take this on, and we could do it.
Oh, hey!
[Randy] Oh, they got the Pearl flag up.
[Tater chuckling] Yeah.
The Jolly Roger.
Their flag flies over pirate ships
that go around and steal stuff.
[Cub] That's pretty cool, though.
[Hunter] It does look [bleep] dope, you know?
[Sparky] Yeah, it does look dope.
[Hunter] They're gonna fly their flag,
we're gonna fly ours, and then,
it's game on.
You know what's funny is that was us three one day.
[Tater] Uh-huh.
Full of piss and vinegar.
And then, someday, they'll be standing over here,
and their kids will be
over there smart-mouthing them.
And they'll be like, "Yep." [laughs]
-And that'll be sweet justice. -[chuckles]
I do want to see gold through that plant,
but whether they can beat us or not, I doubt it.
You got two plants, father-son,
running side by side,
so naturally,
there's gonna be a little competition.
Age and treachery
always beats out youth and beauty.
All right, guys!
Are you ready to get it on?
Let's get it on, baby!
Fire it up!
We'll see,
see how much gold we can get here,
'cause I guarantee you,
this thing here is gonna be hard to beat.
Fire up the generator!
This could be the week
where we really decide which plant is better.
This might be kind of fun, this week.
Hopefully, we start hitting some of our gold here,
and we'll see what happens.
[Hunter] Let's fire up.
-All right. Let's do it, man. -[Cub] All right.
[Hunter] My dad's running dirt.
He's weeks ahead of me.
They already have a head start,
so we need to make up for lost time.
So, this is gonna be
the first time we're doing a full day's run.
We're gonna get her fired up, and run until it gets dark.
We just don't really have a choice at this point.
We gotta get the gold, we gotta run the yards,
and my guys are with me.
[over radio] You ready, Sparky?
Yes, sir. I'm ready whenever you are.
[Hunter] Hopefully, I'm gonna be able to catch up,
and start beating these guys.
We're about to get it right now.
Clear!
[engine starts]
We got water pumping, baby!
I've always been competitive.
I played sports growing up.
But there's a lot of times where I could let things go,
and let somebody else
be right, or think that they're right,
but when it comes down to me and my dad,
I got a lot of pent-up stuff inside.
The only reason that this plant is running
is because I needed to prove him wrong.
My dad, Andy, and Tater,
I know that they didn't really think
we were gonna be able to do this
on our own like this,
but me, Sparky, and Cub
are gonna keep plugging away,
and I think we're gonna prove the Black Pearl
is an instrumental piece in us actually getting to our goal,
and I think, in the end, everybody's gonna be happy
that we put in the work we did.
[narrator] With both plants running at full capacity,
Andy and the rest of the crew work to deliver
twice the amount of paydirt from the ancient river cut.
[Andy] Now, it's our job
to go get the gold out of the ground.
That's what we're here to do,
so we're gonna run both plants, some paydirt.
I think we're going in the right direction.
We keep feeling like we're getting closer
to the source of where this gold is coming from.
A lot of this gold is so jagged and rough,
and it doesn't have a smooth edge on it,
so it didn't travel from very far.
It just indicates that you're getting closer
to where it came from,
so the more of that material we got,
the more gold's gonna be in it.
We're just gonna keep digging,
and keep working our way upstream.
One of the first cuts that we did up here,
it was literally
the richest gold pan we'd ever seen.
You could actually make a living
panning for gold here.
[Cub] I'm really excited to see
what kind of gold we can do with the Black Pearl.
We can run a lot of stuff
that the Holy Roller just can't.
Ours was built for this material, custom.
Nome is known for having a lot of clay,
so The Holy Roller,
they can't handle that amount of clay.
Their trommel is like a Slip 'N Slide.
Ours is like a torture chamber,
so it'll beat the crap
out of anything we put in there.
I don't think these old guys know what's coming.
[Andy] We're gonna go back in here.
Dakota and I are scraping this.
I'm slinging it all to Dakota,
and I'm scraping all this bedrock,
and getting it cleaned up,
and we're gonna get it to both plants.
[Hunter] Right now, everything looks good.
I want to keep putting pay into it.
If we have no breakdowns,
we'd have a good idea
of how well this thing's actually working.
I think we'll have some good gold in the box.
[Todd] We ran the Holy Roller eight hours today.
Andy literally was able to bring us
2,000 yards of pay.
Were gonna go ahead and shut down,
and Hunter's gonna go ahead and run into the night.
Go ahead and shut down.
[engine stops]
[on radio] You want to kill the, uh, generator?
[Hunter] My dad, and Andy, and all those guys,
their plant's off, and we're getting gold, man.
Kind of feels nice.
[Sparky on radio] All right, boys,
make this a million dollar night.
[Hunter on radio] Thanks, brother.
I'm seeing it turning and burning,
spin it to win it.
I love it.
[engine starts]
[Todd] I really hope that this thing runs good,
because I want to see them have some payoff.
The payoff will be the gold in the box.
[Hunter] We're behind,
so while things are going right,
we gotta take advantage of it.
We gotta keep jamming pay through it,
so I know we're all tired, we already worked all day,
but we're just gonna keep putting pay into it.
We're gonna take advantage of this,
and we're gonna run all night.
[on radio] How are we looking, Cub?
[Cub] It looks good.
[Sparky] Let's turn the RPOs up a little bit.
[Hunter] Every bucket counts, and I'm hoping that
we can make up for lost time, so we'll see.
Hopefully, at the end of the day,
if the box is full of gold, we'll see what happens.
This is all I wanted, right here, man.
I wanted us to do our plant, our way,
do it ourself, and I wanted me and my little brother
to be able to get gold together.
He's been killing it,
and this is the first time, ever, in a decade,
that we've been able to have this moment
right here, together, so it feels good.
Did you hear me, Hunter?
[Hunter on radio] Honestly, I just wasn't paying attention.
I got carried away talking about how much I love you.
[Cub] I don't really care about how much you love me.
I care about the amount of gold we're gonna get.
That's the right attitude on this team.
Now that this thing's running, I think, uh, it's gonna be
a little bit of a bitter surprise
when they see how much gold we get out of this cleanup.
There's no turning back,
and there's no slowing down, so...
[crunching]
Oh!
What the [bleep] happened?
Sparky!
[Sparky on radio] What the [bleep] ?
[Hunter] What the [bleep] is that?
[Sparky] Oh, no.
[Hunter] It's literally right here.
I wasn't paying attention,
clipped this with the tooth, and put a huge hole in it.
We just got in a hurry, and I made a mistake.
Now I gotta deal with it.
[narrator] After running the Black Pearl for 12 hours,
Hunter has put a costly three-foot-long puncture
in the pipe that feeds the plant.
The Black Pearl needs water to process gold.
It's pumped to the trommel through a long pipe.
Now that the pipe is punctured,
his plant is out of commission till it can be repaired.
Repairing a broken 14-inch polyethylene water pipe is paramount.
Without the water it provides running the Black Pearl,
every day the team is losing
roughly $30,000 in gold sitting idle.
[Todd] Where's that coming from, Hunter?
[Hunter on radio] The main line. It's cracked.
[Todd] Oh, [bleep] .
Let's just undig that thing,
and maybe we gotta cut it, and reweld it.
Thurber, can you come down here
and spot for Jack on this water line?
Please stop calling people over here.
I don't need it right now.
Yeah, well, you're gonna [bleep] my line up, okay?
So you're gonna need a spotter.
[Jack] We can count on it. We'll take care of it.
Plastic and steel don't mix.
It punctured right through it.
He probably didn't even feel it,
but here we are.
We gotta dig it out.
All this we're standing on,
that's all gotta get removed,
so critical time, they lost a whole day.
[Jack] We're on top of it.
If we can get to the pipe,
and then I can dig along the side,
and we'll be all right.
Just an unfortunate accident.
Sometimes, you think if it wasn't for bad luck,
you wouldn't have any luck at all,
but you don't quit.
You don't.
You gotta fix the problem.
That's what we're doing.
We're gonna expose the pipe real nice,
get it all cleaned up, and ready to repair,
and get running again.
[Jim] Ooh, that's a pretty good gouge, there.
[Hunter] It's a huge bummer, it's a huge letdown,
and something I can't fix right away.
I'm gonna have to have Nate
and some guys come in tomorrow and help us patch this thing,
and so, right now, we're dead in the water
right when we got started, and it's frustrating,
but this whole project has taught me
I have to just keep pressing forward,
so we're just gonna stay positive,
and hope for the best.
[narrator] With the Black Pearl down
for the remainder of the day,
Todd must rely solely on the Holy Roller
to hit the weekly target of 102 ounces.
[Todd] The water pipe issue is like, you know,
you gotta live and learn.
I've hit my own fair share of water pipes.
Usually, if something bad's gonna happen,
it happens at night.
Hopefully, we can catch up on what we just lost today.
That's kind of the cool part about having two plants.
I'm at least still heading towards a goal.
But I don't know if we're gonna reach it
without his plant.
[Hunter] Here he is.
Hunter!
-What the [bleep] ? -[Hunter] Yeah.
This was a huge mistake.
It cost me all day's run yesterday,
and half of today.
-You gotta plug it. -[Nate] Oh, that's a good one!
[Hunter] Yeah.
We don't have the fuser machine to fix it,
so I convinced Nate to come all the way back out here.
Let's mark it, and get it cut out.
-Let's get to it, then. -[Hunter] Okay.
Let's see if we can't get you up and running here quick.
We're gonna cut out the bad section, refuse it.
[Nate] There we go. Cut it in half, like that.
Hopefully, in an hour or two, we're gonna be up and running,
and sluicing some more dirt.
[Nate] This is a pretty expensive [bleep] up,
and especially for something that could have been avoided.
There we go.
[narrator] With the pipe cut and cleaned,
it's time for the pipe fusion machine.
[Nate] We had to bring out
a really, really expensive fusion machine.
It's the only one in town that'll do 14-inch.
All right. You ready?
[narrator] This multistep process
starts by loading each side into clamps...
Keep going! A little more!
[narrator] ...and merging them together.
-[Nate] Okay! -[Hunter groans]
And we're just gonna try to work it this way.
[grunting] Okay.
That's pretty good.
[narrator] Then, the cutter is inserted
-to reface each side... -Good.
[narrator] ...so the surfaces are flush when married.
[Nate] Now, I'm adjusting the pressure so it cuts,
and it'll remount the pipe, so we have a flush face
to heat and fuse.
If the pipes are not
perfectly flat with each other,
you'll never get a good fusion.
[narrator] Next, a heating pad,
heated to 500 degrees, melts the 14-inch plastic.
[Nate] Does it say 500? Perfect.
We heat it for six minutes, and then cooling for 12.
[narrator] As it cools,
steady pressure is applied to create a seal
that's just as strong as the original pipe.
[Nate] Beautiful.
-[Cub] Perfect. -[Sparky] Yeah, it's perfect.
Dude, we're gonna be up and running in no time.
We're in a little bit of a hurry.
[Nate] Yep.
It's always something, ain't it.
Yeah.
No kidding.
[Nate] I've been doing this a long time,
and one of the things that's gonna make Hunter successful
is he's not shy to reach out for help,
and get other people's opinion on this stuff,
and that's crucial.
People that know it all are the ones that fail up here.
[Hunter] This was a huge mistake.
Hopefully, we don't do this again.
If we don't hit it again,
we shouldn't have any other issues.
[Nate] I think you guys will kill it here,
once you get it all dialed in.
[Hunter] Okay. We're back online.
-Now you know. -[Hunter] Nate.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
-[Sparky] We're back in the game, baby. Thank you. -All right.
Let's run some dirt.
Yeah.
[Todd on radio] Uh, 10-4.
[Todd] Right now,
we got a limited amount of time,
so once we're both running,
I think we're gonna have a good chance of getting
a pretty good, uh, recovery.
I hope.
[Tater on radio] Hey, Todd. We have a leak.
[bleep] where?
[Tater on radio]
Oh, [bleep] .
[bleep] .
Uh, we've developed a leak while we were feeding.
Looks like the feed line
to our junction box blew a hose.
[Todd on radio] Tater, how bad is it?
Well, the six-inch line
between the two boxes has a split in it.
It's leaking bad.
Well, I don't know if we got any extra. That's the thing.
Hit the bypass. Rinse it off.
[Tater] 10-4.
[narrator] The water line that feeds the junction box
and supplies the water pressure
necessary to run the hydraulic riffles
has sprung a leak.
We're gonna have to shut down to fix it.
Uh, hopefully, we can get it fixed fast.
Anytime we're not running, we're not making any money,
so we're gonna get on this right away.
[narrator] Without a steady feed rate
to the riffles, it won't inject
the necessary five pounds of water pressure
to fluidize the gravel, and flush it from the troughs.
This leads to clogging, which leads to losing gold.
So, we're on some of the best paydirt I've seen.
We just had our biggest cleanup,
and then, of course, we blow a line,
Hunter hits one with his bucket,
I just blow a hose, so this might put us out
another day.
But, like, every day is, like, 30,000 bucks,
so it's frustrating.
-It's leaking over here somewhere? -[Tater] It's leaking a lot.
Yeah. Right in the middle of it, somewhere.
-It was... -[Randy] Dude, that's a brand-new hose.
[Tater] No. We reused this one. See it?
-[Randy] Oh yeah, it's all-- -It's in one of these.
[Randy] Oh, it's all cracked.
-Look at all those cracks. -Yeah.
We have one more... We have a new one, right?
I think we got another one that's laying down
-by the road. Yeah. -[Tater] Yes!
There is one laying there.
Yeah, we can do that,
but we need to get this thing done.
I'll take my truck down, see if I can find it.
Let's get it, let's wrestle it in there,
-let's frigging get fired up again. -Yes. We need to.
We're running out of good days, man.
[Todd] The good thing is, I got a lot of guys,
I got a lot of crap,
and we're just gonna work our way around it.
Like everything else in life, nothing good comes easy.
[Hunter] You ready, Sparky?
[Sparky] Yep, yep!
[narrator] After losing more than a day to fix
their punctured water line,
and with the Holy Roller having problems of its own,
Hunter's ready to do his part,
and keep the Black Pearl productive.
Clear!
I'm firing the Black Pearl.
[beeps]
[engine starts]
Black Pearl's back up and running,
so me and Sparky are gonna get it ripping,
and while they're losing speed,
we'll, uh, start putting some points on the board.
Sparky, bring the water on.
Hopefully, with the yardage
that we can do with this thing,
I'm gonna be able to catch up and get some gold in the box.
[Randy] We're down. We got a six-inch hose that's gone.
Now we're on the hunt for another six-inch hose.
Every hour that we're not running,
we lose $5,000.
There goes a lot of money.
A lot of money.
[Sparky on radio]
[Hunter] Yeah. Go all the way.
All right. I'm all the way.
All right.
Water's coming!
How does the sluice look like?
Cub, does it look like enough?
[Cub] Sluice looks good to me.
[Hunter] Okay, can you guys just keep an eye on it
for the first couple and make sure that everything holds good.
[Cub] Roger.
[Cub] We're finally up and running
after we got our pipe fixed. Feels really good.
And, uh...
...yesterday, when we found out that we had a leak,
a couple of the guys on the other team
gave out some, you know, kinda snarky little comments.
So that was pretty upsetting,
but, uh,
today, just before we fire up,
they find out they have a leak.
And so I just said, "It's an accident, things happen."
But in the back of my head, I'm like, "Yep, karma."
[Sparky] Not backing up, we are doing good.
Everything checks off.
Everything's running great.
Water's running, pump's running,
engine's looking good.
So I think... Think we're pretty good right now.
[Randy] We're down, we got a six-inch hose that's gone.
So I think
it's gonna be long enough.
If this is long enough, score!
It is the very last of our brand new hose.
You got the rattle gun, everything?
I gotta go get a battery and then the rattle gun.
[Tater] Perfect, all right, I'll get it down there.
-All right, I'll meet you down there. -I'll get the couplers off.
Oh, we are so lucky right now
that we have a piece of brand new hose.
This piece of hose got flown in
with a 100-foot roll to put our plant together.
Luckily, there's some leftover,
just enough to fix this
and hopefully get running here in the next hour.
I'll see you back down there!
[narrator] If the replacement hose doesn't fit,
and fails to stop the leak,
there is no plan B.
The Holy Roller and their goal of 102 ounces this week
will be in jeopardy.
It's long enough.
[Randy] You're a freaking animal.
For the first time, the Pearl is running, and we're broke down.
So we want to get this hose off,
get the new hose on as quick as possible
'cause we got a goal to meet.
[Tater] Let me see if I can drive it out like we drove it in.
-[Randy] Okay. -[Tater grunts]
Next end.
[narrator] Although the leak they've set out to fix
originated with a hole in the hose,
the greatest probability of a leak in the replacement line
are the couplings they must install
at each end of their new hose.
[Tater] Give her a little love.
All right,
to the next end.
[Randy] One to go.
[Tater] Hey, Todd, do you have a copy? Todd?
[Todd over radio] Yeah, Tater?
10 minutes, this your 10-minute warning.
[Todd speaking over radio]
Okay, we're actually gonna be back up in business,
which is actually kinda rare around here.
It's looking like we're actually gonna do okay on this one.
[Tater] All right.
[narrator] The aluminum couplings are designed
to maintain a watertight seal that can withstand
75 pounds of pressure per square inch.
[Tater] Okay.
Todd, we're gonna go head and fire the water back up,
make sure she don't leak, but I think we're good to go.
[Todd over radio] Perfect. Thank you, man.
Yee-haw.
Who said old guys weren't good at stuff?
As soon as Randy turns on the pump,
we'll find out if it leaks, and if it isn't,
we're gonna start throwing dirt at this thing.
Hey, Randy, I'm gonna need a wrench.
[Randy speaking over radio]
[Tater] Nah, leave it running.
Let me, uh, see what it's gonna take to get it to stop.
[Randy speaking over radio]
[Tater] Yeah, just give it to her.
Damn it! It's still leaking out.
I'm gonna have to redo this, shut it off.
Holy cow, that is not good at all!
10-4, just let me know if I can speed up or slow down.
Roger.
[Hunter] Okay, the Black Pearl's up and running.
We had some down time 'cause of our water line.
Lost a day and some change,
but now, the Holy Roller's down,
so they won't run until they get that thing fixed,
and out here, pipe and fittings
and things like that are hard to come by.
That's why it literally was, like, a crazy scavenger hunt
to even get my plant running.
I have fittings on here that are literally cracked in half.
We have no other choice but to use them, so...
For everybody's sake, I hope they get it running,
but for our team's sake...
...it's kinda nice to be out here running solo.
Me and the guys can start getting some of our own cleanups
and get some points on the board.
[sighs]
Grab that one right there.
I think this is the other side.
-Yeah. -[Randy] Look at there.
-Now all we gotta do is slide it on, right? -Is that the right one?
-Yeah. -This is the wrong one I think.
-Nope. -[Tater] This is the wrong one.
-That's the right one. -[Randy] Yeah, the right one.
[Todd] We got tons of great pay dirt,
I don't know,
it's... It's aggravating.
One little hose like that,
and out here in the middle of freaking nowhere...
...it's not good, might as well be
in Antarctica, it's, like, hard.
I might even have to fly this stupid hose into this town, I don't know.
[Tater] So we had the wrong clamp.
[Randy] Dude, I'm sweating.
[Tater] All right, now hopefully, this is the right clamp.
We're gonna find out right now.
Even when you have the parts a little fixed,
like, a leak like this,
it can cost you thousands of dollars.
If you're doing
a hundred yards an hour, and it's two ounces a hundred,
and you're down two hours, that's four ounces of gold
and depending on the price, that could be a lot of money.
Water lines have been... Are becoming a major issue.
You haven't dropped anything on them,
and all the sudden, they just blow a hole.
Just the pressure I guess, but...
...we just don't have a lot of time.
That's the problem.
[Tater] Hey, Randy, do you have a copy?
[Randy] Yeah, go ahead.
[Tater] Rev it up, let's see what it does.
All right, here we go.
I'm gonna bring it up to about
1,200.
[Tater speaking]
I'm gonna bring it up to about 1,200.
[Tater speaking over radio]
[narrator] Three hours into replacing
the burst water hose that shut down the Holy Roller...
...and one failed attempt at a fix...
...frustration is rising as their losses mount.
[sighing]
It is, like, $30,000,
it's, like, literally 30-grand, 40-grand,
50-grand in a day.
So hopefully, I can get a fix,
get it back going again
[Tater] We can run, we're good to go.
[Randy] All right!
[Tater] We got lucky this time,
we had the parts for this fix on-site,
which now we're out of hose.
Uh, next time could be worse. We could be waiting days.
Hey, Todd, I'm going to, uh, kick the bypasses off
and, uh, get you fired up, buddy.
[Todd] Okay, firing up.
All clear?
Fire this thing up.
Come on, baby.
[exclaims]
All right, that's it!
We're back and running.
[Todd] We're back in business.
Hopefully, we can catch up on what we lost today.
[narrator] After water-line failures
put the Black Pearl and the Holy Roller out of commission,
both plants are finally back to work.
[Sparky] Yeah, buddy!
It looks really good, man.
[narrator] And with just a day to go
before mats are pulled, it's all hands on deck
to get as many yards through the plants as possible.
[Randy] Let's go, baby!
10-4.
* Don't mind me Don't mind if I do *
* 'Cause you know I do it better than you *
* Tell me, can you keep up with me? *
[Todd] This whole thing has to work together like a clock.
You have Andy hunting the pay dirt.
Then the trucks haul the pay dirt to the plant.
We run it through the plant,
so every organism is important.
[Todd speaking over radio]
This'll be my 10th of the day.
* Tell me, can you keep up with me? *
[Todd] Seems like mining, you lose a lot,
but today, this is a win.
I feel so amazing right now
because Black Pearl's up and running.
[laughing] I'm freaking happy, dude.
Man, it was not easy getting to this point.
We're gonna keep our head up high,
our worries down low,
and we're gonna see if this box
is actually catching something.
[Jim] The boys, it's kind of cool,
they're doing their first cleanup.
-You remember ours? -[Jack] Oh, yeah.
-Very well. -[Jim] I mean,
they've learned a lot from watching us,
they know what not to do because we did it.
-[laughs] -[Jack] Yeah, we did all the bad things, you know.
We've made as many mistakes as you can possibly make.
What do you think it's gonna do?
[Jim sighing] Yeah, I don't know.
We'll see.
-It'll be exciting. -[Jack laughs]
We'll find out, huh.
[Sparky] The man, the myth, the beautiful mustache.
After we shut down, we're gonna get this cleanup in action.
Start cleaning the carpets
and see if Todd's gamble is really worth it.
Visually, we're seeing gold.
I think this thing is a gold goblin,
but we don't know until we do this cleanup.
And we're both running the same ancient riverbed dirt.
This might even be better at catching gold.
Shut it down!
[Hunter speaking]
[Sparky] Dude, I'm ready to see this box though.
-[Hunter] Should look good. -[Sparky] I think it's gonna look spanking.
[Jack] You know, I'm excited.
-[Hunter] Here, look at this. -[Sparky] Dude, look at this.
-Grandpa. -[Sparky] Look at this, grandpa, look at this.
[Jack] Seeing it there, I see it there. Yeah.
-[Hunter] Look right here. -[Sparky] That is sh-loaded.
[Jack] That's big chunks, that's a lot of freaking gold, man.
-[Sparky laughs] -[Hunter] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm excited for this cleanup now.
-[Hunter laughs] -Holy crap.
[Hunter] Yup, it's working good.
-See, look at this whole side. -[Jack] Oh, yeah.
-[Hunter] Look at that. -I'm glad your guys' goes to our total too.
-[Hunter] Yeah. -[Sparky] Oh, yeah.
-[laughing] -Dude, this is awesome.
Looking really good, Hunter.
[Sparky] This is all the hard work
shown right in the palm of your hands.
We did it, Sparky, you like that?
I love it. I could eat that, dude.
[Hunter] We really needed to see this, I needed to see some gold.
Sparky needed it, Cub needed it,
you know, Black Pearl flag's flying.
I got everybody I love here,
and, uh, my sluice box is packed full of gold.
-Okay, come on. -[Jack] I'm happy for you.
-[laughing] -[Hunter] Come on.
-Come on. -Give me a hug, come on.
It's a good feeling.
We got to prove to Todd that this plant can catch gold.
I think ours is in the money, but we're gonna find out.
-Yeah, yeah. -[Jim] You guys ready?
-Hell yeah. -Ready, I'm ready, show it.
[exclaiming] Dude!
We pulled the box, it looked really good to me.
But I'm curious to see, you just don't know
until you get it to the gold room.
Sometimes you think it's good, and it's not,
so we're just gonna keep going, hope for the best.
Whoa.
This is crazy.
It's my birthday.
My birthday corn dog.
[Andy speaking over radio]
[Todd speaking over radio]
[Cub] [bleep] sucks . [laughs]
I will never ever spend another 21st birthday mining again.
I'll also never spend it anywhere else either, so...
...hopefully, we get enough gold to actually make it worth it.
[Andy speaking over radio]
What were you guys doing on your 21st birthday?
[Todd speaking over radio]
Pretty cool.
Way cooler than mine.
Guys, uh, I'm seeing a lot of gold over here.
Look at all that just stacked in there.
It's all back here.
It's actually right there too.
That's literally a solid pile of gold in there.
-Look at that. -Mmm-hmm.
That right there and this right here is always a sweet spot.
Right there and right there.
[Todd] The box is looking promising,
but with the Black Pearl and the Holy Roller
both going down this week,
I don't know if we're gonna hit that 102-ounce goal.
I think your hydraulics are full.
Look at this guys, come here.
Look at that.
It's coming out right here.
[Jack] Yep, they're full.
[Todd] Look right here.
[Jack] We have never had them that full.
-[Todd] Look at this. -[Jack] Yep.
I am confident though that we are going to beat the Black Pearl.
[Jack] All right, man.
[laughs] Whew!
I never get sick of staring into this thing.
No?
-[Todd] No. -'Cause it always has gold.
-[Jack laughing] -Unless there's no gold,
-when I see gold, I'm good. -[Jack] Yeah.
[narrator] For the first time in their mining career,
Todd and Hunter Hoffman will each have a cleanup
from their own wash plant.
Dude, first gold for the Black Pearl, pretty exciting.
Did you see a lot in the box?
[Sparky] Yeah, it was shining back,
chunky and some nuggets.
I mean, I could tell that the sluice box is catching good gold.
-So it's working. -[Sparky] Uh-huh.
-That's good. -[Hunter] Hopefully, our little bit helps
because of my whole water line screw up.
[Jim] Ooh, that's a pretty good gouge there.
Learning curve.
You got it fixed quick,
and you got it up and rolling,
and we're getting gold.
First gold in the box, it's a good feeling, huh?
I'm hoping that even though we didn't run very long,
I'm hoping that we finally get over our gold weekly average
that we can't seem to hit.
How's our water to hose? We have one leak, right?
Kinda concerned with the hoses.
Hopefully, they hold out for the season,
but time will tell.
I'm thankful for how simple our wash plant is,
looking over your guys' set up.
You guys have a lot of different hoses going on,
I just hope everything was, you know, set up properly
and that you guys don't have any more leaks.
Yeah.
[Sparky] Uh-oh.
-Whoa. -[Sparky] Double trouble.
Love it, dad, where'd you get the black bottle? That's cool.
-That's what we're doing, huh? -[Sparky] Black one, man.
-[Jim] Black pearl, baby. -[Andy] All right, I like it.
-I like it. -[Sparky] I like that.
[Todd] I like the black bottle.
Okay, where are we, Thurb, total?
We're at 285,
and we're at $485,000, almost half a million.
-Wow. -[Jim] Yeah.
We're supposed to get to $1.6 million, $1.7 million.
Hopefully, two plants,
that's gonna push us over our goal
of 102 ounces this week.
I say
pour the Black Pearl first,
-go for it. -[Jim] Okay.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20,
21...
...21.4, boys.
[Todd] Wow.
From what happened, that's actually more than I thought.
It's not actually what you guys probably wanted,
but that's actually... That's not bad for a start.
My first whole season, we had 16 ounces,
the total.
That's your first cleanup.
Just to put it in perspective,
we've done worse. So...
All right, dad. Holy Roller, baby.
See what we got.
All right.
Please don't put a smaller tray on there.
[Andy] Look at the nuggets.
Oh, look at that chunk.
-[Andy] 20... -Big nuggets, lots of nuggets.
[Jack] 20.
...30...
...40...
...50...
Come on.
[Andy] ...60...
-...65. -[Todd] God, just right...
65.
65, 21, 86...
...$150,000-ish.
Running out of time now, we're getting farther behind.
[narrator] The Black Pearl's first cleanup comes in at just over 21 ounces.
while the Holy Roller finishes the week with 65
for a combined total of 86 ounces,
nearly halfway through the season,
the Hoffmans' 371 ounces is well below half their goal.
They'll need nearly 630 more ounces
to hit their 1,000 ounce goal.
Where does this put us with this?
We need to get 104 ounces per week.
But with the two plants,
-we got Black Pearl in the mix... -Yeah.
...[Jim] don't get complacent, keep going.
We're gonna make it.
[Hunter] I feel good 'cause, like,
getting to this point took me to the brink,
mentally, physically, emotionally, everything.
So it's finally paying off, and it makes me feel good.
Everything's coming together, and we're finally getting rewarded.
Okay, we got a big week ahead.
We'll stay in communication, see how it goes.
All right, let's get to work.
All right.