All right, guys, you ready to get it on?
Let's get it on, baby.
Game on.
[narrator] Over a halfway through the season,
the Black Pearl and the Holy Roller
have pulled in 371 ounces combined,
far short of their 1000-ounce goal.
Running out of time now, we're getting farther behind.
[narrator] Now, with paydirt running critically low...
That big girl needs some frickin' paydirt.
[narrator] ...the battle of the plants enters a new phase.
I'm just trying to find an area where I can do my own cut.
[narrator] As Todd and Hunter each scramble to mine fresh ground...
[Todd]
We're getting there, buddy.
[narrator] ...the team Holy Roller is forced to change gears...
Gosh, dang it.
Something's not right.
[narrator] ...when their dozer goes down for the count.
Crap.
We lose this Cat, we're done.
[narrator] Will Todd and his team be able to rally?
Without mining, there's no point of being here.
[narrator] Or will Hunter take all the gold and glory?
[Hunter] Whoa, dude!
It looks insane.
Keep it coming, Cub, just like that.
[narrator] After six weeks, both the Black Pearl
and Holy Roller's breakdowns are behind them,
and both are now fully operational.
But with the plants each turning through 200 yards
of ancient river bed paydirt an hour,
a new issue is on the horizon.
Their stockpile is critically low.
[Todd] Without paydirt, we're dead.
Without pay dirt, none of these plants are running.
We're basically gonna pack up our stuff,
and none of these guys are gonna take any gold with them.
[narrator] In two short weeks, the team has exhausted the ancient river bed,
leaving only a few thousand yards of paydirt left to process.
Maybe we have total, together,
a week's worth of pay.
We need paydirt on a rich piece of ground.
[narrator] In order to keep the mine running
and hit their 104-ounce goal,
both plants must be fed.
With the ancient river bed nearly tapped,
the hunt for new paydirt begins.
[Todd] It's a huge gamble coming off of that ancient river channel,
but you know what? Do the math.
I need pay dirt and I need it right now.
[narrator] With each passing week,
the Hoffmans' 1000-ounce season goal
slips further and further out of reach.
[Todd] Andy and I are putting our heads together.
We're just trying to figure out the path through this problem.
[narrator] They haven't hit their weekly target once so far,
only adding to the following weekly goal.
'Kay, I'm dropping dirt right now.
Drop it like it's hot, baby.
[narrator] It's a losing streak they hope new paydirt
will help them overcome.
[Hunter] We need all the dirt that we can get.
So, we're gonna find some new paydirt
and try to locate a new, a new cut for us.
Pearl is hungry.
That big girl needs some frickin' paydirt.
[narrator] While the stock pile of
ancient river bed paydirt grows smaller,
Andy and Thurber begin scouting a potential new cut
for the Holy Roller.
-[Thurber] Hey, Andy. -[Andy] Hey, Buddy.
-So, I peeled a bunch of this stuff off. -[Thurber] Yeah.
[Andy] And the old-timers were in here working,
which, they always left gold.
But I dug a hole right here.
It's got that, all that red stuff in it.
-[Thurber] Yup. -And I'm almost positive that red stuff's really good.
Yeah, look at it. It's got a lot of ore in it. It's all rust.
[narrator] The presence of iron ore,
and the distinct change in soil color that Andy has discovered
is a geological indicator that a high gold concentration
is very likely present.
More often than not, iron-rich environments
are also gold-bearing areas as well.
What are you gonna call this place if it's...
...pans out?
The Narrows of Dahl.
[Thurber] The Narrows of Dahl.
It almost sounds romantic.
[Andy] Well, you're here, it's romantic.
So, this spot in Dahl Creek, is a very special place
because it's the lowest point that the gold can travel.
And it's where Dahl Creek gets the narrowest.
So, when there's a flood, or a rain, every bit of gold that's above us,
has to come through this point right here.
-[Thurber] I'll go pan this real quick. -[Andy] Okay.
So, we pan every, uh, spot where we might...
...get pay.
You know, and it's just a small, small test
compared to running a bucket from the excavator.
To save time panning...
...I classify it down really quick.
I'll use a 3H mesh, half-inch mesh.
Get rid of the big rocks.
I'll, uh, make sure that we don't have a big nugget,
which I'll probably faint the day that ever happens.
But, uh, then screen it down to where I can pan it.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh. You have got to be [bleep] me.
You got a lot of fine gold...
...in here.
And you have obviously a lot of bigger gold.
So...
...pretty cool.
What's neat about it is there's all this fine gold with it.
Better than we ever had in the Yukon.
I never get tired of saying it,
but it, uh, that's one of the best gold pans I've ever seen.
You're gonna find big gold in here.
[narrator] While Thurber and Andy take stock
of the Holy Roller's promising new cut at the Narrows of Dahl,
Hunter heads north of the mine with geologist Jeff Keener
in a search for fresh paydirt to feed the Black Pearl.
[Keener] Most of those piles are tailings.
-[Hunter] Yeah. -[Keener] They, they were pulled up
with a Bagley scraper.
Nobody knows this property like Keener.
You know, he's been doing test holes and trenches
in this before I was even born.
So, he's gonna be my best bet to pin point
where the best gold would be.
And then we'll figure out where's the best place for me to break ground.
The reason I wanted to have you come out here
is 'cause I'm just trying to find an area where I can do my own cut.
And I wanted to start heading towards Atlas Creek.
-[Keener] Yeah. -We know it's super rich up that way,
so I just figure head towards where we know it's good.
[Keener] We've got the prospect map.
I only went up a very short distance up Quartz Creek
and to be honest, my results weren't that good.
I think the best ground that you're gonna find
on this part of the Quartz Creek drainage
is at the mouth of North Fork
and then up on Atlas Creek.
Gotta keep in mind that drilling
-is not a perfect science. -[Hunter] Yeah.
-Yeah. -[Jeff] We collect samples.
We process 'em, come up with a grade,
and then plot it on a map and then try to figure out
-well, what's it really trying to tell us. -Yeah.
And so, if I can find an area that has a number of good results...
-Mmm-hmm. -[Keener]...then I'll focus on that.
-If you were 23... -Yeah.
...and you got a giant Trommel that could eat through clay...
...where, where would you go?
[Keener] It's gonna be on North Fork here.
There are old workings in there that were probably worked by hand
back, you know, gold rush era.
And they have not been re-worked.
And so, that's actually really easy mining,
'cause there's just about two or three feet of mud that's gonna come in.
You take that off,
and then you mine the next three or four feet
of gravel and bedrock.
-Yeah. -And so they did a little bit of the work for you?
Yeah, they did a lot of the work for you.
[Hunter] Okay.
Is any of that stuff thawed?
Were, they were old-timers working?
In the old workings, yeah, that's all thawed.
Wow.
The Black Pearl is gonna give us an advantage
just because it's custom-built for this kind of terrain.
There's a lot of clay, and there's a lot of stuff
that you really need to break up inside the Trommel,
and, uh, it's a little bit different than the Holy Roller.
You know, we custom built the Holy Roller
for Colorado where we had a lot of rock,
and this, uh, terrain's kinda the opposite of that, so...
I feel like we're at a little bit of an advantage.
At least I know I can get to it,
and it has potential to be really good ground.
-Right. -Okay.
I appreciate it.
Let's get out of here.
[narrator] While Hunter finds new ground in North Fork...
...Todd is closing in on his own new cut at the Narrows of Dahl.
So this came from what Andy calls The Narrows of Dahl,
Okay, that's where it all...
-[Thurber] Super narrow. -Right past the Z-plant was...
-[Thurber] Yeah. -[Todd] ...and right narrows up the canyon?
Yup. Well, I counted up to 20 of the really fine,
-but then there's that. -Oh, look at those.
One of the best pans I've ever seen.
You know what, dude, we're gonna go for it.
We're gonna run that stuff.
Pretty good, I love it.
Okay.
All right.
You know what? It's a good test.
Then we know there's gold in this little bit of dirt,
so why not run this stuff?
That's what we're doing.
[narrator] With Todd's green light
and a waning pay dirt stock pile,
Andy wastes no time ripping new dirt from The Narrows of Dahl.
We're gonna drop the ripper, do our first rip.
Here we go!
We're just about out of paydirt.
So, this couldn't come at a better time.
I literally have maybe five days,
but things can change quick.
Rip it nice.
[Todd]
We're getting her, buddy.
First rip of the year.
Exciting.
[narrator] Before Andy can begin delivering paydirt to the Holy Roller,
he must first expose it through a process they call ripping,
where the rough top layer of growth
is scraped away to reveal soil they hope is rich in gold.
We're needy right now.
We gotta take whatever we can get.
Anything that's got gold in it,
I'm running it through The Holy Roller.
I gotta get every speck of gold...
...and try to keep from going broke.
And hopefully, in the meantime,
we hit the motherload. You never know.
Dude, we're gonna need a lot of paydirt for The Holy Roller.
Okay, bud?
Get me as much as you can.
[Andy] It's all just clay, just mud basically.
What the heck is going on?
Something's not right.
It's not going into gear right.
There's just one challenge after another.
Crap.
Gosh, dang it.
[Andy] Something's not right.
It's not going into gear right.
Crap.
[narrator] At the Narrows of Dahl creek...
Son of a gun.
[narrator] ...Andy's first cut of the clay-rich top soil
has stopped their bulldozer in its tracks.
[Andy] Todd, Randy, do you guys copy?
[Randy] Yeah, go for Randy.
[Andy] Hey, this pan is, uh...
...it's making a whining noise.
And it's not going into gear right.
I don't know what's wrong.
You got time to come down here?
[Randy] Yeah, I'll be right there.
Hopefully it's just a simple little fix.
[narrator] As long as the bulldozer sits dormant,
Andy and the team are stuck without a way to resupply
their shrinking paydirt stock pile.
[Andy] We lose this Cat, we're done.
We got an issue here, bud.
We can't get this pay out.
[Randy] What happened?
Every time you shift...
...it, it just, like, it gets tighter and tighter.
But there's whining noise that wasn't there before.
[Randy] Noises aren't good in a transmission.
Dude...
...we've got a big issue going on here.
How long do I have?
The sooner the better.
I say top priority, man,
grab your gages and then give us a, uh,
diagnosis as soon as you can.
-[Andy] All right, will do. -Okay, bud?
-[Andy] All right. -All right, man.
Thanks, guys.
[narrator] In order to get paydirt moving to the plants again,
Randy must fix the dozer's transmission.
[Randy] There's nothing about a dozer that's ever easy it seems like.
And Andy normally parks them in really good spots.
Top of a glacier.
All right.
Now that we got that connected...
...we can go ahead and start the dozer...
...and, uh, figure out what our pressure is.
We'll see what we get.
We need 430 PSI of pressure for a normal transmission.
Problem is, I don't think it's gonna get it.
We've only got 20 PSI.
That's why it's not going into gage.
The clutches aren't collapsing and engaging.
Now we've got a busted transmission.
Now I gotta go tell Todd some bad news.
-Hey. -[Todd] Dude.
Give us the bad news.
Took a sample of that oil.
Smell it.
It smells like friction material.
That means it's got metal in it.
All of the clutches are gone in that transmission.
[narrator] The clutch is a series of rotating mechanical disks
that link the engine to the transmission
and allow the gears to shift.
When engaged, hydraulics press them together,
locking the transmission and drive line,
letting the motor and drive wheels rotate at the same speed.
Over time, friction can degrade the clutch
and prohibit the gears from locking in place.
[Randy] That's why the fluid pressure's so low.
We've got no clamping power to keep those gears moving.
There's nothing in there that's of any value.
That transmission is junk.
That oil's supposed to be clear.
We gotta get another transmission.
I need a good used one or a new one.
-[Todd] Okay. -Or a re-manufactured transmission.
All right, if I can find one,
you're gonna have to put it in,
and you got maybe 24 hours to put it in.
Can you try to get it up to the shop?
It, can you bring it up?
Is it still moving?
It was still moving when I shut it down.
I'll try to limp it up to the shop.
Get it to the shop, you rip it open,
and everybody say a prayer, right?
-Okay. -All right, let's go.
Sup?
How you doing?
[clears throat]
So, I had Keener come out...
...'cause I wanted to just pick his brain...
-Wow. -[Hunter]...on any other areas that we could mine.
So, you talked to Keener?
Mmm-hmm.
Yeah.
You know, nobody knows this property like he does.
Okay, what did he say?
[Hunter] So...
We went out towards North Fork area,
'cause to me, that's the closest area towards Atlas Creek...
...that has a road to it.
I asked him, "Where would you go?"
He said that's where he would go if he was me.
So, that's kinda where I wanna do my first real cut for the Black Pearl.
Well, that clay in there is gonna make hard to run,
but actually the Black Pearl might be designed for that stuff, so...
I think if the Black Pearl didn't run it, we might not run it at all this season.
-[Todd] Wow. -And I think we need all the pay we can get.
Well, when you're ready,
we'll get the trucks in there and start hauling it.
All right, all right, Bub.
It's surprising that he met with Keener on his own,
but you know what? That's the next move I would make.
North Fork, I actually think is pretty good pay.
But it's got so much dirt and clay in it,
it's gonna take something like the Black Pearl
to even get it to process.
I dunno.
He might just actually be on to something here.
[Jack] Hey, Todd.
We got the trannie for the D10,
and we're heading up the hill.
Okay, 10-4.
So, I sent my dad and Thurber to town
to pick up this transmission.
We gotta get this thing off the truck,
and we gotta get it put on, inside this D10.
And we don't have a lot of time to do it.
-Come on, come on, come on. -Sweet, sweet looking.
Right about right there. That's good.
Randy, unhook this thing.
[Jim] Uh, I can't believe you found this.
Go ahead and, and unbolt this thing.
-[Jim] Yeah. -Uh, we're gonna go ahead
and lift it out, and then we're gonna hopefully
-do a quick switch. -[groans]
That sucker is heavy.
It's about 2,800 pounds or something like that.
Oh.
Whoa.
-Okay, whoa. -How in the world...
-No wonder it was so heavy. -[Randy] Holy.
The transmission actually sits on a roller inside the body,
and you just roll it out, and pick it out.
Let us know if you have any issues.
Do you need any help? What do we need?
[Randy] I'm gonna need some help.
-Okay. -Can I get maybe Tater to help me?
[Todd] Want you to have Tater. You guys attack it.
The faster the better, but, hey,
do not screw this up, that's $40,000 in this box.
You know, Todd, I can't believe
you pulled a rabbit out of the hat again.
Yeah, it's a $40,000 rabbit, Dad.
Yeah, but without it, there wouldn't be a season.
We're, we'd be done right now.
We need this thing in, quick.
I don't want any mistakes though, man.
You ever put something together from Ikea,
and you get done and you have extra parts?
-[Randy] All the time. -You can't do that on this.
-And do you think we'll get through the season with this? -Yes.
All the way.
Without paydirt, boys, we're done.
All right, let's get on it.
[narrator] Before the transmission can be swapped out,
Randy and Tater need to unhook it from the drive line.
And the only way to access it is through the belly pan, beneath the dozer.
Well, we're gonna have to drop that belly pan...
...uh, drive line.
Drain the oil.
Drain the 50 gallons of oil, I don't know.
-Quick buckets. -You got a 50-gallon pan?
-[Tater] Yeah. -Just slide a small 50-gallon pan in there.
It'll be quick buckets.
[Randy] Yes.
Quick buckets.
We're gonna strap a chain from, uh, this link
down underneath the dozer up to the link on the other side.
[Tater] We're tightening this thing up
so that when I take the bolts out of the belly pan,
I don't get killed.
'Cause these belly pans are extremely heavy.
It's probably in the 2000-pound range
right now with all the dirt in it.
We're doing this in order to keep the production up,
'cause we need to get stripping.
And this machine is what we strip with, so...
...we gotta get this done.
All right, you ready for this?
[Tater] It's starting to smell.
It...I'm ready whenever you are.
-Okay. -[Randy] Here.
This one might be a little long,
you're gonna have to grab it on the other side.
And then you're gonna have to hook it up top.
-Copy that? -[Randy] Got it.
Okay.
-[Tater] Real long. -[Randy] You're through the eyelet?
[Tater] Oh, yeah.
-[Randy] You are? -[Tater] You got lots of room.
Liking it?
[Tater] Yeah.
We have the belly pan strapped up.
We're gonna remove the bolts out of it,
and, uh, try to let it down carefully as we can,
get at the drive line for this transmission.
[Randy] Coming at you.
[Tater] All right, clear.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
[Randy] Belly pans are known as widow makers.
[Tater] I'm gonna get a little closer to it.
If you make a mistake, and you just zip the bolts off,
they smack down and kill people.
[Tater] Dang it, I can't see it.
[bleep]
[Randy] Belly pans are known as widow makers.
[Tater] I'm gonna get a little closer to it.
If you make a mistake and you just zip the bolts off,
they smack down and kill people.
[Tater] Dang it, I can't see it.
[bleep]
We're patching over it.
That one's...
-...is it coming loose or is it spinning? -[Tater] No.
-Just spinning. -[bleep]
[Tater] Just spinning.
When taking off this belly pan,
I ran into a bolt that won't come off.
I have to cut the head off.
It's costing us gold because we can't strip.
Without stripping, we can't mine,
and without mining, there's no point of being here.
You're up, boss.
I'm clear.
Okay, coming down.
-Nice and controlled. -[Tater] Yup.
Keep her coming, you're looking good, Randy.
[Randy] It's what my wife says.
[Tater] I'm gonna have to ask her about that, if that's true.
Okay.
Wow.
Not as bad with the dirt as I thought it was gonna be,
but it's still pretty bad.
[Randy] That's it.
[Tater] All right, belly pan's down.
We're making progress, but unfortunately,
we've only got 24 hours to get this done,
and it's taking way too long just to get this stupid belly pan off.
Now that we got the bolt cut, the pan's down,
we gotta get this guard off, get the drive line off,
and then we gotta get that thing out of there.
What's sitting there?
-[Tater] What? -[Randy] What is that?
That's the yoke out of the front of the transmission.
[Randy] Okay, so the drive line's off?
The drive line's laying up here.
[Randy] Oh, nice.
There you go.
-[Randy sighs] -[Tater] Okay.
[narrator] With Todd's crew scrambling to replace their dozer's transmission...
...Hunter and his crew are taking advantage of the last dozer standing
to scratch a fresh cut on North Fork.
[Hunter] Hoping that it's a little bit hotter
than the last stuff we were running.
If this doesn't work out, uh, I don't really have a plan B.
I don't have another area I can go to.
You know, the Holy Roller has already eaten through so much pay,
and, uh, I don't want us to be stepping on each other's toes.
So, we'll see.
[narrator] Although Hunter's found his new paydirt...
...it's only enough to keep one plant running.
[Dakota] It's a lot to keep up with to have two plants going.
All we can do is just try and stack the yardage up the best we can now.
[narrator] With no paydirt coming out of the Narrows of Dahl,
the Black Pearl and Holy Roller
are eating through paydirt faster than it can be resupplied.
[Cub] It's been a real struggle with the paydirt.
it takes two trucks just to keep up with the wash plant,
'cause it's just so far.
It's, like, 15 minutes for me to even take material there and come back.
[narrator] The remaining stockpile will only keep
the plants fed for another day or two.
Without new material from the Narrows of Dahl cut,
the mine may be forced to shut down.
[Tater] I don't think this is gonna work.
[narrator] Tasked with ensuring that doesn't happen,
Tater and Randy are working to replace
the broken bulldozer transmission.
But first, they must overcome one more challenge,
removing the cumbersome axel shaft threaded into the transmission
that is standing between them and finishing the job.
-[Randy] That's gonna be way too big. -It's too big.
-[Todd] Where are we at, boys? -[Randy] And that's--
-Hey. -[Tater] Hey, Todd.
[Randy] We ran into a bit of a snag.
This dozer has an inner and an outer axle shaft.
This is the outer axle shaft.
They are threaded...
...on the ends.
[Randy] And the inner one has that same thread on it.
To pull it out, you have this special tool
that you thread on here, and you pull the outer one out.
-And you use that same tool to thread on... -Okay.
...the inner one.
-[Todd] Special tool. -[Randy] Yeah.
I'm guessing from the looks of our shop, we do not have that tool.
No.
And we're kind of screwed.
-'Cause, uh, we're, what, miles from Nome. -Yeah.
And we've been working on this for 8 hours,
-trying to get that stupid axel out. -[Todd] Yeah.
[narrator] The axel and thread they need to reach to unscrew it,
can only be access through the wheel well of the dozer.
With time running out and no tool to make the connection,
it's up to Randy and Tater to think fast.
What do you got? Idea?
Well, we were thinking about melting some plastic around it
and pulling it out, but it's gotta be hot
-to slide it in. -All right.
What's your idea?
I'm thinking we melt it on the one out here and make threads.
-Oh. -Screw it off, screw it on.
-Dude. -'Cause ABS plastic melts pretty good.
Put a hose clamp around it.
-Tighten it down. -And then screw it off.
[Tater] And then screw it off.
-Smart man. -[Tater] Might work.
-[Todd] All right, try it. -It might work.
[Todd] If it doesn't work, I wanna know.
[Randy and Tater] Okay.
[Randy] All right, we'll let you know.
Dude, that's a good idea.
I just thought of it.
What do you mean, "What's the problem?"
I got a D10, I'm almost out of paydirt,
and both of my mechanics are trying to melt the piece of plastic
and pull an actual shaft out of the transmission.
You tell me, you tell me what's wrong.
No, it's not gonna work.
They're just... This isn't gonna work.
-[Tater] That's getting soft. -[Randy] Is it?
-Yeah. -[Tater] See that?
Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to light you on fire there.
-Ooh, ooh, ohh. -[Tater] That's hot.
[Randy] Oh, yeah.
-[Tater] See it smashing? -[Randy] I'm liking that.
Let me throw a little more heat on that.
[Tater] Yeah.
That's pretty soft.
Okay.
[Randy] Well, it took a squish, didn't it?
Yup.
-Oh, boy. -[Tater] All right, you got that end.
Let me know when you're ready.
Okay.
You're kidding me.
[Tater]
[Randy] It is.
You're kidding me.
[Tater] No, I think there's threads in there, buddy.
It is screwing on, it's getting tighter.
[Tater] Wow.
Oh, grab it, grab it, grab it!
We don't wanna lose one... lose our threads.
That is a solid win.
-All right, nice work. -[Randy] Whoo! PVC pipe.
All right, dude, we gotta pull this other one out, we gotta get going.
[Randy] Okay, it's free!
You put it on that palate.
-[Todd] All right. -[Randy] Looks good.
[narrator] After some determination and ingenuity,
the crew is ready to install the new dozer transmission.
Operation is half-over.
Now we gotta get the new one in and hooked up.
What happens if we screw this up?
Don't screw it up.
[exhales]
$40,000 transmission.
[Todd] Oh, golly.
All right, what could go wrong?
[Randy] That transmission weighs 3,000 pounds.
Good luck.
I'll need you to hold it in the air
-when you get it up, so I can take-- -[Todd] Get the L-ring?
-Take, take that plug and that L-ring. -[Todd] Okay.
[Randy] Oh, [bleep].
Whoops.
I guess they come with a little oil in 'em.
[Randy] Let me get a bucket.
Normally, they don't come with oil in 'em.
It was, uh, shipped on its back,
so I didn't expect there to be any oil in it.
But, you know, that proves that they tested it.
That's what we want. We want a good, good transmission.
We don't want a one that we put in and then have to take back out.
Go easy.
-Oh, I will, I will try. -Okay?
[Randy] We got one shot, Todd.
We can't mess this up.
Jeez, then why am I doing it?
[Randy] Keep going.
Stick towards you.
There ya go.
[grunting]
Oh, you're there, aren't ya? Curl in just a bit.
Set it down.
Stay there you big boy.
We gotta pick it and set it on the rails.
So our transmission has these rollers, it has to sit on those rails
and it guides that transmission into the input shaft hole.
[grunting] Ah, come on, you.
Up just a bit.
Hold that.
Very crucial part, it's gotta go straight in.
Can't be messed up at this point.
If it goes in incorrectly we'll have an issue with O-rings and it'll leak.
We don't wanna leak.
There ya go.
Up a little more.
We got, like, 12 inches to go and he's only got 2 inches left.
Half curl your bucket.
'Kay, hold that. Beautiful.
That is one heavy transmission.
[Todd] Well, that wasn't easy.
-She ain't light. -No.
She's a little over 280.
Yeah, she is.
Uh, wow, what's left?
Well, I forgot to remove that back plate,
-turn it around. -Okay.
-[Randy] We're 90% of the way there. -'Kay.
So, uh, I'll turn that plate around, pick it up, and it'll slide right in.
Hey, radio me when you're ready to test drive.
Thanks. Thanks for your help.
-Good job, man. -Thanks.
[narrator] With not a moment to spare, the replacement transmission is in
and Todd's dozer is back in action.
♪ Whoa whoa-oh♪
[narrator] Now, Andy can finally get back to their cut
and start contributing to the paydirt's stockpile feeding their plants.
♪ Set the world on fire♪
♪ I'ma burn I'ma burn this to the ground♪
[Andy] I believe that we might be okay.
Now it's our job to get the gold outta the ground,
and make money, and get it done.
♪ I'll burn the whole thing down♪
We've got Andy up in the Narrows of Dahl on the D10.
We're gonna get some of that paydirt into The Holy Roller
and see how it weighs up.
We're trying to get as much pay from North Fork as possible.
It's looking pretty good right now and we're not gonna quit.
We're not gonna stop this plant, 100%.
♪ I'ma burn I'ma burn it to the ground♪
♪ I'll burn the whole thing down♪
♪ Whoa whoa-ho♪
♪ Hey♪
♪ Whoa whoa-ho♪
-[Hunter] You ready? -Yeah.
Yeah, I'm ready.
Yeah, I'm really interested to see how it's gonna look,
this North Fork is where it's at.
Okay.
I hope it is.
[narrator] After running material from their new cut on North Fork nonstop...
-[Hunter] Cub, do you have a copy? - Yeah, what's the plan?
We're about to shut down, I'm gonna sent Sparky to the pump right now.
[Cub] Copy that.
[narrator] ...Hunter is ready to see if the ground he bet on is going to payout.
[Hunter speaking over radio]
Yeehaw!
[Hunter] You ready, Sparky?
[Sparky over radio] Yes, sir. I'm ready whenever you are.
Go ahead and bring it down.
[narrator] Is their new North Fork paydirt as rich as Hunter hopes?
And if so, will it be enough to push the Hoffmans closer
to the 1,000 ounce season goal?
[Cub] This's that crazy gold Jack was talking about, this is frickin' crazy.
[Hunter] Yeah, but this rounds packing.
See, this is why I wanna do a full pull, look at this.
[Cub] Told you North Fork was good.
Right now, we're getting the first glace at the box, it looks insane.
It's something I've been wanting to see for a long time.
We're gonna pull this thing, get it up to the gold room,
and I'm really eager to see how good it really is.
Oh, my gosh, I'm liking this.
That's better than what I thought it was gonna be,
and I thought it was gonna be really good.
[Hunter] This is all our hard work.
Look at these bugs, dude. Look at these bugs.
-Mosquitos are bad. -[Hunter] Good lord.
I think we can do it... [spits] I just ate a [bleep] mosquito. [spits]
Let me get ya there, hold on. There.
You know what? I'd rather get bit.
I'd rather get bit... Oh, jeez, that was big, thank you.
-[chuckling] -You actually saved me.
Holy smokes, it's the Alaskan Air Force.
I mean, I personally, I had... [gags]
Did you see that thing fly in my [bleep] mouth?
Get the [bleep] eaten out of me by mosquitos.
What you do on a mosquito is you kill it on your hand, you leave it there
to let all the other ones know this is what's gonna happen to ya.
So you leave squished bugs on ya.
That's how you do it up here.
[Hunter] You got like blood and stuff.
Yeah, you're bleeding. There's one on your forehead too
-[spits] -[bleep]
[narrator] Andy and his crew are finally stocking paydirt from the Narrows of Dahl
after losing hours of daylight to a broken transmission.
While Jack and Thurber are getting their first look at the mats from North Fork.
[Jim] This is paydirt that came from North Fork
that went through the Black Pearl.
Everyone gets excited, including myself,
but you gotta get it on the table,
dry it, weigh it, and then that's the proof.
[narrator] If the new dirt can produce 104 ounces this week,
it will mark their highest payout of the season,
and keep their 1,000 ounce goal for the year within reach.
[Jack] We only have so many days left to run, we wanna run the good stuff.
We have a goal, I wanna make sure that we hit that goal.
And, hopefully, it's gonna be 3 ounces per 100 yards.
If it is, we're home free. If it isn't...
We, uh... The proverbial, up the creek without a paddle,
you know, and we don't wanna be there.
[Jim] Hey, Jack.
Whoa. Whoa-ho-ho.
[Jim] That's pretty darn good.
That's crazy gold, there we go.
[Jim] Thank you young guns, that's a lot of gold.
[Jack] We'll see which plant produces the best.
I don't know until this cleanup's done.
I just hope that I make enough money to get a new sweatshirt.
[narrator] Last week, Hunter's Black Pearl brought in 21 ounces,
far less than Todd's 65 ounces on The Holy Roller,
but combined for 86 ounces, the highest output of the season.
However, still short of hitting their weekly target.
Despite both plants breaking down,
will they finally hit their goal this week?
Okay, how you feel about this week?
Really good.
I seen, uh, an old guy show up the other day.
Hunter, uh, hired Keener to come out, so
he said that's, uh, kind of a pretty good move.
Feeling good about your cleanup?
Feel a lot better than last week.
How do you guys feel about your cleanup?
We didn't get a lot of yards through it,
but I think that this breakdown that we had to deal with,
uh, kinda screwed us over a little bit.
But I think we're on to something. Right, Andy?
Yeah, I think the Narrows of Dahl are gonna surprise us.
I think there's...
This is one time that the surprise is a good surprise.
I've heard you guys make a lot of predictions on the dirt this season,
so I'll make a prediction, I think that North Fork
is a little bit richer than the Narrows of Dahl.
And what I saw in the box, probably gonna smoke you guys this week.
Yeah, I do. I mean, that's my prediction, I could be dead wrong.
-[Jack] Hey. -What's up, fellas.
Well, what'd you think's up?
Who's got the heavier bottle is what I'd like the know.
[Jack] All right, here we go.
[Jim] We need to get 104 ounces, see how it goes.
-[Jim] Ten. -[Jack] Fifteen.
[Todd] Let that run.
-[Jim] It's over 20. -[Todd] Twenty.
-[Jim] Twenty-six, 28. -[Todd] Thirty.
[Jim] Thirty-six, 37, slow down.
I don't like it. I don't like what's happening here.
-Yeah, that's almost out. -[Andy] Why we went little.
-[Sparky] It's good you guys can count -[Jim] Forty-eight.
-Three plus the one... -[Todd] Beats three.
No, it's not gonna do it.
-[Jack] 54.8. -Whoa, not good.
I don't feel like that's... Are we going backwards? What's happening?
-[Hunter] Let's hear this. -[Todd chuckles]
[Hunter] Thirty-seven.
-[Jim] Still feels heavy. -Guys, I have a bad feeling we're gonna get beat.
-56.05. Suck it! -[Todd] Yeah, okay.
[Hunter] Everybody stop, everybody stop.
Just want everybody to close their eyes right now and just soak that in.
-How does that feel? -[all chuckling]
-[Hunter] Okay.
[narrator] The Black Pearl's second cleanup comes in at just over 56 ounces,
while The Holy Roller comes in at just under 55.
For the first time this season their 111 ounces combined exceeds their weekly goal.
The Hoffmans now have 482 ounces.
They'll need nearly 520 more ounces to hit their season goal of 1,000 ounces.
What I've seen is that the young guys
they kicked your butts.
You know?
This, uh...
just is a lot of gold.
Well, you know, don't ever let anybody
saying anything about you. You guys came out on top. You worked hard, you did it.
We appreciate ya, Jack. Really do.
You know what it is. You guys earned it, man. Way to go.
You know, this is the first time we broke 100,
we're at 111 [chuckles] for the week.
-Awesome. -We're there, we hit it. We hit it at least one week.
Now, we just gotta put one week together with another and away we go.
Good job.
The victory this week is yours, you earned it. And you know what?
I hope it feels good.
We almost had $190 grand, pretty good.
Yeah, that's just this week. So we gotta just keep this pace.
We do, we do. Great job. Let's go.