[Randy] Yeah, let's go to work.
[Todd] We got two plants running head-to-head,
but we are behind now.
[narrator] Two months into Alaska's gold mining season...
[Andy] This might be kind of fun this week.
Let's do this.
[narrator] A series of breakdowns...
Something's not right.
[narrator] ...have slowed the Hoffman's march
toward their 1,000-ounce gold.
We beat you guys, but it's still a bad week.
[Jim] You're still both losers.
[narrator] Now, with only a few weeks remaining,
fatigue sets in...
[Randy] Try 105 hours a week.
I'm tired.
[narrator] ...leading to costly human errors.
-Damn it. -[Randy] Shut it off.
[narrator] As tensions rise...
-Why don't you listen for a change? -I do listen.
[narrator] ... and tempers flare.
[Andy] Come on, Randy.
[narrator] Can Todd rally his troops...
We are supposed to be a team.
[narrator] ...or will Hunter again
have to step up and rise to the occasion?
This place is ran by [bleep] idiots.
[Andy over the radio]
[narrator] After the Holy Roller breakdown...
and a costly reclamation last week...
the Hoffman crew is pushing to play catchup
on their 1,000-ounce season gold.
[Andy speaking]
This might be kind of fun this week.
But I don't know, this is gold mining.
So you never really know.
[Todd] We're in the middle of the season,
and problems are showing up at the mine.
It's just a hard time.
We need to just keep grinding, keep pushing forward.
Every ounce we get
is just one step closer to meeting the goal.
Today, Todd's got me loading pay dirt.
You know, we keep talking about how we need a win.
And I'm there, uh, I need a win.
You know, back at home, we worked 40 hours a week
and we think we're exhausted at the end of the week.
Try 105 a week.
I'm there.
Damn it.
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
Damn it.
Dakota, did you see that?
[radio beeps]
[Randy] I knocked the spray bar off.
[Randy] Roger.
-[radio beeps] -[Randy] Hey, Todd, the Holy Roller's down.
I broke a nozzle off the trommel
-on accident. - What the... Guys, come on.
-[radio beeps] -[Todd] Are you kidding me?
Ah, get it fixed. Now. Tater's on his way.
So, this is the mid-season slump.
This is where guys
get in a lull, they're missing their families,
they start making mistakes.
Hopefully, we can get this thing fixed,
and get it up and running as soon as possible.
My fault.
I hate doing stuff like that.
I'm tired. I'm worn out.
That's a very expensive mistake.
[Rob] Man!
All right, let's fire it back up and see what happens.
[Randy] That's 1,000 bucks.
Then you add up all these guys that are standing around here.
Had to weld this.
It's more than 1,000 bucks.
[machine starts]
[narrator] Two hours into the fix,
Randy can get back to work.
-Thank you, Tater. -[radio beeps]
Okay, no problem.
[Todd] Mining in Alaska is brutal,
especially when you're not getting the gold
that you think you should be getting about this time of the year.
Guys start making mistakes, they start checking out.
They're tired, so I'm gonna go ahead
and bring in a fresh body.
Hopefully, that'll help out.
My name is Bryce Carmony from Sandy, Oregon, just like the Hoffmans.
Uh, small town there.
Known Hunter for a long time.
[Todd] I'm bring in a kid, Bryce, he's pretty green,
but he's got a good, uh, work ethic, and hopefully,
he can dig right in,
'cause we really need the help right now.
[Bryce] Todd gave me a call.
He said he needed some extra manpower.
So I'm here, running rock trucks,
doing whatever I can to help him out.
We need all the hands we can get.
That's why I brought Bryce up.
[Bryce] Roger that. I'm coming.
[narrator] With an extra set on hands on the mine...
[Andy speaking]
[Todd speaking]
[Hunter] Copy. That'll work.
[narrator] ...the team attempts to shake off the dust
and get back to work.
[Hunter speaking]
Yes, sir. I'm ready whenever you are.
[Hunter] Okay. Start bringing the water up.
[machine starts]
[Sparky] All right. I'm ripping it.
[Hunter] Trommel is spinning
and the sluice is dripping.
Right now, we have to take advantage of this window of opportunity,
and, uh, we have to get to 112 ounces,
otherwise, we're not gonna get to 1,000,
so it's crunch time.
So far, today, the Black Pearl's doing good.
You know, right now, I don't have any complaints.
You know, I'm just gonna run consistently.
Try to find a good pace here, I mean, that will get the plant...
um, at a good speed.
And running some this North Fork pay,
and we're gonna run it all day,
and kinda see what we could do.
[Todd] We got weather closing in on us.
We're running out of time.
So we're both gonna go ahead and run into the night.
Run as many yards as we can.
At this point in the game, I don't know if we have any other choice.
[Andy] It's harder to see what's going on, obviously, when it's dark.
But by the morning, we should have an extra 20 ounces on the box.
We don't know how many days we have left to run,
so It all adds up.
[Randy] Even though everybody's tired
and we just pulled an all-nighter,
we really don't know how much time we have left
before the ground freezes solid.
So everybody's up early this morning, and going after it.
-[Dakota] Yep. -[Randy speaking]
-[machine starting] -[Dakota] Yep.
[machine starting]
[Randy] Dakota, go ahead and bring it on up.
[Dakota] Okay.
What do you need, Hunter? What's going on?
All these manifolds are leaking around all the outsides.
[Randy speaking]
[Rob speaking]
[Randy speaking]
[Rob speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Rob] 10-4.
[Rob speaking]
[Randy speaking]
[Andy speaking]
You know, I've been having some issues with my crew.
Little things have been slipping through the cracks.
And now it's actually starting to hurt us.
And you know what,
this is an avoidable problem.
[narrator] The water needed to run the Holy Roller
is fed to the plant via a Barco pump
that transports it to the plant's distribution box.
From the box, water is then directed to other parts of the plant,
hopper, trommel and the sluice box,
by opening a series of valves.
If these valves aren't opened before the pump is turned on,
the water inside the distribution box has nowhere to go,
and built up pressure will cause it to blow.
[Hunter] Nobody fully explained to Bryce
the process of which you're supposed to set up the water.
This issue was actually caused by pure laziness.
They put the newest guy on,
you know, one of the most crucial pieces of the startup.
So now everybody is gonna pay the consequence for it.
[Randy] Andy, you need me?
-I can come over. -[Andy] No.
I'll try to figure out what the heck's going on here.
So what happened?
[Rob] During the fire up, the bypass got closed
before two of the other valves got opened,
blew all this silicone out.
Started leaking between the box valves really bad.
Who was doing this?
Uh, Bryce.
So how much time did that cost us?
[Rob] Well...
So an easy 20 grand, maybe?
Yeah.
Guys are tired, working 16 hours a days.
But we can't afford to a break.
They need to be thinking about what it is they're doing.
So, why is Bryce opening things up
that he doesn't know what he's doing?
[Rob clears throat]
Didn't train him.
You're here in that plant, you knew he was down here,
you should know you should have the communication with him.
What's going on?
You know, I don't need to rip a guy a new one, but...
this is stupid.
I mean, it costs a lot of money.
We got enough problems with...
without doing dumb things ourselves.
We gotta quit shooting ourself in our own foot.
[Andy] We can't do this anymore. We don't have the time.
Look at the weather.
[Rob] Yeah, it should've never happened.
And I'll take responsibility that I didn't train him.
-And I needed, too, 'cause I know best-- -[Andy] You know what,
it's not just your responsibility.
-It's everybody's responsibility. -[Rob] Yep.
[Andy] Myself, included.
Fix whatever we need to fix and get it hooked back up.
We're running this sucker.
I don't care.
[Rob speaking]
This morning, we went to fire up,
we had an inexperienced individual
doing the water on here.
And blew all the silicone out of our distribution box.
[Randy] We had all of our bypass valves shut.
There was no water going to, uh, box,
or to the spray bars in the trommel.
So all that pressure and all that volume of water got stuck in one spot.
When you pressurize it,
it's gotta go somewhere.
Our box is stretched,
and all the water went between the bolts.
And this thing looked like a sprinkler.
The guys are tired, I'm tired.
That's when stuff like this happens.
It's gonna set us back another day or two.
Just get a... I'll hold it right here.
-You got her? -[Randy] Yeah.
-You wanna grab those? -Yeah. Clear.
[Randy] Go.
I don't wanna wait all day.
[Rob] So we gotta take apart
our distribution boxes resealing 'em
before we can run.
So once again, we're losing time.
[narrator] To fix the distribution box,
the team plans to reinforce the seams using a silicone sealant
designed to fill in any gaps in the bent metal.
[Randy] Go.
[Rob] It's gonna cost us a few hours.
Probably six, seven ounces of gold in the time.
[narrator] Once the distribution box is reassembled,
the guys must wait for the silicone to dry
before they start the Holy Roller back up.
[Randy] Looks good. Looks real good.
-[Ron] You're happy with that? -Yep.
It's like a punishment.
We have to sit and watch it dry.
We just don't have that down time.
We need to stay running.
[Bryce] I was kinda down. You know, I was like, "I [bleep] up."
But I have not been trained on, uh, any of the stuff to do with the plant.
Like, I'm the new guy. I need to learn all the ropes.
[Todd] Bryce is a good kid.
Uh, he picked the wrong time to make an impression like this,
but it's really not his fault.
There was guys here that knew better.
[Bryce] Lesson learned here is I need people
to train me up on stuff that I do not know.
You know, I need to learn it before I just hop out there and do it.
[Todd] It should've been Tater or Randy on that box, but they got sloppy.
And now the whole mine's paying for it.
Sparky, you got a copy?
[Sparky] Yeah, go ahead.
[Hunter] When you get a second,
could you come up here and just give the plant once-over?
[Sparky] Got you, brother. Man, I got you.
[Hunter] 10-4. Thanks, buddy.
I'm really confused why the most inexperienced, newest guy
was tasked with...
kind of the most important part of the morning fire up.
This may just be my opinion, but the reason I think
that this happened this morning is because the weather
was bad, it was wet, it was rainy.
Everybody's tired. We're worn out.
We've been out here for months.
And, uh, you know, guys wanted to be in the machines,
you know, where it's dry.
I'm not... You know, I'm not gonna lie, myself, included.
That is a... That's an issue.
So I don't know, man.
The Black Pearl's running. The Black Peral's getting gold.
My plant is, uh, it's putting some points on the board.
And that's beneficial for everybody.
[Ron] A little heat in that metal and it'll help it set up.
[Rob] Come on, you.
[narrator] After a three-hour shutdown,
they perform the final step to fix the Holy Roller's distribution box.
That'll be good. We should be back in business.
[Randy] We got the distribution boxes all resealed with silicone.
I've got, uh, Bryce down on the pump.
He's got his checklist.
We're about ready to start the plant back up.
There's jut no more time left.
Stupid mistakes cost us today.
So now we have to pay the price.
[Bryce over on radio]
Yeah. Go ahead.
[Bryce over on radio]
[Andy] Okay. Just... We don't need to do it if it's not ready.
I mean, give it plenty of time. I got no problem waiting.
I told these guys to make sure
let that distribution box set up right.
You know, I know everybody's tired right now,
but we've gotta do things the right way.
Don't be in a hurry.
All that's gonna do is take more down time
if that thing doesn't work right.
Right now, I just need things done right,
so we don't make the same mistake twice.
[Sparky] Everybody, clear on the trommel. Clear on the trommel.
[machine staring]
Are you on the pump?
Okay.
[Randy] Our goal's 1,000 ounces.
If it's down,
we're not gonna be able to achieve that.
So it's vitally important that it stays running at all cost.
So where are we at now?
-This one's open? -[Sparky] Yeah. That one's open.
This is open.
You can go ahead and idle up if you have pressure, Bryce.
[machine beeps]
[Sparky speaking]
[Bryce speaking]
[Sparky] Should get water here in a second.
[Ron] That's still leaking!
[Sparky] Oh, [bleep]
Randy, we got leaks.
We got leaks.
[Randy] Holy [bleep]
Stop.
[Sparky] Idle it down, idle it down.
[Ron] The flanges are just too bent up.
Tried to free them out best we could.
Let's see what he'll wanna do.
Andy's coming down, it's his call.
[narrator] After shutting down for five hours
to repair the Holy Roller's blown distribution box,
the team restarts the plant correctly
only to discover that their fix has failed.
And they're no closer to running dirt.
[Randy] The flanges are so bent up.
They're only sealing in this area.
They've gotta be flat to marry them together,
'cause you can't seal pressure with just one area.
You gotta seal pressure with the whole area.
They have to be perfectly flat.
[Ron] But how do we get them perfectly flat now that they've been bent so much?
Weld it together.
[narrator] Randy's plan to fix the distribution box
is to weld the outer metal rims flush,
leaving no space for built up pressure, or water to escape.
[Ron] We got an idea.
Solution.
We just need your approval
Okay.
We're gonna weld the two halves together.
[Rob] You can't weld the two sides together.
-[Randy] Why not? -[Ron] Yes, we can.
[Rob] You're gonna weld every single bolt hole in it? [indistinct]
Not bolt hole. On the outside.
-[Rob] What good does that do? -It's gonna seal it.
[Rob] The bolt holes will leak.
[Randy] Bolt holes aren't leaking.
[Randy] The bolt holes will leak.
-[Randy] I'm telling you, the bolt holes... -[Rob] Look!
-[Randy] ...are not leaking. -[Rob] This is a hole here.
[Andy] He's saying it will leak.
It will leak and then you cannot fix them.
If this was a solid piece--
You know what, I bed to differ,
because if you had a fender washer, it would work just fine.
-[Rob] If the silicone were dry-- -Why don't you listen
for a change?
-[Rob] I do listen. I-- -Hey! Tone it down.
-Tone this down. Now. -[Rob] Randy--
I already did this once and it worked for how long?
I've already had it done and done.
It lasted for how long? How many...
-How many thousands did we put in? -[Randy speaking]
[Andy] Come on, Randy.
[Rob] The bolt holes will leak.
[Randy] Bolt holes aren't leaking.
It will leak and then you cannot fix them.
If you had a fender washer, it would work just fine.
I've already had it done and done.
It lasted for how long? How many...
-How many thousands did we put in? -[Randy speaking]
[Andy] Come on, Randy.
The problem with the holes,
we already had this conversation.
There's no way to reseal 'em
if they leak, if you weld the whole thing.
If we weld the flange on the box,
it will seal the first time.
But if we close it bypass again,
it'll just blow the water right out of the holes
and then we have no recourse to fix,
and we can't get it back apart.
The Holy Roller will be done for the season.
-[Ron] Okay. -There's no way.
We can make something work. We can make a gasket out of the conveyor belt,
which, I think, would probably work.
-Gasket would be better than welding it. -[Ron] Yeah.
[Rob] Out of the two options...
Yeah.
I'm a little fired up right now.
I don't like being shut down like that.
Apparently, Rob's got a better plan than I do.
If you need a question, go ask the professionals. They're right back there.
You have to gasket
-the whole thing. -[Ron] The whole thing.
-We're gonna make a bend-- -Yeah.
-We're gonna make a bend for the whole thing. -Yeah, you could do that.
[narrator] The new proposal
for fixing the Holy Roller's distribution box
is to fortify the metal rims,
not with welds,
but with a makeshift rubber gasket
designed to prevent leaks
without sealing the bins permanently.
I think it's a good plan.
-Yeah. -That's what we gotta do.
Okay? I mean, we don't have a lot of options.
[Rob] Yeah.
[Ron] I'll keep loading them, keep them going.
All right.
Okay.
[Randy] I've been busting my ass out here.
I'm tired.
I, uh...
We're all tired, but I'm not gonna take
someone talking to me like that.
I've got a lot more experience under my belt than he does.
Personally, I think he just needs to keep his mouth quiet.
[Todd] So, we got guys
getting into it with each other.
I don't think everybody understands
that this is actually make or break time,
right here.
We got two options right now.
We're either going to implode...
-[Rob] How many thousands did we put in? -[Randy] Then fix it.
...or we're actually gonna come together
and try to hit this goal.
Being tired and missing your family,
being grumpy, whatever it is,
we really don't have any excuse.
You gotta put that aside, you gotta dig deep.
This is go time, right here.
[Rob] You got about 40 feet.
We're pulling the box for a second time.
The fix we did earlier didn't work.
Now we're gonna do it a little differently.
We're gonna go to plan C.
There's no guarantees.
He wants to drill holes.
[Ron speaking]
[Rob] He's got 'em all marked out.
[narrator] Tater enlists Dakota and Bryce
to fortify the box further
by drilling additional bolt holes
for its outer rim.
It will alleviate the box bowing in between the bolts,
and, hopefully, help seal that for the last time.
[Ron] Get it as close as you can, Dakota.
We're planning to work until we're done.
It's gonna be a late night.
This needs to run tomorrow.
Right now, everybody's shot and burned out,
but fixing this box is the only thing
that's gonna save our season,
so we have to get it done, and done now.
Failure's not an option.
[Todd] Hey, guys, meeting out here real quick.
[narrator] After working into the night
to fix the Holy Roller's distribution box,
the plant is ready to fire up.
But before testing their fix,
Todd assembles the team to clear the air.
[Todd] Listen, guys,
I know everyone's starting to get tired.
We've been working our tails off,
I know it's not easy.
We're so close,
a month from now, we'll be done.
But right now, I need us all thinking
-one week at a time. -Yeah.
[Todd] This week, we need 112 ounces
in order to hit 1,000 ounces at the end.
We can't do that with one plant running, okay?
It ain't gonna work.
These guy's gotta get it together right now.
It's 1,000 ounces or bust.
Things like this happen,
and we'll get over it,
but it can't happen again.
We don't have time.
We really cannot be complacent.
And another thing is,
no more, Randy, Rob,
we are supposed to be a team.
We don't hate on each other.
Okay?
So, get it out on the table right now.
You two, get it out on the table,
and we're gonna fix this right now,
'cause I'm not putting up with it anymore.
Okay?
Yeah. Randy, I was out of line.
I came across the wrong way and I apologize.
-So was I. -[Rob] I'm sorry.
You know, pride and workmanship.
-Yeah. -Both of us are very, very prideful.
Yeah. So, I'm sorry.
-Truly sorry. -[Randy] Me, too.
[Todd] Keep the goal at the top, man.
We cannot screw this up.
Me and Andy have been at this point.
And this is where you [bleep] up, right now.
The Black Pearl carried us yesterday,
it carry the whole mine.
-Okay? -[Andy] Yep.
There has been tension between us all.
And it's literally, right now,
is where we make it or break it.
And it's with attitude
and it's with us helping each other.
I've seen this happen so many times,
where guys get frustrated and they start lashing out at each other.
I don't really care about their feelings and stuff right now.
I need fighting the fight together,
not fighting each other.
So put egos an attitudes aside,
and let's just work.
[Todd] We need to start coming together as a team.
So, here's the deal.
Let's do a slow fire up,
let's get it running,
Black Pearl get running.
We need both plants running all day
if we can do it.
-All right, let's get to work. -[Rob] Let's do it.
[Todd] Hopefully, my team doesn't implode right now.
We only got a few weeks left.
We're about 450 ounces short.
So, hopefully, this distribution box holds together,
and the Holy Roller could just keep grinding it out.
[Rob] While these guys work their butts off making that gasket...
Holy cow!
[Ron] Bolted it the...
-[Rob] That crap on 'em. -[Ron] ...crap out of them.
[Todd] Oh, you even staggered 'em a little?
[man] Yeah, we did that on purpose. Yeah.
[Rob] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[Todd] Sweet.
[Rob] We're gonna test it,
make sure all of our fixes hold.
[Andy] You just remember,
if you don't know, ask.
Yes.
Everybody, got that?
-Bryce, you got it? -I got it.
[Todd] All right.
You wanna go man the pump?
Or do you wanna run the box?
-No, I wanna see our work work. -[Rob laughs]
Okay, let's cross our fingers.
Before we even worry about the trommel,
we'll test the water.
If this one leaks, I've got way bigger problems.
This is gotta be done right.
This pressure in this water's gonna go somewhere.
[Randy] Yeah, go ahead.
We're ready whenever you are, buddy.
Hey, Randy, go ahead and hit the bump.
Okay, here we go.
[Rob] All right, we got water.
-Open that up. -[Ron] Open it.
[Rob] We've got both of 'em open, the trommel
and the hopper. Now we'll close the bypass.
[Todd] This will put the pressure on the system.
We'll see if it's gonna hold.
[Randy speaking]
[Rob] Randy, go ahead and run it up to 1,430, please.
[Randy speaking]
[Rob] Yeah.
Boxes are working.
-[Ron] Yeah! -[all cheering]
[Ron] Yay!
[Todd] The box is fixed,
and this is our come to Jesus moment.
Hopefully, we can make up ground right now.
We got a lot of paydirt to run.
[machine starts]
[Todd] It's time to man up
and put all this disagreement aside,
and start putting gold on our brains.
There it goes.
[Todd] I guarantee you if we could do that,
a 1,000 ounces is still within our reach this season.
We're back in business.
[Hunter] This box is gonna be loaded.
Black Pearl, baby.
[Todd] We're probably a day and a half
behind the Black Pearl...
and they're actually carrying the ball right now,
which is, you know what,
actually a really good thing.
So basically, we're both racing against time.
We gotta get the amount of gold that we need
in a short amount of time.
[rattling]
[Randy speaking]
[Todd speaking]
[Randy speaking]
[narrator] After two crucial days
with the Holy Roller out of commission,
Todd Hoffman aims his guns at keeping the plant fed
to make up for lost time.
If we both keep having pretty good clean ups from here on out,
hopefully, we start hitting some of our gold here.
[Micah] Just checking our gauges.
[bleeps]
What the [bleep] is going on?
Dakota, Dakota, you got a copy?
[Dakota] I got.
[Micah speaking]
[Dakota] Yes, right after we, uh, started it up.
[Micah] Todd, have you checked these hydraulic riffles today?
Why? Did it change?
[Micah] Yeah. Has anybody touched the water?
[Todd] No. Why?
'Cause that one over there was at 12,
this one over here was at nine.
-Why? -[Micah] I don't know.
I've never had a jump like that.
Anything over five pounds, we're blowing gold out of it.
[Micah] I have no idea how long it ran like that.
[narrator] Hydraulic riffles, or hydraulic nugget traps,
are designed to inject a steady five pounds of water pressure,
which prevents clay build-up and losing gold
off the end of the sluice box.
[Todd] This hydraulic on one side was 12 pounds,
the other side was nine.
[Todd] Yeah, I know.
I quit doing those stuff.
This really pisses me off.
I don't know if we had an air bubble,
something happened.
We've already had a couple crucial errors...
but this is a big one.
Okay, let's shut it down.
Everybody, shut it down.
[narrator] With the risk of losing gold too high,
Todd decides to shutdown the Holy Roller.
[Todd] The first time they fired the plant up,
and that'll blow up my distribution box.
And now nobody's checking, uh, the freaking pressure's there,
I'm feeding the plant.
I can't do everything.
It's all for nothing
if you forget the little things.
[Ron] This morning, there's a concern about the, uh,
gauges that monitor the riffle pressure
not being accurate.
So, the discussion amongst the team
was that we think that there might be some sediment
or material building up in the gauges,
and we just wanna pop them off real quick
while the unit's down,
and clean them out and see if there's anything suspect.
Maybe a piece of dirt blocking the hole,
or anything, so...
Oh, yeah.
The gauge is still reading just over half a pound
or a pound of pressure,
and there's nothing on it.
The gauge might be stretched.
So, I'm gonna go pull the other gauge
and see what it looks like.
This unit had a big over pressurization
a few days ago.
These are hooked into that circuit.
And as a result,
with these gauges only being good to 15 PSI,
we suspect it got up to around 60
and stretched these gauges out.
So now, with the pressure off it,
it's not returning back to zero.
The gauge itself internally is stretched.
These really haven't settled out very well.
I got just under half a pound on this one,
and this one's just over half a pound.
So, we're just gonna have to get new gauges.
[Hunter] The Holy Roller,
you know, up until recently was running really good.
You know, it's possible that they're just kinda getting a little bit complacent,
and it's kinda biting 'em in the ass.
At the end of the day, it's like, you can't let your guard down.
I mean, in my opinion,
when it comes to mining,
it's better to just keep it simple, you know.
The less moving parts,
the less things you have that can breakdown.
And, when it comes down to the end of the season,
you can't afford to have breakdowns,
so that's why right now,
maintenance, and being really perceptive and keeping a close eye
on all of our equipment, the plant, the bearings,
everything, making sure everything is greased
at the end of the day,
everything's shut down properly
is extremely important.
But, sometimes things get overlooked,
because people think
that the next guy is checking in on that.
The Black Pearl's a little different.
I know this thing inside and out.
I've never felt attached
to a piece of machinery before, but...
this is our baby.
[Ron] Our gauges came in.
[Todd] What do you think, Ron, is this gonna work?
[Ron] This is gonna work. We got her, so...
[Todd] So, when we blew the box up,
what we think happened was,
what they call "stretching the meter."
And we think we, uh, ruined some internal parts,
and now, Ron's installing these.
And we've had three kinda huge, uh, mental errors here,
and, uh, it's important that we don't have anymore
because we really don't have any more time.
This is the last big push,
and we got hundreds of ounces to get
to get to our goal.
So, we're gonna fire her up,
Ron's gonna dial 'em in and away we go.
Ron, clear the trommel.
Everybody, clear the trommel.
Yeah, I'm ready when you are.
[Ron] Two, three,
four, five.
It's good there.
I'm gonna do the other side.
[Ron] Almost.
Good to go.
-[radio beeps] -[Ron] Hey, Todd, you're all set.
I'm gonna move on,
I'll check on them together in half an hour.
[Todd] Perfect.
This was the toughest week ever
for the Holy Roller.
My guys are tired, they're exhausted,
and it's now cost us.
Thank heavens Hunter's plant,
uh, the Black Pearl is running.
It's keeping our 1,000-ounce goal alive.
I'm proud of it.
-Sparky. -[Sparky] What's up?
[Hunter] I've gotta put something on here. This is dope.
The Black Pearl is starting to, uh,
be a force to reckon with.
The hard work we put in is finally paying off.
We earned every bit of it.
I'm putting mine up top.
Called it already.
[Hunter] You know, it's starting to actually be fun.
-[Hunter laughing] -[Sparky] Can you write it any smaller, dude?
[Hunter laughs]
This is dope.
-[man] Wait. He could spell? -[Sparky laughs]
I didn't know that.
[Hunter] Just his name. [chuckles] Just his name.
[all laugh]
[Todd] Okay, Thur. Let's do this.
I'm coming, boys.
[Todd] We ran through the night
because we were short some hours
on that distribution box issue.
Hopefully, we're out of this slump that we're in,
and we're rolling to get more gold.
We got a lot of catching up to do.
There's a bunch of gold right there.
[Jim] The anticipation of what we really do have,
it's kinda hard to go to sleep,
but we'll find out here shortly.
[Todd] Okay, crazy clean up this week.
We'd have had 20 or 30 more ounces easily this week
if we hadn't, uh, blown up a plant.
I don't think our clean up's gonna be great,
I really don't.
[narrator] Last week, the Black Pearl
and Holy Roller combined for 67 ounces,
coming up far short of their weekly target.
Despite another costly mistake with the Holy Roller,
can the Black Pearl pick up the slack
in order to hit their 112-ounce goal this week?
How about you guys, how are you guys running?
Pretty good.
No hiccups.
[Hunter] We're maintaining the plant,
we're greasing everything,
everything's getting started up properly.
We're not overlooking anything
because I don't wanna be running into breakdowns
at the end of the season.
-So-- -[Todd] But this one, man,
this one could've been avoided.
[Hunter] Absolutely.
[sighs]
Yeah.
We need the big tray, right? What, guys?
-No. -Nah.
I think we'll be all right.
Uh-oh.
What is it, "Winners go first?"
We won last week. We barely.
Yeah, all right.
[Todd] Okay. Dad, pour it.
[Jack] All right, here we go.
What do we got there?
[Jack] Oh, yeah, here...
-[man] Oh, 20? -[Todd] Thirty.
Thirty. 30, 34, 35.
It'd better have more than that in there.
Forty.
Forty-two.
Almost 43. 42. You sure it's empty?
[Jack] Come on.
Is there not another ten ounces in there?
[Todd] I hope you guys are at 60 or 70
'cause we ain't gonna make it.
[Hunter] Well, it's not more than that.
I don't know.
See what we got.
Now let's...
Okay, run the countdown, Spark.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Thirty-five.
-Forty. -[Andy] You know, we're gonna lose.
[Sparky] Forty-four.
-Forty-three. -[Todd] We lost by two ounces.
-[Andy] Two ounces? You guys just get whopped. -[laughs] How's that, guys?
That's not really a loss,
that's more like a tie.
[narrator] Despite their breakdown,
the Holy Roller crew still managed to mine
almost 43 ounces,
just shy of the Black Pearl's 44-ounce haul,
adding up to a weekly combined total
of 87 ounces.
With just a few weeks left in the season,
the Hoffman's 636-ounce total
remains below their desired goal.
They'll need almost 364 more ounces
to reach their 1,000-ounce target.
[Todd] We got 87 ounces,
our second best clean up of the season.
We were down part of the week,
so, like, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic
even though we didn't hit our goal.
I am a little concerned, though,
because Hunter got a really solid run
and he barely got more gold than we got.
What that tells me
is that the North Fork pay isn't as good as we thought.
We might need to change something up
to get ourselves out of that hole
and hit that 1,000.
Let's turn it all up.
Turn it up to 11,
and freaking rock'n'roll.
Let's take it from, like, 180 yards an hour,
let's take it to 250,
and we wear stuff out,
we'll fight the battle on that end.
Big question, Thurber,
now, what do we have to get per week?
Uh, well...
364 ounces to get our goal.
We have to go up to 121 ounces per week.
[Todd] We got a really big number to hit next week,
but I feel good, I feel like everything's
kinda hitting on all cylinders.
I think we got a shot at this.
Who knows what the future's gonna hold, but...
we're now 636,
we're heading to 700.
Hopefully, 800.
And I don't know if 1,000 is within reach anymore.
-We're gonna get 1,000. -[Todd] 121, you think?
[Hunter] And that means everybody gets to go home
-with some gold, so-- -[Todd] Hm.
I like your attitude. Thank you.
I need that, man.
I need that from you guys, too. Right?
-[all] Yeah. -[Todd] All right.
Let's go.