[narrator] One hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle
and 80 miles north of Nome, Alaska,
lies one of the world's great gold fields
rich with small flaky placer gold.
But working this land is near impossible.
With the gold found deep beneath the tundra's permafrost,
it's here that three generations of Hoffmans
set out to reap 3000 ounces of gold
from the notoriously rich ground of the Mammoth Valley mine,
where many have tried, but most have failed.
Guys, we're back in Alaska.
We wanna hit crazy gold.
We've not hit that yet.
It's still gonna be tough.
But this is going to be the biggest season yet.
-[man] Oh! [laughs] -God, dang, there's a lot of gold in that.
We're headed for some big stuff this year.
[narrator] On a groundbreaking season of Hoffman Family Gold...
-Okay. -[Todd] Let's go.
[narrator] ...the Hoffman's are back,
united to beat their all-time record.
-[Jack] 130.2. -[man 2] Whoo!
[all cheering]
[narrator] And they're on the mother lode.
-[man 3] Look at that one. -Dang, boy.
[man 4] [bleep] , yeah.
[narrator] But at the Mammoth Valley mine...
-[Todd] Easy. -[Hunter] We're in the trenches, literally.
[narrator] ...fortunes aren't given.
[Andy] That's not real good.
[narrator] They're earned.
[Todd] I don't know what I'm gonna do.
[narrator] And the promised land promises one thing.
[Andy] Everybody that's come to this place has failed.
Everybody.
[narrator] It will be a battle...
[woman] Do not open any more of that cut.
[narrator] ...until the bitter end.
I've never made a mistake like this before.
And I don't have an answer.
[Todd] We're all back again.
We have not accomplished our dream.
We've not hit the gold that we've always wanted.
But this is it.
Maybe this is our year.
You know, everything is coming down to this one cut.
The Lost Cut.
Phenomenal gold in it.
We know there's something special in it.
So, we gotta jump on the season.
Andy, Tater and Dakota came up here three months ago
to start prepping the Lost Cut.
[Andy] Awesome. Beautiful.
[narrator] To gain an advantage of the onset of the mining season...
There goes our ride, boys.
[narrator] ...Todd sent his trusted foreman, Andy Spinks,
and miners Tater and Dakota,
to spearhead the critical task of stripping more ground within the Lost Cut.
[Andy] We got a lot of work to do, but, uh,
let's just start at day one.
[Tater speaking]
[narrator] In placer mining,
miners must allow ample time for their pay dirt to thaw
before they can efficiently process it through their wash plant
and ensure proper gold recovery.
[Tater speaking]
[narrator] Now, armed with their early season advantage...
[Andy] We got some gravel.
[narrator] ...the crew is ready to stack and run pay from the Lost Cut.
[Todd] This is it.
This is our year.
There could be 8000 ounces in there.
-Right. -[Todd] Who knows?
We don't know.
The gold's there. It is rich.
We just gotta start hauling pay out of it to see if it's gonna be good.
So, this mine has proven that it's got the gold.
First year, 600 ounces.
Last year we hit the goal of a 1000.
That's about $1.7, $1.8 million.
This year, we're ready to go. Plant's set up.
We got all this equipment in.
We're in a better place.
So, here's our goal.
3033 would be three ounces higher than we've ever gotten.
This mine, this could do it.
We should be able to go in there and kill it.
Every single person here is gonna take some gold home.
Hunter, I want you to get the Black Pearl operational.
[truck beeping]
[Hunter] Each year is kind of a stepping stone
and we're building towards a legendary season.
Will it be this summer? I don't know.
I think my dad's goal of 3033 ounces,
I don't think that's impossible at all.
Plant, Framer, what do you got to do on that thing?
I gotta put spray bars in the hopper.
I gotta put the distribution box in
and we gotta redo the splitter box.
Todd set a pretty high goal this year,
fairly unrealistic.
But I think we're gonna have a great year though.
[Sparky] Ever since Todd and his crew came here,
it's like the stakes have been getting higher
and higher and higher.
I wouldn't doubt that this year we're gonna hit a massive goal for all time.
Dad, Thurber, you guys get the clean-up room going.
Pull the table out, get her set
-and ready to run some gold. -You bet.
[Jack] You know, I am 77.
And I am so ready to go it's not funny,
as much as a guy that age can be.
[chuckles] You wanna see what it looks like?
I'm excited about this year.
It's here. [laughs]
We're back, brother.
[Thurber] You feeling good,
and then you feel like, "Oh, crap, here we go."
It was a long winter waiting to get here.
[chuckles] It's, uh, great to be back.
Comin' through a threshold, watch your feet, don't trip.
We got ground open.
It's the first time we're gonna hit the ground running.
It's gonna be great.
You guys killed it, thank you.
Thank you.
Andy, get that stuff prepped out there,
get us a little bit of pay dirt ready to run
and get that dozer stripping the rest of the Cut.
Sure.
Sounds good?
-[Andy] Yeah, we're good. -[Sparky] Yeah.
-[Cub] We're good. -[Hunter] Yes.
[Todd] I want us all to look back at this summer
as being the summer that changed our life.
It could be.
Hey, Dad, will you bless us real quick on,
-on a little prayer? -You bet, you bet.
Lord, we, uh, thank you for the opportunity to be here.
We ask for your grace upon us
and Lord, give us strength to do this work.
Bless us richly with this gold.
In your name, Amen.
[all softly] Amen.
I love you guys, I really do.
And I'm thankful to be working with you guys.
Let's go kick some ass, huh?
Hey, let's do this, man.
Let's just make a pact right now that you're gonna get along
-and let's get a whole bunch of gold. -[Hunter] Yeah.
This is just bigger than, like,
just the gold and gold mining.
I'm glad that we can all be here together.
Let's put some memories down, let's get a ton of gold.
-[Hunter] Yeah. -Good memories.
I think if these two can get along,
-[claps] now that I'm here... -[Jack laughs]
...I think we have a good shot at 3000.
Cub, well, we need you here, man. You're the glue.
It's great having my family together.
You know, my dad always reminds us
why we're doing this in the first place.
To be honest,
I don't think my kids would be here mining if it wasn't for my dad.
I think if we can keep a good atmosphere here
and stay, you know,
in faith that we can do it,
I can we actually can, so.
-Okay. -[Todd] Let's go.
-Okay. -[Todd] Let's do it.
-[Jack] I get it. -Love you.
-[Jack muffled] Love you too. -[Hunter] Okay.
[Hunter] Let's go.
-Let's do it. -[Jack] Do it.
[Sparky] Ooh, this looks pretty good.
Right now, I'm working the last hole I'm cutting
to fit this water bar and then start welding her up.
So, we're taking the time to prep the Holy Roller now,
and it's gonna take a couple weeks.
[indistinct radio chatter]
Last year, people were hitting spray bars.
[man 5] Damn it.
[Sparky] Bam, and all you see is it pissing off the side.
And so, we're not gonna have that this year.
[narrator] To protect the Holy Roller's spray nozzles
from getting hit by the excavator,
Sparky's plan is to mount a bar
that will feed water through the nozzles.
Then, he'll weld a layer of bullet-proof steel over the nozzle assembly.
This upgrade ensures the nozzles remain in position
while the bullet-proof steel safe guards them
against knocks in the future.
[Sparky] We're gonna make it bullet-proof.
There's this thing called 7 P's.
It's, uh, "Prior proper practice
prevents piss poor performance."
So, we're gonna do this right the first time
and we don't have to piss with it later on.
[Sparky laughs]
It should fit.
But this is gonna prevent anything happening in the future
while it's getting down to, like, in the negatives.
You-- I don't wanna be working and welding out in negative ten, brother.
I wanna be a nice warm cat, drinking some coffee.
We're in, boys.
That fit dead nuts.
Perfect.
Got a good smile on my face.
Got a lot of energy right now, so we're gonna kill it.
[Jack] Okay.
-I think we're ready. -[Thurber] Yeah.
-Let's try this baby out... -[Jack] All right.
...get some water running.
[Jack] I don't have water coming in.
-[Thurber] Yeah, it takes a while. -[machine humming]
[Jack] All right, here she comes, here she comes.
Yeah, see if that vibrates.
[machine rumbling]
Yeah.
Once we're set up,
we're the key to this whole place.
You know, there's no 3000 ounces without us.
You don't hear me scream or yell
[laughs] or anything like that very often.
But when 3000 comes across, you're gonna hear me.
I'm gonna be so excited about it,
because it means that the guys get to take more gold home.
And that's, that's my joy.
[both laugh]
[Jack] This year, man.
It's a hard day in day out job.
Jack and I wish we were 40 years younger,
but this is home,
this is what Jack and I love to do.
You know, we're out here in the middle of nowhere.
My family's hundreds of miles away. [chuckles]
Um, that's tough.
But, you know, I get to do this every year with Jack
and he's my family.
Seeing gold going across the pay hole,
that never gets old.
[Jack laughs]
[Andy] Headed down to the Lost Cut.
I'm gonna go check on it and see if it's thought out
and ready to haul out of the Cut.
So, we came up early to open up the Lost Cut.
We're gonna see where we stand
and we're gonna start stacking some pay dirt.
Holy crap.
This isn't good.
I mean, this is just a mess.
This ground has a tremendous amount of ice in it.
So, as soon as you expose that, it's just water.
And it's like a bathtub of water.
Everything. There's water coming in in every direction.
[narrator] Alaska is predominantly tundra or frozen ground.
Once miners remove the over burden,
ice is exposed to the nearly 24-hour sun.
As the ice thaws,
it poses challenges with water management.
And if the gold rich pay isn't removed soon enough,
it threatens to dilute it.
[Andy] This Cut,
I envisioned it all winter long in my brain.
And this is not how I envisioned it to look.
So, this place is challenging.
It does not wanna give it up easy.
Usually, once you get the overburden off,
it's super easy.
There's so much ice in this ground,
that it just bites you all the way.
But right now, take the excavators in there,
we'll see if, uh, it'll go through that mud.
-[radio beeps] -Sterling, you copy?
Yeah, go ahead.
[Andy over radio] Bring me an excavator to the Cut.
[Sterling over radio] Copy.
[Andy] Before we can do anything,
I need to get the excavators into the Cut
and see if we can even get through this mud.
That's gonna help me gauge just how bad it is.
So, this might be a complete [bleep] show today,
but let's see what happens.
[narrator] As the season kicks in to high gear,
the Hoffman crew charges ahead with their two-week deadline.
for getting the mine operational.
[Jack] For me, this is really [chuckles] exciting, you know?
Because we're back at it.
I love the lifestyle of gold mining.
And I love the capabilities that we have of doing it.
And, uh, it's gonna be a good season.
I've got that feeling.
You ready?
[Cub over radio] Yeah, you might wanna get a little closer to that.
[Framer] Okay. Let's go ahead and rig that thing.
Let me hook you up.
So, this is our new water manifold.
We blew the last one up at least twice.
All these manifolds are leaking
around all the outsides.
Hopefully, we've built this strong enough.
But you know what, it's kind of a crapshoot.
[narrator] The Holy Roller's water manifold
distributes water to every key component of the wash plant.
The hopper, the trommel, and the sluice box.
This intricate network
ensures each part receives the necessary flow.
Without it, the plant cannot run.
[Framer] All right, Todd, let's get the part outta here.
[Cub] The theory is that this one, since it's round,
it's gonna have less of a chance to expand.
I mean, theoretically, no chance to expand and, and break.
[narrator] The cylindrical design
of the Holy Roller's new water manifold
greatly minimizes the risk of any catastrophic failures.
The circular geometry of the pipe
ensures the uniform distribution of pressure,
significantly reducing the likelihood
of pressure buildup and potential bursting.
[Cub] That would just give us more time
to mine and get gold and have no breakdowns.
Problems are guaranteed to happen,
especially gold mining.
Okay, come on down.
So, that's why we're taking our time
and trying to do it right.
Should be good to go.
It's just one small step of getting back to running.
[Framer] Looks pretty good.
All right, what's going on?
That went a little too easy.
That's how this whole season is gonna go.
Better get used to it.
[laughs]
[Todd] Yeah, I hope you're right.
[over radio] But I know you're not.
[Framer laughs]
Usually, something goes wrong right about now,
but hey, we're, uh,
getting lucky here.
Let's see what happens.
[narrator] Back at the Lost Cut,
Andy commandeers two excavators
in hopes of resolving his growing mud problem.
[Andy] You're good, buddy.
The Cut is a complete mess. We got mud everywhere.
So, I'm gonna send in a couple of excavators,
we're gonna see just how bad it is.
If we can't get in there and stack pay,
we're gonna have to figure out something else.
[radio beeps] Just dig it up to the side.
[Sterling] All right.
Sterling. Sterling.
[radio beeps]
[Andy speaking]
[Sterling over radio] 10-4.
Sterling, put your teeth out there and pull yourself.
Don't track, pull.
Stick it out in front of you again.
Get the boom out there farther.
Good job, Sterling, good job.
There you go.
These guys are driving through three foot of muck
and it just keeps getting deeper.
Thankfully, we got Komatsus.
They're getting through it, but this isn't good.
Todd, Todd, you got a copy, Todd?
[radio beeps]
Yeah, I got a copy.
[Andy over radio] Can you come down to this Cut?
We need to look at something, make a plan.
Okay.
I'm gonna go and see what's going on.
Holy cow.
Major goo and mud.
What it is, is you got ice,
is you got ice lands, is up on the-
That's a big chunk of ice.
Easy, easy.
Easy, Dakota.
[over radio] You can crawl out of there.
You're clear.
If you fall into that,
it may not get you out. [chuckles]
We've waited months to get in here
to start stacking the Lost Cut pay.
This is a serious kick in the you-know-whats.
I'm not sure what we're gonna do.
Hopefully, Andy has a plan.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Todd] Easy, easy.
[Dakota over radio] Okay princess.
Load up if you want to.
Holy cow.
-A little bit of a mess. -[Todd] Yeah.
Let's go look at this, man.
[Andy sighs]
The problem is, is we're sitting in a bathtub
-of solid ice all the way around. -[Todd] Yeah.
The Lost Cut's rich is 2.4 ounces,
maybe even better per 100 yards.
But when you start adding in
the mud and the water and everything,
it's gonna get diluted.
And who knows what it's gonna pay out.
We're in deep trouble.
It's just a mess.
And it's just gonna keep getting worse.
Every minute, that pay dirt is getting diluted.
What do you wanna do?
[Andy] Well, basically what I'm gonna do is,
is I'm gonna put a road right down the gut of our Cut.
We don't have any other choices.
Mmm-mmm.
[narrator] In order to access the strip pay dirt,
Andy must build a gravel road
through the center of the Lost Cut.
This will allow their excavators and rock trucks
to efficiently access the pay.
[Andy] And the only way you get gravel is by mining.
[Todd] Yeah.
I know you told those guys they got three weeks to work on the plant.
Yeah?
The only way you're gonna get gravel is to fire the plant up.
So, you have to mine to actually get the gravel.
When we run pay dirt to the wash plant,
we're separating the gold from the gravel
using high water pressure.
Clean gravel and rock what we call the tailings,
is what's discarded at the end of the trommel.
And that's what we need to build this road.
Can you buy me a couple days?
[Andy] Yeah. Yeah.
[Todd] Everything was moving smoothly.
Now I have to move the timeline from two weeks to two days on these guys.
It's a big feat.
I don't know if we can do it.
All right.
But I'm gonna have to have Tater get in the dozer.
Hey, Tater, meet me down here at the dozer.
[Tater] Copy.
So, I gotta go to the Cut.
[Sparky] This is money in the making, brother.
-All right, thank you, Sparky. -[Sparky] Thank you.
[Sparky] Yeah, man.
[narrator] For the Hoffman strategy to work,
they must rely on Tater
to continue stripping the Lost Cut
so they won't fall behind
while Andy sources accessible pay dirt
from another location.
[Tater] Wow. Really, really wet.
We got a big mission for you.
-Okay? -I need to put you in the dozer.
Okay?
I know that's not your place where you necessarily wanna be...
-Yeah? -But it's kinda--
You and I are the only ones that really can run the dozer.
You guys both know most of my dozer experience in that
was last year for about what, two hours?
That's more than anybody else, so you're qualified.
[Tator laughs]
[Tater] Right now's probably a bad time
to pull me off of what I was doing,
working on the Holy Roller.
There's, there's a lot of work to do,
and without me there, that's just one less person.
I understand we need somebody to run the dozer at this point,
but I don't totally agree.
I'm gonna go over here
-and chase Framer and get the plant running. -[Tater] Okay.
[Todd] And then, we're gonna try to get enough gravel
to get a road across this mess.
Let's go attack it.
-[Andy] Okay. Do it. -All right, let's go.
[Todd] Sometimes, you gotta adjust your plan
to try to fix something that you don't see coming.
And we didn't see this one coming.
[narrator] Facing a major setback
due to heavy mud in the Lost Cut,
Todd must break the news to his crew
about the expedited timeline.
We go from kicking ass
to getting our ass kicked real quick.
This is something I don't really wanna let the team to know.
Kind of a hard situation and I'm feeling anxious.
Framer.
-[Framer] Yeah. -Okay. Here's the deal.
And I hate to tell you guys this.
We need you to be running in two days.
-[Framer] What? Man. -Two days?
If everything's diluted, you know,
and it could get down to one ounce per 100,
we're gonna have to run over two times the amount of dirt
that we'd normally would wanna run.
There's mud that's oozing all the way across of that Cut.
So, we need to build a road, which means we need rock.
The only way we get rock is to run the plant.
He needs rock now.
[Sparky] Two weeks to two days, it's like,
you're asking to build a rocket in two days and go to the moon.
It's asking for a lot.
What do we gotta do?
I mean, we still gotta work on that splitter--
Forget the splitter. We'll fix it later.
-I mean, Sparky's got one of the water bars built. -Yeah.
He's still got two more to go.
-I got to set the distribution box... -Hurry.
...I gotta build all the hoses.
I'll help you with the distribution box.
Let's get these water bars done.
[Sparky] I need some guys, dude.
'Cause we gotta pull a rabbit outta the hat to get this done.
We get behind radio.
We'll all come and help.
[Sparky] Each one of these little things take time,
and we don't have time to mess around.
I'm only one guy. I need another guy.
I guarantee you right now,
if we don't get that rock and build that road,
we're not gonna get anywhere near 3,000.
-That's just the way it is. Okay? -[Sparky] Okay.
All right, guys.
Hey, Hunter, I need you to swing up here.
I need to chat with you real quick.
[Hunter over radio] 10-4. Me and Cub are heading up there.
I'm just worried that we're gonna miss something.
And once you get in a hurry... bad stuff happens.
That's just the way it is.
Now... do we have a good team?
Yeah. Can they pull it off?
I've seen them do it before.
[car alarm beeping]
[Todd] Hey, listen up, guys.
We've got a serious situation here.
We've got water building up in the cut.
It's gonna dilute our pay dirt down
from, like, probably three ounces a 100
or maybe one ounce per 100.
We've got to build the road across that cut.
We've got to start making rock.
I got to be running in two days.
[Hunter] There's always gonna be things
that are unpredictable and unexpected that are gonna happen.
We've got to just make sure that, you know, we're making
the most calculated decisions as possible.
And at the end of the day, you know,
my dad's in charge and this is his mine.
And so, I just want to do whatever I can to be an asset.
I need your help too, whatever you can.
Yeah, whatever we gotta do.
All hands on deck on Holy Roller.
Get it running. Get rock.
We're not even actually trying to go for gold. [chuckles]
Just trying to get the rock.
-Okay. -[Hunter] Got it.
-All right. Thanks, guys. I love you. -Yeah.
[Todd] They're all saying the right things to get the job done,
but I can see on their faces that,
you know, there's some disappointment.
But you know what? We've been thrown a curveball
and we just gotta adjust to it and do the right things.
And that's just where we're at right now.
I'll do the measuring.
Cool. Can you measure all the way from there?
Go on the other side?
Right now, I'm lining out these, uh, pieces of angle iron.
I'm cutting them at six inches a pop.
And now I got Cubs,
so we're gonna slap this together.
Sixty-nine.
That's cute.
We're gonna make some brackets.
They're gonna hold these water bars.
This should be bullet-proofing the water bar.
We got a fat deadline and it's coming quick.
The job that I do, grinding, cutting, welding...
if I do as fast as I can,
then I'll end up cutting off my fingers.
So there's precautions, safety issues.
So you go as fast as you can, safely as possible.
So they're gonna have to deal with the speed we're going.
[Framer] We're going to work around the clock today
and hopefully by tomorrow night, we can, uh...
we can have it finished.
To be honest, I don't know if I can even come close to that,
-but we're going to try. -[Todd] Hey, Framer,
you got a copy? Where are you?
I am coming up from the lay down yard up to the river way.
[Todd] Hurry up. I wanna turn on the plant and test the new distribution box.
I got to test fire this junction box here
just to see if everything's working.
We may be running way more pay dirt than what we think.
And we've got to make sure everything's ready to go.
-Hurry up, Framer... -[sighs]
Let's go! Framer, why don't you be down here in the manifold?
-Okay. -[Todd] Put Dakota, on the pump.
[sighs wearily]
[Todd] Manifold is looking pretty good.
All the hoses look good.
Fire it up. Let's get going.
Okay, Dakota...
go ahead and fire it up.
10-4?
Are we firing water?
-Yeah. -[Todd] Okay.
[machine starts]
[Dakota speaking]
[Framer] There we go. We got water.
[Todd] I feel like it's a little low.
What's that at, Dakota?
[Dakota] Yep, you have 1,000. 1-0-0-0.
-[Todd] Okay. -Give me another 200, Todd.
Bring me up 200.
[Dakota] 10-4 Coming up.
[hissing]
-[Framer] We got a leak. -[Sparky] Oh, we got a leak.
Hey, Todd, we got a leak up here.
[Todd] Small or big?
[Framer] It's, uh, it's not small.
We're gonna have to shut down.
Just idle it all the way down and then shut it off.
[pump stops]
[Framer] Nice and easy, Sparks.
It might have water in it still.
I don't see a crack in it.
[Sparky] Right here. The leak is coming out of this cam.
Let's pull that cam out of there.
We'll put a brand new one in there.
This is exactly what I was talking about.
This is why I didn't want to rush it.
I don't want it to be like that last season.
I want everything fixed, and I want it fixed right.
No more messing around.
Get that thing out. Let's go!
Does he see how much time this is costing us right now?
Well, I don't really care if the guys are pissed.
I had to test fire this thing.
If we don't start running dirt pretty quick...
-[grunts] -[Todd] ...we might as well all just go home.
The longer the paydirt sits there,
the more water and mud gets in it.
We might as well not even run it.
You know, it's a good thing that we fired it up
because there was a leak.
So I'm gonna go ahead and leave these guys to get on it.
Hopefully, they can fix it.
-Move? -Nope.
[Todd] But it might take all night.
[Framer] I don't know if I'm getting this off.
[exhales]
[hammering continues]
[narrator] With an expedited deadline
to get the Holy Roller up and running,
Todd assembles the crew
to assess the current status of their progress.
[Todd] Hey, guys, I know you're disappointed.
But if we don't get this road built fast,
we're screwed.
On the timeline, Framer, how are we doing?
We're, uh, we're a little bit behind.
We're doing what we can.
We can't go any faster.
We... we speed this up anymore,
we're... we're just gonna be costing ourselves time.
We're gonna break down.
I don't think what you're asking is reasonable.
Uh, the amount of work, just in the welding that Sparky has to do,
there's hours and hours, and we have one welder.
I don't think it's gonna happen.
Not in a manner that we're gonna be able to run that plant all season.
Yeah, it's an unrealistic timeline that we have to hit.
This is our season, guys.
We've got to get it done.
[Dakota] They're doing everything they can.
I mean, it's one way or another.
I mean, it's just... it is what it is.
Guys, every minute that we wait,
the cut's getting worse.
That mud is moving in and it's diluting the pay dirt.
This is called the Lost Cut for a reason.
But guess what? If we don't hurry up,
we're really gonna lose this cut,
and we're gonna lose our season.
We've got to get it done.
It's the bottom line.
Do you wanna be like the last... 40 guys
that have come here and failed?
Because everybody that's come to this place has failed. Everybody.
And it's not because the ground's not rich.
It's because they don't know how to do it.
We know how to do it.
[Dakota] We'll do what we can.
There's 24 hours in a day.
[Todd] Today, Framer.
[Framer] We understand what you're saying.
Dakota, myself, Sparky...
-[Todd] Today, Framer. -...we understand. The only problem is...
-[Todd] Hey. Today. -...is we want this done, so that we're not broke down.
Today, Framer!
[Jack] You know, I got to step in here because...
[sighs] I know you're pushing these guys and you're pushing them hard.
But, you know, you guys have stepped up to the plate.
You've hit home runs lots of times, you know.
I've seen Framer work on pumps and stuff
and get things done that normally wouldn't get done.
I've seen Tater fix stuff that I didn't think could be fixed.
I've watched my grandkids grow up on the mine.
You guys can do it.
So, you know, I'm gonna ask you guys...
not so much for Todd...
but I'd appreciate it if you'd just do it for me
because, uh, [clears throat]
this is my last season,
[Jack] This is my last season.
After this season, if I make it to the end,
I'm not coming back.
There's one guy that's been with me for the whole time.
It's old Thurber here.
And I'm going to...
kind of, turn everything over to him.
-I'm not getting any younger... -[exhales]
[Jack] ...you know. I'm 77 now.
I'll be 78. You know, you get old.
This didn't just spring up.
You know, it's been coming for a long time,
so, uh, physically...
I'm not in the position that I was [chuckles softly]
just 10 years ago.
I've got to slow down.
You know? So, I, gotta let this thing go.
[sniffles]
[sobbing]
I didn't see this coming.
It's a shock to me.
[Todd] We appreciate you.
[sniffles]
Thankful for your example, you know. Really.
It's is the way... the way you look at life.
My... my grandfather wasn't good...
Good to my... my dad.
[sniffles]
[clicks tongue]
But you were good to me
[voice shaking] and you're good to everybody around you.
You know.
-Yeah. -[Todd sniffles]
[Jack] Thank you. Uh...
I want to go out a winner.
There's no other place that I've been
that's better than where we're at right now.
It's up to you guys.
I'm trusting in you.
This is why we started it.
Because of Jack's dream...
Why we're all here.
So let's finish it.
[sighs]
We've done impossible things before,
and right now, I don't think we have a choice,
but to get this plant running in two days.
[Andy] Let's get to work.
We're gonna do it for Jack.
All right.
All of us will just dig deep and let's do it.
Jack not being a part of this anymore, um,
it should pretty much be the only motivation
that we need for us to hear that.
And hopefully, that sunk into everybody.
And you talk about it in a generalization
that's like "Oh, let's do it for Jack. Let's all do it for Jack,"
because you always think you have tomorrow.
And...
we don't know what tomorrow brings.
We know what today brings.
Today brings that we...
We go bust ass, we get it done.
And we get the dirt out of the ground.
And put it through the plant.
[Hunter] I'm honestly, really surprised
by what my grandpa said in there.
It's honestly, really sad for me and I know everybody else.
The only thing left to do now is for us
to make Jack's last season a huge win.
Looks good,
Whatever we have to do,
get it done as fast as we can today and wrap all this up.
All right, let's go.
I've known Jack since I was probably 10 years old.
And it's tough hearing that that he's not gonna be coming up here again.
It makes you push harder to have a good season for sure.
[Sparky] I'm already a motivated guy,
and I bust my ass every single day.
But just hearing that Jack's gonna retire,
it just sparks a flame in me that, uh, we've got to get this gold.
And we've got to keep moving forward.
And he's not just their grandpa.
He's my grandpa, too.
All right. That's it. Let's fire it up!
Some way, we've wound up with all these guys
involved in my dream, you know.
And it's become their dream also.
So I want them to, uh, carry on.
No guts, no glory.
Keep coming.
[narrator] With scrap pay dirt from last season stacked and ready to run...
the crew prepares to fire up the Holy Roller,
officially kicking off their mining season,
even if the primary goal is to harvest the gravel tailings.
[Framer] Throw that on there and we'll fire this thing up.
Oh, yeah. Good deal.
[Sparky] Okay, we're good.
Right now this is about the gravel
more than the gold.
We've got to get a road out there
and around all of that mud.
Sparky. Sparky, you got a copy?
[Sparky] Yeah, I mean, go ahead.
[Todd] How are we looking up there?
Pretty good. These spray bars are dummy-proof, so...
we shouldn't have any downtime.
Let's not use the word dummy on our gold mine, okay?
[Sparky] Sorry they're Todd-proof.
-[all laughing] -Damn!
Thurber, you guys feel good about it?
Yeah. We're 100 percent ready to go.
Framer, are you good up there?
All these spray bars are in,
-guards are on. Ready to run. -[Todd] Okay.
Hunter, let me know when you're ready.
I'm heading down to the pump right now.
[Todd] I got Hunter down there on the pump.
I'm gonna actually slowly ramp it up.
We're pushing a lot of water.
We're putting a lot of pressure on the manifold,
a lot of pressure on these hoses.
A lot of things can go wrong.
Okay. I'm on the pump.
We're gonna see what's gonna happen here.
Hopefully, the fix that we did is actually gonna work.
Are you guys clear on the water?
-[Thurber] Clear! -Everybody is clear. Go ahead and fire it up.
Okay, let's fire up some water.
Bring it up slow.
Okay, pump's coming on.
[pump starts]
[Hunter over radio] Pump is on, pump is on.
-[Framer] Still good? -Yep, yep, yep.
Okay, bring it up to 1,400.
Okay, 10-4.
[Framer] You think it's good?
[Sparky] I hope so.
[narrator] Over 50 years ago, Jack Hoffman followed his dream
to find a rich, untapped gold mine
and set his family up for life.
Everything you see right here, is ours.
[narrator] Since then, the Hoffman's search
has led them across multiple continents...
[Todd] We're going to have to get back to the basics.
[narrator] ...where they battled unforgiving terrain...
[man] The ground is harder than anything I've ever mined.
[narrator] ...often with mixed results.
-[explodes] -[man] Oh!
[narrator] But their sacrifice paid off.
[Todd] Three thousand ounces is within reach.
There's no other place that's better than where we're at right now.
[narrator] Will this be Jack's best season yet?
[Framer] You think it's good.
[Sparky] I hope so.
How are we looking up there?
Looking good over here.
No leaks.
[Todd] Really wanna... really blast that water in that hopper.
With our new water bars...
I think it's gonna be awesome.
We're about ready to find out, though.
-What's going on? -[Framer] Man, it looks perfect, Todd.
We got way more water up here than we did last year.
Oh, man. You're turning me on.
-Okay, pump's sitting at 1,400. -You can head up.
It looks good, to me, I'd throw some dirt in it.
Everybody, clear the ground.
Let's see if this thing turns.
-There it goes. -[Jack] There we go.
[Todd] Look at that.
There we go.
All right. Keep turning.
[Andy] Yeah, baby.
[Todd] It looks really, really good.
Here we go! First bucket!
First bucket! Here we go!
[Andy] Dirt's going in.
[Todd] First bucket of rock.
[Andy] Everything's working right.
I just need that gravel pile
about 10 times that size, so I can build a road.
It looks like everything is running pretty good right now.
We've got those water bars set in.
And it looks like we're flowing water way more than last year.
It's cleaning the rock really good.
It's like fine china.
So... I think we're doing really freaking good this season.
[Hunter] Last year, it seemed like every day was a curse,
and now this season seems like every day,
it's just a blessing to be here.
I just have a really weird feeling that...
this season is gonna be everything that we want it to be and more.
And I think that my grandpa is going to be able
to, kind of, you know, hang his hat on this season
and just know that we finally got to the place
that we wanted to get to.
We're gonna probably have the best season we've ever had.
And I think that everybody is gonna go home really,
really fulfilled at the end of this.
[Todd] Hey, everybody, uh, come on down to the sluice box.
Okay.
What we got in here?
Flip that first one up.
So this is the... the first clean-up.
It's up for doll.
We're really not concerned too much about the gold.
We're actually concerned about the rock.
We need that rock out in the cut to build some roads.
Some flakies over here, dude.
You think she's pretty packed?
But hopefully, there's good gold.
We weren't planning on running early, but we'll see what happens.
Hopefully, it's good.
Okay, hammer those off.
We've spent a lot of time, a lot of pain, suffering to get to this point.
Roll that up.
I don't want to jinx it, but I'm telling you right now,
I think we're headed for some big stuff this year.
Roll them up, roll them up!
My dad's last season, it's huge.
And I want him to, like, have so much gold
running across his table.
Him and Thurber up there filling up jars of gold, left and right.
If he got to see that much gold,
that would be... freaking... a win.
[Thurber] This is the best washing machine
you've ever seen... you literally can make.
It's hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Depending on how good your rinse.
[Todd] Let's go, Thurb.
Yeah, we're killing it right now and I'm excited to see the numbers.
I'm really excited to see the numbers
this box is gonna pull out.
Hey, guys, I want to thank everybody.
I gave you guys two weeks on the Holy Roller.
Everybody pitched in.
We got it done in just a couple of days.
Good job.
[Andy] You got it, buddy.
You got it.
Obviously, there's going to be some more things to do on it.
But you guys got it going.
We ran that gravel.
Andy, how did that go?
It actually went pretty good.
We need the gravel bad.
We need it almost as bad as we need the gold.
So, everybody came together, worked hard.
We got out of there nice and easy
and no problems and got it sluiced.
This is what it's gonna take to get to 3,033.
It's this kind of teamwork.
And we're trying to go for it for you, Dad.
We would love to see you go out with, like, the biggest win we ever had.
Don't do it for me.
We're gonna bring it home for you, man.
Do it.
So we actually needed the gravel.
This gold right here is actually just kind of a bonus,
So it's pretty cool that we're actually getting any gold.
Dad, you wanna pour this thing?
Let's see... see what we've got.
All right, Here we go.
[Todd] Okay...
Count it out.
-[Jack] All right. -[Todd] Everyone can see it, I think.
[Jack] 12... 20,
30, 40, 54...
...55.4.
-I like it. I'm happy with this, man. -Yeah, I... I like it.
-Yeah. -[Thurber] Not bad.
Few nuggets in there?
And we got rock out of it, so...
I think it's a good start.
[narrator] While running the Holy Roller primarily for gravel,
the Hoffman still managed to haul in 55.4 ounces of gold,
worth $105,000.
That's a good jump start to their season goal of 3,033 ounces.
But they're just getting started.
Okay, you know, it's all hands on deck on the Lost Cut.
Start hauling some real pay.
[Sparky] It's about time.
All right, guys, let's get back to work.