[Todd] So far, everything's looking pretty good.
[narrator] Five weeks into the summer mining season in Alaska,
the Hoffman team is on track
for their most lucrative season ever.
It's our duty to hit this 3,000 ounces for Jack.
This is his last season.
[narrator] But when unseasonably warm temperatures and rain
bring unexpected changes to the terrain...
[Todd] I got a serious problem up here.
[Andy] What I'm seeing right now is, uh... it's not good.
The, uh, hillside's moving.
I don't know how to fix it.
[narrator] One man's mistake puts them all at risk
of serious federal and state violations.
It's bad.
If we don't get this stopped...
there's not gonna be any stopping it.
[narrator] Forcing the Hoffman team
to race against the clock
to save the mine and their entire operation.
We have to get this done or we're screwed.
[Mike] We're doing pretty good.
It's actually great working with the people you love around you.
When you're here at the mine, everyone's a brother.
We have a great team.
We have good equipment.
We have good pay dirt.
What could stop us?
[Todd] I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic.
Me and the guys, we really wanna get
a big payday for Jack.
If this is my dad's last hurrah,
I'd sure like it to be good.
I'd sure like to get a lot of gold.
So far, everything's looking pretty good.
[automated voice over phone]
The weather in Alaska could be pretty unpredictable
here in the summer.
You know, rain could come in quickly
and make conditions dangerous for my crew.
You can have flash floods,
equipment gets stuck,
visibility goes down.
Sometimes you just gotta shut down
and that's happening right now.
Hey, guys, it's raining pretty hard.
I'm gettin' a little bit nervous.
[on radio] I think we ought to shut down.
And then, uh, let this storm pass
- and then fire back up. -Copy that.
Okay. ten-four.
[Andy on radio] Thanks, buddy.
You know, I get why Todd's shutting us down right now.
This much rain can cause a lot of different issues.
Extremely difficult to run the plant.
But, at this point, I'm concerned
about the cut holding up. This much rain,
you can get a lot of flooding and a lot of mudslides.
[Mike] We had really good weigh-ins
up until the storm rolled in
and we're on track for a really great week.
So hopefully, the storm passes by quickly.
[Hunter] Okay, go get a little nap in.
[narrator] After losing 48 hours of valuable sluicing time,
Todd returns to the Holy Roller
in hopes of restoring his money-making operation.
[Todd] We've had a lot of water.
We're just double checking everything
because once you get all these storms, you get flooding
and, uh, everything just heads down
and then heads our direction.
But it didn't do too bad.
There wasn't too many issues, but we gotta keep pushin',
so we're gonna keep goin'.
Good enough to sluice.
Here we go. All right, let's go. You ready?
[Mike] Yup.
[Todd over radio] Let's haul some dirt.
You know, a bunch of bad luck here with the weather.
But, uh, here we are goin' again.
We're back up and running.
We're working good.
We're running gold.
Hopefully, we have a good cleanup on top of it.
[narrator] Back at the Lost Cut,
Andy returns to assess the impact of two straight days of rain.
[Andy sighs heavily]
[Andy] Oh, man. It's exactly what I was worried about.
What I'm seeing right now is, uh...
It's not good.
The, uh, hillside's moving.
And it's moving in the wrong direction. It's moving downhill.
[narrator] Here in the Lost Cut,
the overburden pile is the top layer of earth,
including moss, ice and frozen topsoil.
Early in the season, Andy stripped that overburden
and piled it to the west side of the cut
to expose the underlying pay dirt
the crew is actively mining for gold.
But as the warm weather and heavy rains
start melting the permafrost,
the location Andy chose is becoming unstable,
threatening to collapse
and contaminate the nearby creek with silt.
[Andy] It shouldn't be like that.
I may have been the one that...
made a really bad mistake
and I don't even know what I did wrong.
Um, that's the scary part.
I've never made a mistake like this before.
Um...
We have to do something to fix it.
What it is, I don't know.
For me to make mistakes,
costs everybody.
Costs money, costs gold.
I gotta tell Todd.
Not gonna be a pleasant conversation.
[Andy over radio]
Yeah.
[Andy] I need you to come down
and look at this overburden pile with me.
Okay.
[Andy] So I wanted to bring you down here and show you this.
I think I might have screwed up.
The whole picking pile is moving downhill towards the creek.
[Todd] I can see it.
-[Andy] You see it slopin', huh? -I can see this, yeah.
-It's like a landslide. -[Andy] It's going...
It's like a mudslide.
And if that water goes in the creek,
I know we're screwed.
That mud goes in the creek, it's over.
Yeah.
[Andy] [bleep] I don't know what I did wrong.
If we can stop it, we need to fight it right now.
[narrator] Quartz Creek is one of Alaska's
major spawning grounds for salmon
and a nutrient rich habitat to water dependent wildlife.
If the overburden silt runoff reaches Quartz Creek,
it could endanger the ecosystem.
What's more...
it could result in citations and fines
from multiple federal and state agencies,
shutting down the entire operation.
[Todd] It's bad.
If that mud gets into the creek, it could be over.
The whole summer could be over. The whole season.
I don't know what to do.
Like...
I don't know how to fix it.
We got a big problem.
[Andy] Yeah.
A really big problem.
[narrator] Government regulations require overburden dirt
on unmined ground
to be set back 35 feet from the creek.
Andy set the pile back 150 feet from the creek,
but the rain and heat
are causing the overburden to melt toward the creek.
This could potentially contaminate the freshwater
and put the Hoffmans at risk of being fined and shut down.
I don't even wanna move anything right now.
I don't even know what to move
or where to move it.
I don't wanna compound it.
So just...
Let's just hold until we figure it out. Okay?
Yeah.
[Todd] This is beyond us.
We need a pro that specializes in erosion management.
I'm gonna call around and get some help.
Okay. You okay with that?
-Yeah. -[Todd] Okay.
[line ringing]
[line continues ringing]
[Todd] Hey, Izak.
[Izak on phone] How you doing, Todd?
[Todd] Hey, thanks for picking up.
I appreciate it. Um...
I got a serious problem up here.
I wanna run it by you, if you got a minute.
We got, it looks...
What looks like a landslide off the back side...
of our overburden pile.
And it is heading towards the creek.
Mmm-hmm.
I would love to see you come up here, man, if you could.
All right.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
Yeah. I'll see you.
I'll see you when you get here.
[Todd] I just wanted this to be the best season
for my dad, the most gold he ever got.
And I just don't think that's gonna happen.
But we may not even be able to run.
We don't get that stopped on that back side,
we're probably gonna be done anyways.
[Todd] I think we're in trouble.
[Izak] I heard that in your voice when you called me.
-[Todd] Mmm-hmm. -That's why I'm here.
You're probably the most knowledgeable guy
on this type of thing that I ever met.
I think that the water content
in the particular ice on this section is way higher.
Because we had rain then heat,
very hot day and then more rain.
And the back side of that pile is just let go
and it's heading towards the creek.
So if that silt makes its way to the creek,
gets in the creek,
we would be shut down.
Yeah. You can't have, uh,
any sort of processed water leaking into a water shed.
Mud and creeks do not mix.
Certainly sounds like a mistake.
You know, having this, my dad's last season,
hopefully, this doesn't set us back too far.
What we need to do is assess it really quick,
get the plan of attack and get on it right away.
Absolutely.
[Todd] We've got to stop it.
[Izak] It's that or you guys are shut down.
[grunts]
Right there on the back side over there.
Whoa.
[Todd] What it looks like,
that whole side has got so much ice in it.
it's just sliding towards the creek, literally moving.
-[Izak] It's pushing from the inside. -[Todd] Yes.
[Izak] This is a little bit different
than I've dealt with in the past.
This permafrost is melting from the inside out
on top of the rains that they had,
and it just amplifies it dramatically.
There's way more water that we have to deal with,
so we're gonna have to hit this
with something extremely hard.
This is bad.
We don't have any time left.
If the runoff from the overburden pile goes into the creek,
it could potentially damage ecosystems,
fish habitat, drinking water supplies
many other things, so this is extremely important.
That's why the EPA has such a tight grip
on mine activities
such as this to make sure that it doesn't happen.
[Todd] Is there any way to stop this?
[Izak] There's a chance, but we need to jump on this right away.
-You gotta put lotta hands on it. -Right.
And I hope you got a lotta good hands.
-[Todd] I do. -So if--
-You do? Okay. -Yeah.
Well, let's... Let's get 'em together right now.
-Okay. -[Izak] We get one shot at this.
We're gonna have to get control
of the water that's coming down,
to make sure that we can manage that
and put it elsewhere where we can deal with it.
If we can't get this done and that stuff goes in the creek,
this is going to be shut down for the season.
It's gonna take everything you have.
Andy, I need everybody to stop what they're doin'
[on radio] ...and everybody meet up at the dome right now.
ASAP.
[Todd] Hey, we got a serious problem out there.
We literally have silt working its way into the creek.
Me and Andy...
we watched the back side of the pile,
which has ice in it, give way.
And, guys, if it gets to the creek,
we're out of compliance.
We're not gonna mine.
We're done.
So I brought my friend in, Izak.
He's got a lot of experience with erosion control.
Tell us your assessment.
It's bad.
If we don't get this stopped,
there's not gonna be any stopping it.
It can shut you guys down for the rest of the season.
So, I got a plan.
I'm gonna show you guys right now.
You got your mountain over here of sludge.
We need to stop this from going into the creek.
First thing is...
as you're walking along the creek,
make a couple of tracks with your excavator.
It's gonna sink down. It's gonna knock the tundra down a little bit.
You got a nice big berm there.
We're gonna put a silt fence in right here,
2200, 2300 feet of it.
This will be the primary.
This will be the secondary.
If this muck comes down
and somehow breaches this first silt fence,
you have a second one there.
If it breaches the second one for some reason,
you got a berm there.
After our silt fence is in,
straw wattle...
is gonna go right here.
And what that does is if this starts to flow
instead of the mud picking up velocity
and just going all the way to the bottom
and knocking these fences down,
it checks it.
So if we can get that done...
there's no chance...
of it going...
into your nice, blue stream down here.
[narrator] In order to protect the creek from melting silt,
the crew must excavate a trench
along the edge of the creek, install two silt fences
to limit water runoff and lay multiple rows
of fiber filled mesh tubes
known as straw wattle,
across the top of the overburden,
effectively stopping the silt from entering the creek.
Some of you have put silt fence in before, and it's not fun.
Silt fence in this tundra is gonna be even worse.
Any questions?
So are you saying that we can't mine,
we can't do anything...
-until we do this? -[Todd] No.
We're shut down, guys, until we get this fixed.
[sighs]
[Hunter] Honestly, we've been killing it this season.
We've been bringing in good gold,
you know, over 100 ounces per week.
And so right now we're on track
to make my grandpa's last season the best one ever.
We need to jump on this and get it fixed immediately.
We cannot let any dirty water into the creek.
[Izak] Sacrificing a few days to fix this problem
is better than sacrificing your mining careers.
I just don't usually make these kind of mistakes.
Not this kind of a mistake.
I just never...
-[Todd] Hey, look at me! -You know...
[Todd] Get over it!
Get over it.
-[Andy] Yup. -[Todd] Stop.
-Forget it. Forget it. -But it's like, all the stuff--
But all the stuff we've ever done up here,
it's like I've never felt like...
we're out of control. Ever.
Yeah.
[Mike] I've never seen Andy this bummed out.
I'm sure it's really weighing in on him,
but we're gonna try to fix this problem
the best, you know, the best way we can.
But If we can't, it's really gonna crush Andy.
You can't lose heart.
You're our leader.
But you don't know everything.
I wanted to bring Izak in
to help us with a plan.
But we have to implement it or we're done.
Izak, you didn't have to come up here.
-[man] Yup. -Thank you for comin' up and helpin' us with this.
Get us through this thing, man. Will ya?
Just... Just give us the bet...
What you've learned over the years,
help us get past this.
We're just a little tiny team up here by Siberia.
There's no mines anywhere around us.
And, uh, we've... We've carved out a little home out here,
a little weird spot, and I don't wanna see that end.
Now, it ain't gonna be easy.
Everybody's gonna be muddy.
It's deep. It's... it's... It's nasty.
I'm not gonna... I'm not gonna lie to you.
It's not gonna be fun.
I wanna win.
To win is to fix this.
I think everyone here has seen enough problems together
that it's not gonna be a problem.
We're gonna figure it out.
It's gonna be tough,
but we got a hell of a team so...
I know you guys are taking this pretty serious,
which I think all of you should.
Do I think we're going to beat it?
Yes.
Don't lose faith.
Do what's right and you'll be successful.
[Todd] Get your clothes on. Get your boots on.
Go get the silt fence.
Young guys get ready.
We need shovels...
axe, some hatchets.
Let's get the 360.
-[Andy] Yup. -All right?
-Yeah. -[Andy] Let's do it.
All right. Let's go.
[narrator] While the Hoffman crew awaits for supplies to arrive
to fix their silt problem,
the team pulls the mats from the sluice boxes.
[Micah] We start on this one...
Then this one, then this one, this one.
[Sterling] Okay, instead of doing all four at once...
-Yup. -[Sterling] I like it.
[Mike] We're clearly finished running for the week.
We got a few good days in, so me and the boys
are gonna go pull some mats
and, uh, bring it up to Jack
and Thurber in the gold room and see what we got.
[Sterling] Okay, I like it.
Little nugget party in there.
It's very important that we get
all the material off these mats.
-[man] That is... -There is a technique
taught and perfected by Jim Thurber.
First little rinse, let everything run off.
Let the face of it kind of slap the water.
Shake up anything that might be stuck.
And then...
Lift it in and out.
Going side to side
as you come up.
And in no time all your gold's washed out.
Look at all that.
[Jack] You know, Thurb, if they don't get
this thing solved down there,
we're not gonna have any more cleanups.
[Jim] Andy takes a lot of blame for it,
but the stuff's out of his control.
[Jack] If he hadn't done that...
-you know, we'd be done. -Stacked all the ice.
-Started thawing and... -But he did do that.
So now here we are fightin' it.
That was disheartening.
Such a pain in the keister.
I'm not kidding you. It is so bad.
I'm tired of fighting that kind of fight.
I can't be out there helping 'em.
They're doing it.
Hopefully, they are successful.
And we get to do some more cleanup.
Otherwise, we're not even gonna make it to 1,000.
We won't have a mine. They'll shut us down.
-So... -Yeah.
[tense instrumental music]
[Jim] We got 65 bundles of the wattle.
We got 19 bundles of stakes.
Got 950 stakes in the bottom.
I can't believe we found this in town.
[Mike] Yeah, I know. What were the odds?
I won't tell you how much it costs.
[Mike chuckling] I don't wanna know.
[Jim] Crazy, crazy.
-Yeah, I'll do the wattles and the second one up. -[Sparky] Okay, cool.
And all the silt fence in the back.
[Sparky] Okay, silt fence in the back.
Andy's already out by the creek stripping vegetation,
so that he's prepping for us to put in the silt fence.
And I know it's killing him right now.
It's killing us, too, man. I'd rather be out there digging for gold.
I have no idea if this is gonna work.
But, hey, we're going to war.
We're gonna stop this mud pile,
and we're gonna make it to the end of the season.
We're gonna work our ass off.
[Micah] We don't have any time to waste.
These guys gotta get this stuff in here.
We gotta get this out there so they can get it installed
before that mud makes it to the creek.
Burying Caleb alive.
[Micah] So, if they can get it installed tonight,
we can hopefully have an answer by morning if this is gonna work.
[Tater] Let's go.
Sparky, let's go!
Time to go, buddy.
We're gonna become men today.
[Tater] Are you guys ready for this?
All right, we're out of here.
So Andy's ahead of us.
He's just pulling off the vegetation
so that we're able to actually put the silt fence in.
You can't put it over the vegetation.
It'll just create places where silt will make its way
under the fence 'cause it's not sealed down,
and it makes it a lot easier for us to put it in.
According to Izak's erosion plan,
we're gonna dig a trench
right alongside the tall mound from the stripped vegetation and topsoil.
We call this a berm.
And it's going to be a tight barrier against the creek
to protect the creek from the runoff and silt.
[tense instrumental music]
Andy's building that berm.
I've been out in front marking the top edge of the creek
because this brush, he can't see in that excavator
where the drop-off is.
It hangs out five, six feet over the creek,
and the last thing we need is him in the creek with the excavator.
After Andy builds the berm and the trench,
this is where the crew is going to install the two rows of silt fencing.
The silt fence is a semi-permeable fabric
designed to filter sediment from the melt and rainwater
as it seeps out of the overburden pile.
[Tater] Hey, Andy, we'll follow 100 feet behind you with this fencing,
'cause it rolled out backwards.
It'll save us if we just do it that way,
messing around, trying to get a turnaround.
[Andy speaking on radio]
[Tater] Yes, we do. Thank you.
[Hunter] This is something we've never had to do before,
literally dig through the tundra and put up two layers of silt fence.
Go another 15 feet.
It's all hands on deck. Everybody's in here getting muddy,
digging trenches, hammering stakes in.
Our family's been mining for a long time now,
but we've really never dealt with water issues quite like this.
So, we're just dealing with it on the fly.
My boots were causing problems,
so you do what you gotta do and get rid of them.
And, then, if I get frostbite on my toes,
I'll get a couple of days off. So, I'm down to my socks.
[Izak speaking]
Why not?
I didn't know that part.
[Hunter] That won't go in anymore.
[man] This one's frozen ground.
[Hunter] Is that what's happening? 'Cause everyone saw
-I can't get the stake in it anymore. -[man] It's frozen.
Went in about two inches.
Underneath all of this moss right here, we've got what's called permafrost.
The moss insulates the ground that gets frozen every winter.
Like, right here, it is frozen.
Eight inches under the ground, you've got solid ice, and it's almost August.
It's just solid, clear ice right here on the ground.
And that's what makes digging harder.
That's what makes putting the silt fence in harder.
And that's what makes a lot of water, the stuff we're dealing with.
[somber instrumental music]
[Hunter speaking]
How far more do you have to go? Another four inches?
[Hunter speaking]
Okay, five inches? Cut whatever the distance you need to go off,
but leave a little stub for that to stick in
so it has something to go against.
Yeah, don't...
Give her a little sharpen up, too, if you can.
[Hunter] Yeah, we want more there, yeah.
[Izak] Perfect.
We're doing good. Coming up on 200 foot, each side.
So, 400 foot out of the...
I think we're gonna try to get, like, 1,200 feet in today.
That'll contain the bad part of it.
Once we have it addressed, you know, to where it's not gonna go in the creek,
we'll start extending it off of either end,
so we can expand the cut and keep on moving
and not have this problem happen again.
It's just tedious work, and it's all hand work.
You could have millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment,
and this is where the rubber meets the road.
[sweeping instrumental music]
[scoffs] It's dirty. It sucks. We're getting eaten alive by bugs.
But we literally have to get this done or we're screwed, so...
[tense instrumental music]
[Hunter] We're literally in the trenches now.
We're literally digging a trench, putting in two layers of fence,
building a berm. And we're doing it all by hand for the most part, so...
We're putting up a silt fence to try to keep
the melting overburden pile from going into the creek.
If this doesn't work and we get silt into the creek,
the EPA can shut us down and, then, there's no more gold at all.
If Andy would have put the overburden on the east side of the cut,
rather than the west side where the creek is,
we wouldn't be dealing with this issue right now,
and we wouldn't all be fighting for our lives
to try to save Jack's last season.
Most of the time, this would be the last thing we'd ever wanna do,
but, right now, we don't have a choice.
It's just a pain in the ass.
[Todd] The last step of Izak's erosion plan
is to install three rows of straw wattle,
basically 30 feet apart, across the melting overburden
to stop mud flow downhill.
There's a couple of little streams through here.
I'm gonna lay some straw wattle out across that,
slow down the velocity, let it build up and let the silt fall behind that.
These basically act as a filter.
Any water getting to the stream
will have to run through those and leave the silt behind.
So, what we got going on here is these.
We've got little streams coming down here prominently over there.
I wanna lay this out across those and stop that,
so it hits that and starts building up and filtering through this,
so it can't get down to that creek.
Walk fast. That's the key to this.
Don't stand in one spot, or you suction down and you're done.
Find a decent place to walk on top of this stuff.
Yeah, right.
[grunting]
Where is the end at?
[man speaking]
[Izak] No.
[Izak] No, can't walk on it.
But you can toss it out there like that.
[man speaking]
[Izak] Thirty-two feet each.
[grunts]
[dramatic instrumental music]
I'm screwed.
[grunting]
You gonna pull me out now? [chuckles]
[groans]
You stuck?
[Izak grunting]
Overlap it a little bit.
The water velocity is low enough that it's gonna just silt in.
See if you can just pull it out across that.
[straining]
If you can't get to the far end of that...
[grunts]
and pull it kind of straight.
Throw me one stake over here.
Throw me two stakes over here.
Three stakes! [laughs]
[grunting]
[Andy] You know, Izak's come up with a good plan.
The guys are putting in the silt fence.
I'm digging a ditch and building a berm.
We've gotta stop this mud from sliding and I think it's gonna work.
If this doesn't work, this is gonna be my fault,
and this is not the way that I wanted Jack to have his last season.
[narrator] If the crew gets it right, the melting overburden will run downhill.
As it encounters each line of defense,
the straw wattle, silt fence, and the berm,
the velocity of the runoff will slow, trapping the silt in the barriers
before it can contaminate the creek.
[Hunter] It's looking good. We're gonna go over above and beyond
on the measures that we need to take
to make sure that we keep all this silt out of the creek.
That's what has to be done.
We still have 1,000 feet to go with this fence,
and I'm really hoping it works.
Hopefully, this saves the creek, our paychecks, and Jack's last season.
[soft instrumental music]
[Jack] This is disheartening.
You know, it's kind of a joke.
People say, "It's our turn. It's our time to come. Our ship came in."
It's about time 'cause it's Jack's last year.
[sobbing]
But, you know, you have to really run a lot of yardage to do that.
We're shutting down because of the creek.
I don't even think we're gonna make 50 ounces.
This thing just hit us right in the teeth.
I blame Andy. It's Andy's fault.
It's been tough.
[Jim] I think if you stick at it long enough, your dream will pay off.
[machine rumbling]
[machine shuts off]
Oh, for Pete's sakes!
Something's going on with the motor.
[Jack] Uh-oh.
I think the motor broke.
[Jim] That's not a good sign right there.
I knew it was going too easy.
[Jack] I'll look around.
I might have some brand-new motors.
-[Jim] Well... -Listen, somebody's been in here making a big-ass mess
all right.
Can't wash gold with a broken jig motor.
Before the season started, I knew something like this might happen.
So I ordered all new motors.
Somebody let me down
and didn't get me all the new motors. Dang it!
Very fortunate thing is that I had another single jig.
And it has everything that this jig has in it, including a motor.
If this used motor doesn't work,
we won't be able to clean any of the gold
the guys brought in before we shut down.
[Jim] Okay.
You know, this is how we separate the gold from the concentrate.
You know, otherwise, it's all hands on deck, everyone panning.
And here we are, down and out, 90 miles north of Nome,
and we got a part.
That motor has been with me since about 2012.
And most of the summers, it's been running.
There's a gear in here, and it turns this,
which, this turns our belt,
which makes the pulsation,
pull, push, on the diaphragm that's underneath.
And you see this beard? You know? It's old.
This motor got old.
That motor has gray whiskers.
-What I wanna do real quick, I'm gonna-- -[Jack] Plug it in?
Yeah, but not yet. I gotta get it up there in the hole.
Just real quick.
Let me hang on to it, so it doesn't take off.
-Hang on, don't-- -[Jack] I'm not. I'm not.
You know, right now, the amount of time that this machine is down,
is costing us thousands of dollars.
[Jack] Give it two squeezes.
That's enough.
[Jim] Okay, I think I got everything started.
Please be...
We hope.
[soft instrumental music]
-[upbeat instrumental music] -[grunting]
Came down to check the silt pits.
[grunts]
[Jim] I was walking down and it was looking pretty good.
And, then, I looked up and saw the camera guy ass-deep in mud.
So, being the guy I am, I came up the hill to rescue.
[man] Oh, [bleep] Almost fell backwards.
I've never seen a camera guy scream.
[man] Get my camera.
Tell my mom I'm sorry and I love her.
Then, two more people had to come rescue us, too, so... [chuckling]
No!
[intriguing instrumental music]
[Jim] Okay, red goes to white.
Green, we've got black and black.
[Jack] The motor on her, she broke.
I have a spare motor, but there's no guarantee it's gonna work.
We're not gonna even have a cleanup this week
if I can't get this jig motor going.
Of course, that means no gold, and that would be pretty depressing.
[Jim] Okay, go ahead, Jack.
[Jack] Okay, cord's plugged in.
-Oh, that worked. -[Jim] Perfect.
-[Jack] Okay. -[Jim] Yeah.
Well, she's running really good.
Fired her up, we're going. So, money in the bank,
having extra parts.
[triumphant instrumental music]
[bell tolls]
[Andy] I feel a lot better than I did the other day.
We had a problem, and those young guys, they just stepped up
did what they needed to do.
The overburdened pile has melted a lot more.
But Izak came up with a really good plan, and we've implemented it.
And it seems to be stopping it, so I think we're gonna be okay.
I'm thankful for Izak.
He came in with a new perspective.
He's dealt with some of this stuff.
He gave us a really good plan and, right now, it seems to be working.
That crew is amazing.
They got down in there. They were losing their boots.
Stuck clear up to their knees in mud.
They just hammered down and kept putting in silt fence and got it knocked out.
I'm very satisfied with the results.
You know, I feel really good how everybody came together
to put in the berm, the silt fences, the wattle.
I'm pretty confident that we're gonna actually stop that silt
from heading towards the creek.
Hopefully, you know, we've done it right,
and we've worked our hardest to actually fix a problem,
and we won't get shut down.
[Hunter] Besides the setbacks and the mud and everything else,
saving Jack's last season is really all that matters to me.
I think everybody, you know, jumping in and working side by side on this fence,
it just really shows how important it is for us to work as a team
if we're gonna be successful.
Now that we have control of the erosion,
we can get back to mining and getting some gold for my grandpa.
[Andy] The tough part is that we haven't been mining.
I just hope that we can make Todd's goal.
And this is Jack's last season.
I can't imagine me messing something up on his last season
and being a failure. So, this has gotta work.
I never wanna let this team down.
[tense instrumental music]
[Todd] Hey, guys.
We all know, a very difficult week.
Talk about a 180 with a pivot in the wrong direction.
But if that mud would have made it down into the creek,
we would have been in violation of our permit,
something we've never had to deal with before.
When I first saw it, I felt like I should have caught it.
It really messed the season up, I mean, for everybody.
[Jack] Mining is this way.
It's up and down, and if it was just easy, everybody would be doing it.
There's gonna be better days in the future.
I know my dad spends months and months thinking about this.
He takes it to heart.
But this is the first year that everybody's really felt like a family.
I feel like everybody's here together, and we're doing it as a team.
-[Todd] We came together. -Yeah.
[Todd] But it's not moving, and it's drying up.
-So, we're good for now. -Yeah.
Well, we had some setbacks this week, but we did get some gold.
So, Thurber, Jack, let's find out.
Here she goes. There, weigh that for us.
-Let's see what we have. -[Jim] Still feels good.
[Jack] Okay.
And there's 12. And 20.
-[Hunter] Doesn't feel like a three-digit number. -And 30, 35, 37, 38,
39, 40...
43, 44, 45, 47, 48...
49.5.
Wow.
[somber instrumental music]
It wasn't one of our best days, that's for sure.
That really, really messed us up. Really messed us up.
Not where we wanna be.
But still, look, it's almost 50 ounces.
Probably $80,000 or $90,000. It's not the end of the world, okay?
It's still a lot of gold.
[narrator] With a minimal haul before their shutdown to save the creek,
a cleanup just shy of 50 ounces of gold
barely moves the Hoffmans closer to their 3,033-ounce goal.
To be honest with you, I don't know what the total's gonna be this year now.
This is a curveball.
But we're definitely not gonna give up,
and we're still in the game, okay?
Well, as long as we learn from this and move on,
we're going to better places.
[Tater] One setback isn't the end of the world. We got this.
You just keep your head up. Let's keep moving.
Andy, you know the gold's out there.
Get back out there. Go get it.
Okay.
All right, let's go.
[dramatic instrumental music]