[dramatic music playing]
[Todd] The inspectors are back on the mine.
[narrator] With millions of dollars on the line,
mine boss Todd Hoffman faces
a stop work order from the State of Alaska.
[inspector] You need to fix these infractions
or we will be forced to shut down your mining operation.
[Todd] That feels like a knockout punch.
[narrator] As environmental demands pile up...
It's a really time-consuming job.
-It's gonna be a long day. -[man] Yup.
[Tater] Sparky, Sterling, Hunter, let's do this.
10-4.
[narrator] ...Todd brings on new greenhorns
to make up for lost labor.
[Todd] Brought these two guys in,
Mike and Nick.
[Nick] I have no experience.
This is all completely new to me.
[man] When you crank your wheel,
you'll get stuck. Don't [bleep].
[Mike] You crank this [bleep], yeah.
[man] Just go easy with it.
[sobbing]
[narrator] But as both veterans and rookies endure
their hardest week yet.
Making mistakes was my biggest fear of coming here.
[narrator] The sparks of mutiny threaten
to engulf the entire operation.
[Todd] Who else has got something to say?
-Say it now. -We're out of the season.
We're not hitting 3,000.
But we trusted you guys.
[tense music playing]
We had a 3,000-ounce goal,
and now we're just fighting for our life right here.
That cut was gonna be twice as big,
so half the gold's still there.
The inspectors won't let us open up
any more ground in The Lost Cut.
And that means we cannot access
millions of dollars of our own pay dirt.
It's been a very difficult relationship with this land.
It's got good gold,
but it's also got a lot of water
a lot of mud
and, like, just a lot of issues.
I feel beat up.
I feel kinda demoralized
and I don't feel good.
I don't feel good about this season,
but it's really not about the gold,
it's about these guys.
And these guys put so many hours into this,
blood, sweat, and tears.
You can see the look in their eyes,
it's not a good situation.
And that's hard. It's not easy to deal with.
So, I need to talk to the guys
and then we're gonna win or lose together on this one.
Hey, guys, everybody.
Dude, I gotta be honest with you guys,
this not how...
I planned our season to go.
Had a turn of events, man, that was unfortunate.
You know, like I said to Andy earlier, I said,
"Hey, man, at least we got the best team we've ever had."
And he said, "Well,
maybe there's a problem with our team."
Some of you guys have been grumbling.
Let's say it right to the team, that's okay.
Let's see if we can fix it.
You dangle this gold bonus over everybody, right?
And that's such a motivating factor.
And if I wanted to, I could've stayed home
and, you know, made the same hourly wage.
But I'm not here for that.
[Todd] Framer, I know you've been talking [bleep].
So, let's bring it out on the table.
-Go ahead, Framer. -[Framer] Well,
all I gotta say is
I've been doing the math
and we don't even have half the cut we wanted.
I don't think one of us here is gonna home
with gold in their pocket.
I mean, I got bills to pay at the end of the year,
and if we don't make it to that gold bonus,
it's gonna be a lot harder to pay those bills.
We did make some mistakes that really cost us.
It's a big concern,
big concern for everybody here.
[Todd] Who else has got something to say?
Say it now.
[Sparky] We trusted you guys.
Andy, you're on the cut.
How'd you not see this landslide happen?
We're out of a season.
We're not hitting 3,000.
[Hunter] I think that it's understandable for the guys
to be worried about not getting a gold bonus.
Honestly, it makes sense.
You know, our season is taking a huge turn for the worst.
And it's really hard to not get discouraged.
And it's hard to not worry if your paycheck
is hanging in the balance.
[Andy] There's nothing that makes me happier
at the end when everybody gets their bonus.
So, any bonus I got,
I'll give to you.
This can't be done with all of you...
Without you guys.
You know, it's like... Your drive is passed down to all of us.
And I respect that heavily.
Well, that's why I'm having this meeting, Sparky.
-[Sparky] Yeah. -Because you're out talking
and your talking is gonna bring this guy down.
The only reason why I'm still mining
is because of Andy.
And it's those whispers that say,
"Hey, maybe Andy did this."
Or "We should've done that."
Hey, we're all in this together.
Individually, each one of us will fail.
As a team, we'll come out a winner.
So, be a team.
[dramatic music playing]
The question is, do we care enough
about this mine
to put in the hard work,
to have a shot at coming back?
We're definitely not gonna get it
if we don't have a great team.
[Framer] Well, you know, these inspectors, they came in
and some of the guys got scared
and started talking. But you know what?
I don't think anyone standing here would be here
if they didn't believe in you.
I honestly believe that.
[Todd] You're each gonna go home with some gold.
You're gonna go home with a gold bonus.
I can't promise you how big,
but I guarantee you, you will get a bonus.
No matter how hard it is
or how much it costs me,
me and Andy are gonna make sure of that, all right?
And we're gonna get to work
and we're gonna attack this thing and win.
We're gonna finish strong.
[man] Yeah.
[Sparky] The fact that Todd and Andy
is really guaranteeing us a gold bonus,
it just puts a fire up your ass and you just...
You know, you just wanna keep moving forward.
[Todd] We all know, guys, we're not gonna hit
the 3,033 ounces, but you know what?
Let's try to beat last season's gold.
So, I've decided to change my goal
from 3,033 ounces
to 1,023,
which is just over what we got last year.
You know what? If we get anything
over a thousand ounces,
I'm gonna call it a win.
That's my break even.
You know, I love these guys, we're gonna bust ass,
and get these guys a gold bonus.
[Andy] All right, guys. Get to work.
[Todd] Still one major issue
on our inspection list that we gotta fix,
I don't have the manpower to run both plants right now.
So, right now, we're only gonna run
the Holy Roller until we get it all done.
I might need to bring in some extra help.
Framer!
-Yeah. -Hey, so what I need you to do
is go to town.
I've located some pipe,
but it's 1,800 feet.
You know, a lot of it's used.
-[Framer] How big a pipe? -Just pick the best.
Twenties and thirties.
-Okay. -[Todd] Get a head count on it.
I gotta pay a guy in town.
We're gonna weld it together,
we're gonna get that water,
just take it right through.
This is the part of the process that we have to go through
because of all the inspections.
So, when it rains, we get a ton of water
along our roads.
So, the inspectors wanted us to create a piping system
to divert the water around our operation.
I'll go run in this morning, get that all,
-and I'll be back this afternoon with it. -Okay.
-Go for it. -All right. Sounds good.
[country music playing]
[engine starts]
[Framer] The fact that Todd said he pulled money
out of his own pocket to give us all gold bonus,
that would make him going home with nothing.
So, that's a huge deal to all of us.
Makes us all wanna work even harder
and it just goes to show
that we are really a small family here,
and it's a great thing.
Okay. So, we can't disturb any more tundra,
-we can't strip any more. -Well.
So, what we gotta do is get every single ounce
of pay dirt out of that cut.
How's the plant? Is it ready? Is it 100%?
The only thing we have in the plant that needs
to be worked on is the screens.
-[Todd] Okay. -The screens are very thin.
-Go ahead and let's, like, switch them out. -Okay.
[Todd] We're still running the Holy Roller
and since it's the only plant running,
we gotta make sure that that is tip-top shape.
-[radio beeps] -Hey, Dakota,
could you take and replace those screens
on the Holy Roller? We're gonna put all the pay dirt.
So, gather the guys
and let's get those screens changed up.
[Dakota speaking]
[engine shuts off]
[intense music playing]
We're at a point where we gotta get the gold
and so the screens need to be replaced.
[tool whirring]
[Dakota] If everybody wants to get a gold bonus,
including me, we gotta do it now.
[man speaking]
[Dakota] These screens, we got a whole season on them
last year already, so they're due for a change.
I mean, just regular wear and tear pretty much.
You can see on some of them are getting too worn down.
What will happen is they'll just get holes in them.
The bigger rock just ends up coming through those screens,
and then gets down in those hydraulics
and it'll mess up the flow of it,
and then just ends up blowing gold out the box.
[intense music playing]
[tool whirring]
We just gotta keep an eye on these things
and just regularly replace them
but, this should get us
through the rest of the season.
We need to get all these done.
[Sparky] Every guy's working their hardest
now that they know they're getting a gold bonus.
The two options you got here
is either you walk away or you try harder.
And we're out in the middle of nowhere in Nome.
So, if you're walking away, you're walking a long way.
So, I'm staying here.
And finish putting these screens in,
we'll fire up in the morning.
[intense music playing]
[pensive music playing]
I'm gonna warm up this genny right here,
get this excavator up and going.
It's me and Dakota are killing it.
[generator engine starting]
[Sparky] Just let her warm up.
Sparky, you ready?
[Sparky] Yeah, let's go!
-And get some gold in the box. -[Todd] Come on.
-What are we doing, man? -[Sparky] Let's run some dirt.
-[Todd] No kidding. -Let's get some gold.
Gosh.
I love these guys.
All right. Let's get some gold.
[tense music playing]
How's it going up there, Carl?
How's Sterling doing?
[dramatic music playing]
[light southern rock playing]
[Jim speaking]
[whistles]
[Todd] Back in the late '70s,
there's a TV actress,
her name was Farrah Fawcett.
[Sparky] Yeah, I thought you'd say that.
You know, at the end of the season,
maybe we can buy you a toupee.
I mean, I need that.
[laughs]
[Todd] Hey, guys. We lost Chambo,
so we needed more help,
brought these two guys in.
Mike and Nick.
We don't have enough manpower to run pay dirt
and do this inspection list,
so I hired a couple new guys
to go ahead and reach this new goal of 1,023.
Any advice, guys, for Mike and Nick?
[Jim clears throat]
You know, get up early,
have a good attitude
and you're gonna learn a lot
in a short time.
My name's Mike Moore.
I've known Thurber for about 18 years or so.
I don't know if I have the skillset for here, to be honest.
Did architectural sheet metal for 20 years,
so not really a lot of big equipment experience.
You guys do good,
everybody gets a bonus in gold,
and just depending on how long
you've been here, and your effort.
How do you want them to jump in
and start being trained?
[Jim] I think we'll just put them in the jump seat,
haul trucks today.
Because we're a little shorthanded
feeding the plant and stuff.
My name's Nick.
I'm from Portland, Oregon.
Hunter reached out to me, you know,
asking if I wanted to go run some rock trucks.
So, I'm just excited to get out there
and hopefully look for some gold.
[Todd] We've got one more project
that we're gonna do to satisfy the inspectors.
There's basically a lakebed
and then there's an old ditch.
You can barely see it in the tundra,
but that ditch is just draining that lake
straight into our cut.
[narrator] The final job on the inspection list
is by far the hardest.
To divert the natural drainage,
the Hoffman crew must raise their roadbed
by several feet, creating a dam
to block the water from entering their cut.
Then they'll weld 1,800 feet of pipe
to reroute the clean lake water
around their operation and back into Quartz Creek.
It's gonna be a long project.
Tater, you handle the road, grab some guys and trucks,
-we'll just attack this thing. -[Tater] Yup.
[Todd] Even with the new guys that I hired,
I don't have enough manpower to run both plants.
So, we have to finish this project as fast as we can,
so we could fire up the Black Pearl.
All right.
Let's get to work.
[Jim] Good.
[intense music playing]
[engines revving]
[Tater] We have all this water running across here
and right over here.
There's a bunch of water running across,
so what we're gonna do is we're gonna build this road up
and stop the water at the road.
-[radio beeps] -Sparky, Sterling,
Hunter, let's do this.
10-4.
[narrator] To raise up the roadbed,
the rock trucks would dump loads of dirt
onto the road while Tater uses
the skid steer to smooth it out over the surface.
[Tater] Just at this level right here,
where it crosses that, I'll tell you when.
Yeah, like that.
God, it's heavy.
Come in here. Let's make it all lined up.
[dramatic music playing]
[Framer speaking]
Let's get the end of that pipe all the way around that corner,
-to that mark I have on that berm down there. -[man] Yeah.
Then, after we get that done, let's take it out
of the machine and lay over here,
and we'll start again with another set
going up that road, and make it one pipe.
And then we'll call it a day.
[man] Sounds good.
[Framer] Now we just gotta get some pipe
off that truck and start welding it together.
It'd be a really quick
eight, ten-hour process. [laughs]
Today, we're installing 800 feet of pipe.
The pieces are about 30 feet long.
It's about 60 welds,
so it's a really time-consuming job.
[man] It's gonna be slow-going.
The thing is, is that it's all about the welder,
like it only heats and cools so fast.
It's gonna take what it's gonna take,
but we're gonna get it done today
even if we gotta work through the night.
Bust her open.
Well, first weld out of 60.
Going good so far.
[man] It's gonna be a long day. [laughs]
[Framer] Yup.
[Todd] One thing I learned this year is that,
if I could surround myself with guys like this,
then it sure makes it a lot easier.
Just quality guys, man.
No matter what, at the end of the day,
you know, I could die with more gold
than I have but I really wanna die
with a good reputation and being known
as taking care of my people.
I'm gonna give gold to each
and every one of these guys.
I really wanna reward them for their loyalty.
It's been a hard season.
[Sparky] All right, boys.
We're rock-trucking today,
and we can teach you a thing or two
so we can move some major dirt.
[Nick] I have no experience, this is all completely new to me,
so, I'm just ready to take
whatever they can give me.
These tires are dangerous as [bleep].
Each tire has a little locker on it,
you wanna pay attention to that, and if looks off, you tell somebody,
and you tag it out, and you're done.
Because if it's broken, that ring comes out
like a million miles an hour, it'll cut you in half.
You know, my first impressions of Nick is, you know,
he's a small, frail little guy.
You know, he's a tiny little mouse, he's a little Mighty Mouse.
You said when you're operating, or working on the equipment,
you use this little red bar, there's a safety protection thing?
Yeah, dude. You don't wanna be responsible for crushing someone
because this will crush someone and kill them.
He's never done this line of work before.
This is the big boy equipment.
It can be dangerous.
[Sterling] Let's get it warmed up
and go over to Cowboy Carl.
Cowboy Carl will put a load on us.
[horn honks]
[intense music playing]
[Sparky] Mining ain't for everybody.
It's a hard life.
So, you gotta realize that this is a consistent battle
for the one thing that we're after,
the gold in the ground.
[Nick] All right. [laughs]
[intense music playing]
[Framer] The guys are doing really good today,
they're getting this pipe welded together
and working as a team over here,
and we wanna get this done for Todd
'cause he promised us a gold bonus.
The sooner we get it done,
the sooner we can be done with the inspection list,
and get this plant fully operational again.
Oh, [bleep].
Hold on.
You've gotta be kidding me.
Oh, [bleep].
We're gonna have to fix this.
[country music playing]
[Todd] Hey.
-What's going on on the pipe? -[Framer] I don't know.
The machine just stopped working last night,
just froze up.
Worked on it for, like, two hours.
-[Todd] Did it get hot or-- -Couldn't even get it to move.
No. The valve will not open and close
on the slide for the pressure.
-[Todd] Okay. -I spent longer working on it
than we had left to weld.
It was a bummer.
We worked all the way through the night
and then literally, the welder breaks
and we couldn't finish.
Hopefully, we can get the welder fixed
and get it done this morning.
Hey, whatever you guys have on your schedule, Tater, Ron,
that pipe welder, number one.
We gotta get that fixed and fast.
You know what? This is the last thing
I wanted to hear today, it's just another setback.
We can't complete our inspection list
until we finish this job.
We need to fix this ASAP
and get this thing off our plate.
Then we can free up all of our guys
and get this mine fully operational
to try to reach that goal of 1,023.
Can you guys tackle that?
-See we can figure that out? -Yeah. We'll hit it.
I don't really know a lot about it
but between the two of us, we can figure it out.
Okay.
Let's do it.
[intense music playing]
Okay. Pull up the road right there
and follow around...
[Carl speaking]
[Nick] Don't hit that?
[Carl] Now just pull up far enough,
you can correct it slow
and not just yank it around.
[truck revving]
We have some new drivers that are very inexperienced.
This is third second or third day,
and backing in these situations
is a whole different ball game.
Okay. That's far enough.
Now just start easing back.
Keep coming, keep coming.
Okay. Turn around a little harder to your left.
More left.
Come back slow, straight back.
You wanna stay off them berms.
Okay, that's good.
Shut the car off.
Just trying my best, keep a level head.
All these guys are working really hard to get,
you know, Todd some gold and their gold bonus.
And I don't wanna be that new guy who messes everything up
and be the reason why no one takes home any gold.
[horn honks]
[Nick] Hey, Dakota, you want this right next to you?
10-4.
Being here around a bunch of guys, you know,
who probably have mined longer than I've been alive,
it's a little bit intimidating,
I feel overwhelmed,
and like I don't really belong here.
[Carl speaking]
What does it mean?
[Dakota speaking]
I just came here to work my butt off
as long and as hard as I can.
Being successful at this job is super important for me
because this team's given me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to really prove myself
and show them what I got,
so I really don't wanna let them down.
[Dakota speaking]
Yeah, right there. Just back up.
Yeah, a little bit.
Yes, right there.
[dramatic music playing]
[Tater sighs]
[Ron speaking]
We're really close to having a pipe welder broke,
we're trying to fix it.
[Todd] How are we lookin'?
Well, we figured it out.
So, you could run it the way it is now,
but you're not gonna have this.
The handle is... There's a tab broke off in it.
-Oh, [bleep]. -We can manually run it.
You gotta be careful with it,
but we can run it the way... Without this.
Come here, I'll show you what you gotta do.
-Push that pin... -[Framer] Yeah.
...either direction.
See there's an ear on that side...
-Uh-huh. -out on that side? The ear broke.
-Oh. -[Tater] To put it on,
you slide it out like that,
you slide it on the end of that pin...
Yup. And it pulls and pushes it.
And it pulls and pushes it.
It's not gonna be fun, but you can run it.
[Todd] The valve broke off, you're not gonna find one.
You can manually turn it off and on like this, manually.
It's not ideal but that's all we got right now,
we gotta get this project done.
You think you could run it?
I'll do the running part of it
and they can just do the pipe.
[Todd] This is the last big thing that the inspectors
wanted us to do, so I gotta get this job done
so I can get back to running both these plants.
That's gonna help me help these guys
get their gold bonus.
Get it going.
We can actually get done welding now,
it's just gonna take a little bit longer
and it's gonna be a lot harder on our fingers.
[welder turns on]
Okay, Nick, you're free to go.
Take it easy going up the hill though.
10-4.
Hey. Take it easy when you're turning out there,
you're running over that corner,
kind of go a little straighter.
Ease out of it, don't cut the corner.
Okay. Back up.
Come on back like 10 more feet.
[dramatic music playing]
[Carl] Okay. Now turn.
Don't turn way too sharp, it won't cut like that.
-[truck clatters] -[Carl] Okay. Back up.
[Nick] [bleep].
[Carl] Turn the other way your wheel.
Keep going. Turn hard.
Okay. Stop.
I'm coming to you, Nick.
[Nick] [bleep].
[Carl] When you're coming in here,
when you crank your wheel like that,
see how it slides out that front end?
-[Nick] Yeah. -[Carl] So you wanna pull up,
get far enough, and just kind of make a slow,
easy, gradual corner.
It'll come right in. But when you pull up
and cut it hard like that, you'll get stuck.
When you're backing, the same thing.
-Don't [bleep] just... -[Nick] Crank the--
-[Carl] [bleep] -[Nick] Yeah.
[Carl] Just go easy with it.
If you don't do that, we're gonna end up
in this [bleep] and have to pull you out.
[Nick] Making your job harder.
Yeah, I don't wanna do that.
[Carl chuckles]
[cries]
[bleep].
Okay. Turn.
There you go. Straighten out.
Oh, God.
Why can't I stop crying?
[sniffles]
[crying]
[dramatic music playing]
[crying]
[dramatic music playing]
[crying]
Making mistakes was my biggest fear coming here.
I've been struggling a lot keeping that positive mindset
of everything's gonna be okay.
I just wanna take whatever I can do with this opportunity
and prove to Todd and everybody else that,
you know, I'm the right investment for their team,
and I can help them get this mine back up and going.
[Carl] Hey, Andy.
Nick's having a hard time.
You need to talk to him.
[Andy] Roger.
Hey, Nick. Do you copy, Nick?
[Nick] 10-4.
Go down and park the truck down in the...
Uh, back where you got it from,
and then I'll come pick you up.
Sounds good.
[dramatic music playing]
[Andy speaking]
[Nick] Doing great. [sniffs]
[Andy speaking]
[Nick] I just don't wanna slow anybody down.
I wanna get this plan up and going.
[Andy] Listen, you're learning, right?
You'll get faster and faster and faster.
-It's all good. -[Nick] I...
What did I do to deserve this, man?
[Andy speaking]
[Nick] This opportunity doesn't feel real.
[Andy speaking]
I just... I've been [bleep] strung out on drugs, alcohol,
everything you could think of.
Being a piece of [bleep].
[Nick speaking]
[sniffing and sobbing]
[Andy speaking]
It doesn't matter what you did in the past,
you can't change yesterday.
You can change today and you can change tomorrow.
[Nick speaking]
[Andy] All right. No, no, no.
The thing about it is, like, your mind gets this way,
you gotta... You gotta step back a second
and just take a deep breath.
It's okay to say, "Hey, I need a minute."
-[Nick] Yeah. -[Andy] You're gonna get better.
[Nick] And I just want you guys to understand
that I want you to...
I wanna be a good investment for your team.
And if I make mistakes all enough to it
no matter what and I'll try my best.
And no one's given me second chances in life
besides [bleep] Todd and you guys.
-And-- -[Andy] Yeah.
We're here to invest in people.
[Andy speaking]
Okay? We're pretty harsh individuals,
but we have a heart.
Here, this is your family away from family now, right?
We gotta take care of each other.
And you got our backs. We got your back.
-Everything will be fine. -You have my word on that.
-Yes. I got you. -[Andy] Okay.
Keep listening and you'll do fine.
-Okay? -[Nick] Thanks, Andy.
-I appreciate it. -[Andy] Okay. Well, go off.
Out.
You won't regret having me in that truck.
I don't.
[dramatic music playing]
Andy just, you know, was motivating me
and telling me that it's completely normal
for emotions like this to run.
You know, everybody's watching out for each other.
I've never really had that.
So, I jump back in and haul as many loads as I can.
I'll tell you what, the gold is nothing compared
to what that conversation that I just had will have an impact.
That's really why we do it.
Gold is second.
If we don't hit our goal this year,
oh, well, we don't hit it.
It doesn't mean like the rest of the season
I'm not gonna bust guys' balls
and we're not gonna go hard
and try to do everything we can,
but this is...
This is our purpose.
You got this, buddy. You got this.
[dramatic music playing]
[man] Where are you building that?
[Framer] Right over the machine.
Yeah. Just set it up on this
and we'll put two two-by-fours over there.
-Okay. -And we'll lay that [bleep] across there.
Welder broke last night
and we had Ron and Tater come out
and get it fixed first thing this morning
and now we're back to weld the pipe
and getting it all finished up.
It's raining.
She can't weld with rain on the pipe.
The water cools it enough on top to where
it won't actually weld.
All right. We heated up the temperature
and ready to rock.
All right. Go ahead. Nice and easy.
Eight feet, six, five.
Slow down, slow down, slow down.
Keep going, keep going, and keep going.
One more foot. Nice and easy.
Stop right there.
How many more feet do we got to go?
-About 350. -[Todd] Jeez. Okay.
We're getting three cuts an hour, maybe?
I'm getting almost five right now.
Really? Okay.
Well, that's good.
Framer's got to manually use the valve,
but we got to do it right.
It's a fine line between welding it,
giving it enough time,
or being in a hurry
and risking that pipe breaking.
So, we're still cranking away.
Hopefully, we'll have this project done
in about three, four hours.
All right. Well, it's not as easy to operate anymore,
but it works.
[dramatic music playing]
[Framer] This is it.
Just like everything else
on this mine that we start,
took twice as long as it should,
but we got it done.
Now, we can throw it in the ditch
and get it running
and move on to our next job.
The piping got it buried.
Hopefully, we get down here on the other end.
We got a bunch of water coming out.
[Todd] Come on, Framer. Let's go check it out.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Todd] Look at that. -[Framer] Yup.
[Todd] Whoo!
-[chuckles] -Yeah.
-Good work. -[Framer] So--
[Todd] That's all that water that we don't need
and straight into the creek,
bypassing our whole operation.
Perfect. I like it.
We added four feet of road that will hold water.
We packed it down.
We're gonna catch all this water
and we're piping it all the way to Quartz Creek
and bypassing every part of my operation.
Taking a picture for the inspectors.
Let me check that off the list.
You know, this was the last big job on the inspection list
and this is like a huge relief that we actually got it done.
We've had a lot of losses,
but this one here feels like a win, you know.
-Finally. -[Todd] Yeah.
-All right. -[Framer] All right.
[Todd] Good job, man. Appreciate it.
[Framer] Good deal.
[dramatic music playing]
It feels good getting this mine back up
on both feet again.
Water staying out of the cuts,
we're back on track.
[Hunter] He's gonna guide you in there.
Come on. Back, back...
Back, back, back.
Drop it.
[man speaking]
Nice job, Nick.
All right. We're looking good.
Let's fire up the Black Pearl.
Okay. Firing the plant.
[whirring]
Finally, we're back to firing up Black Pearl,
done all these little projects that we're able to fire up,
and hopefully, we can get some more gold and come out of the hole.
Hopefully, we can get some gold for everybody.
Not just trying to make our bills.
We need to get gold for the guys.
-[Jack] Hey, Nick. -[Nick] Hey.
-How's it going, Jack? -[Jack] Talk to you for a second?
[Nick] Yeah, no problem.
I know that you're struggling.
You know, that's pretty usual.
I've been down that path several times.
My main goal with these young guys is to help them
in their life to go past the bad part.
Are you doing okay now?
-Yeah. I mean... -Yeah.
In the beginning, you know, I...
It just got overwhelming for me, you know?
-Yeah. -'Cause I thought of it as, you know,
a new opportunity and a reset
-for my life to get things going. -Yeah.
-But I feel a lot better,
-more confident. -[Jack] Yeah.
I just want you to know that
you are... You're well-loved here.
[Nick] Thanks, Jack.
-Appreciate it. -[Jack] Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
There's nothing on that side.
-This one's... Oh, here it is. -[Caleb] Yeah.
-It's right on the edges. -[Sterling] All right.
I thought it was gonna be really good every time.
I thought we were just gonna get 100 ounce
-clean-outs every time. -I thought gold mining
was easy after seeing that first couple poles.
[Sterling] And then we started to get 100 ounce clean-outs...
-[Hunter] Yeah. -...and then we just decided
to stop finding and start doing ponds [bleep]
[Dakota] Still thought 100 ounce a day is just normal
-and then reality finally-- -It's just a light week.
After our first couple poles of being 100 or more,
these low poles are just kind of...
It's disheartening, but at the same time,
you know, we just gotta work that much harder
to get out there and get that much more gold
out of all this ground.
[Andy] You know, we've had about as many setbacks this year
as you can possibly imagine,
but the one thing that sets this season
aside from anything is that these young guys
have really stepped up.
Just proud of 'em.
You know, these guys definitely deserve
every bit of gold that Todd gives them.
[Dakota speaking]
[Andy] You see anything in those?
-What? -[Andy] You see anything in those?
-[Dakota] No. -[Andy speaking]
-Not the same. -[Andy sighs]
The masks don't look that great.
But I know that we've given every effort
that we possibly can.
Do what we can do.
But thank you. Good job.
[Dakota] All right.
What's in the box is in the box,
but it's not for a lack of effort, that's for sure.
[narrator] To reach their revised season goal
of 1,023 ounces of gold,
Todd and his team will need to bring home
an average of 80 ounces for each remaining week.
Hey, I just wanna thank everybody
for doing all the work, all the repairs.
Appreciate everybody's hard work on this.
So, just wanted to say that before we get started.
So how's the cut going?
Well, we're gonna run out of pay pretty soon.
With all the inspections and problems we've had this year,
it stopped us from stripping.
So, the dirt that we got in there
is all we're gonna get at this point.
There's not much left.
[Todd] So I heard there was some issues with the new guy,
Nick, and me and Andy talked about it.
It's really easy just to send a guy like that home, right?
That's the easy solution
because it's uncomfortable for us.
But if we're truly, you know, walking our talk,
we got to try to work our way through.
-Mmm-hmm. -Andy, what'd you...
What do you think?
I realized that really the reason why he's so upset
is the opportunity that's been given to him.
And he doesn't wanna let us down,
and he's overwhelmed
just how much we're trying to help him.
Basically how much grace we're giving him.
And I just said, "Hey, everybody makes mistakes,
but we'll help you through it."
So, he's never been treated so good anywhere,
that's what he said.
He'll come along.
We just got to keep giving him the opportunity.
As long as he's safe, we'll keep giving him a shot.
With him, I think we're doing a good work.
But it is weird when your rock trucker's crying.
-Like... -[chuckles]
[Todd] it's definitely not normal but...
You know, a lot of people have cried on this mine.
-[Jack laughs] -Quite a bit.
I've cried a few times.
-Thurber cries a lot. -[Jack] Yeah, me too.
All right, Dad, how'd we do?
Well--
[Todd] I changed our goal
to something more realistic.
Hey, let's just beat last year's.
So we're hoping to get to 1,023 ounces
before the end of the season.
[Jack] You call it out.
[Todd] Thurber?
Ten, 20,
32, 43,
56, 60, 76,
-79.6. -[Jack] Hmm.
-Not bad. -[Thurber] Good.
I'll take it.
[Hunter] Where are we at on the season, Thurber?
We're at 704.4.
That's off... We're over $1 million.
Probably what, $1.2 million, somewhere in that ballpark.
It's nothing to sneeze at.
I remember seasons where we had less than $10,000.
Okay? So, it's better than nothing, right, guys?
It's good. And hopefully, it gets better.
Even last year we had times
where you'd shutdown the plant,
and I'd barely see any gold in the box, so.
[narrator] With a 79.6 ounce haul,
the Hoffmans need 319 more ounces
to hit their 1,023 ounce gold.
Thanks for all...
You know, for everybody sticking together
during these tough times.
We appreciate that because this has not been easy
for me or anybody else.
So, we really appreciate everybody.
I mean, dude, this is just how gold mining goes.
You can have everything set up perfectly
and everything's gonna go wrong.
-[all chuckling] -Yeah, it is. Yeah.
Why is that? Dang it. All right.
Well, it's still a lot of gold and it's 'cause of you guys.
So, good job, everybody.
-Let's get to work. -[Hunter] Okay.
-[Todd] Good job, guys. -Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]