So many creeks down here.
[Tyler] It's so blue.
Is there gold in these creeks around here?
Yeah, we're in the goldfields.
- Parkers Creek. - [Jeff] Parkers Creek.
[Tyler] No.
[Parker] Stop, stop, stop. We've got to get down there.
What are the odds of that?
We should find some gold in Parkers Creek.
- My creek. - [Daniel] Yes.
[Tyler] Yes.
Check it out.
It's not even Parker Creek.
It is Parkers Creek.
[laughs]
- [Parker] Oh, yeah. - Right?
If you find some gold here, that would be amazing.
[Parker] Do you think we're on private property?
[Tyler] Oh, did we check?
[Parker] I don't know, Tyler. That's part of your job.
Yeah. No, no.
[Daniel] Searching for gold in Parkers Creek.
[Jeff] Nothing.
Did he find any?
[Daniel] No joy?
[Parker] I don't think so.
[Daniel] Nah.
[Parker] We tried.
The journey continues.
We're also probably on private property
and I don't feel like getting shot.
- [Daniel chuckles] - [Jeff] Yeah, good idea.
At least we can tell, we didn't find anything.
[Daniel] Parker is a bust.
[Parker] Get out of here.
[Tyler] Hey, how are you?
Yeah, I'm good, good.
Um, thank you for getting back to me.
[Paul] Parker Schnabel is on the hunt for a washplant
for his Alaska operation, and is leaning on 26-year-old
prospector Tyler Mahoney to find one.
But two weeks into the trip, she still hasn't delivered.
[Tyler] We're looking for washplants for sale,
so I was just hoping that, um, maybe you wouldn't mind
if we headed up to your site and checked it out.
Mmm-hmm.
All right. Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Cool. All right.
It looks like we're a go-ahead.
That one looks fresh.
[Paul] Two weeks ago at Iain Whyte's mine near Hokitika...
[Parker] I'm liking what I'm seeing here.
[Paul] ...Parker fell in love with a brand-new washplant
with a cutting-edge design.
I really like this plant.
[Paul] But left empty-handed.
We started talking money a little bit, but it's his baby.
This sets a very high standard for what we're looking for.
[Paul] Since then, Parker has seen three more plants...
[Parker] How old is this unit?
She's, uh, 38 years old.
[Paul] ...but is yet to find the right one.
It's just not what we're looking for.
[Parker] The biggest problem we've got right now
is we're up against it for time.
If we don't find a trommel to buy that we can move
to Fairbanks in time that's probably gonna be as specialized
as I want it, that's gonna be tough.
[Paul] Now, with only five weeks left in country,
it's on Tyler to keep delivering hard new leads.
[Parker] Right. Where are we off to, Ty?
[Tyler] We are going to see a man called Matt.
Matt Dove.
He's a gold miner up in this region.
He's running a trommel.
He's got two up there.
One of them is for sale.
So that's why we're heading off to have a look at it.
[Paul] After striking out in Greymouth,
the team drive 175 miles north
to the heart of the Tasman region
in the foothills of the Southern Alps.
I can see a trommel.
[Tyler] Another trommel?
No way.
We're here.
All right.
[Tyler] Hello.
Good to see you. Good to meet you in person finally.
- [Matt] Yeah. - [Tyler] Thank you.
- Here's the rest of the crew. - [Matt] How are you?
[Parker] Parker. Nice to meet you.
Hello, mate. I'm Danny.
So you guys are obviously doing a bit of a tiki tour around the country.
[Parker] Yeah. Checking stuff out.
[Paul] With permits to over 7,000 acres of ground,
Matt Dove is considered one of the region's most successful miners,
in part because he can run his massive operation with just three crew members.
[Parker] Did you grow up mining?
[Matt] No, no.
I, um, bought a piece of property on the West Coast, five acres on the beach,
and someone told me at the pub one night that there was gold
under the front fence at five meters,
so I started digging around there one summer
and I put the pan in there and there's hundreds of colors
in the dust, you know? [bleep], I'm on it.
[Parker and Tyler laugh]
[Matt] Went inside and met, you know?
[Parker] That's a great... That's a great origin story.
[Tyler] You got gold fever?
[Matt] And, um, then it just led on from there.
[Tyler] Is this the trommel that you had, um, to show us?
Yeah.
This one's been around for a while.
[Tyler] Cool.
- [Matt] It's been a good, reliable screen. - All right.
Like, conveyer off, this thing's probably road legal.
Yeah, it is.
All you have to do is just take the conveyor off.
You know, with this, she's skidded straight on the truck,
and you're off to the next job, you know?
[Paul] Big yellow is mobile and cost efficient.
Its signature features, a six-foot-wide space saving sluice run...
and a pivoting tailings conveyor
which spreads out waste material
reducing time spent clearing tailings.
Valued at $100,000, this one-of-a-kind plant
is well within Parker's $1,000,000 budget.
[Matt] This screen is cheap to run too.
This thing's about 20 bucks a day, you know, in diesel.
- [Parker] Really? - [Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] If we're gonna make Fairbanks a success,
we've got to take a New Zealand approach of,
you know, coming into it smart, being efficient.
And so guys like Matt are gonna be really valuable sources of information.
[Daniel] At, at an initial glance, I looked at the washplant
and I was just like," Oh, this is gonna be a [bleep] disaster."
Did you?
Yeah, I mean don't judge a washplant by its appearance.
It's a good little plant.
The pivoting tailings conveyor is a nice design.
You know, this washplant might not look like much,
but one really cool thing about this is it's one of the only plants
I've seen that is operational and road legal at the same time.
Right? Because in Fairbanks we're close to highways.
And if you're moving on a highway,
you have to be road legal. Right?
In the Yukon, we put sluice on a trailer sideways at 40 feet wide.
[chuckles]
You can't do that in Fairbanks.
So let's, uh, let's see it in action.
[Matt] Well, I was wondering whether Parker would come
and help me dig a bit of dirt first.
See if there's any yellow stuff in it.
[Tyler] Could we go prospecting?
Yeah, that's the plan.
[Daniel] It's a little bit nervy at the moment,
and, um, it's a bit hard to know what's going on in his head.
So in my head, we'd rock up, we'd see the trommel working
and we'd chat about him maybe selling it.
But yeah, things, um, definitely haven't gone to plan.
So I kind of feel a little bit awkward/embarrassed
and it's definitely not going how I thought it would.
[Parker] We need to find a washplant first and foremost.
[Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] But I'm always looking for ground, so...
That'd be awesome.
In any business and the ones that are looking
at the most opportunities survive.
Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
[Tyler] Do you have quite a bit of ground around here?
[Matt] Yeah, there's about 2,000 or 3,000 hectares
or something we've got under permit here.
[Tyler] Matt's got a lot of land here.
In New Zealand the legalities are quite intense,
so the fact I think he's got four permits is really impressive.
He must be finding good gold if he can afford to run that many permits at a time.
[Matt] We're here under the Southern Alps
and going into a bit of an exploration project
where the old timers have been sniffing around 100 years ago,
and some of the ground that they looked at back
then thought was no good
is actually probably good ground for mining now.
[Paul] Gold was discovered on New Zealand's South Island in the 1860s.
On their way to the West Coast, prospectors passed through
the Tasman region, but few took the time to explore.
Located to the northwest of the Southern Alps,
glacial movements have littered this landscape with rich pockets of gold,
and the potential for gold rich ground looms large.
You've got a lot of expectation
for this bit of land we're looking at?
Oh, I wouldn't know what we're gonna come up with.
That's the whole thrill of the chase.
That's why we get out of bed in the morning,
see what sort of treasure we can find.
- Don't we, Parker? - Yeah, exactly.
- [Tyler] Spoken like a true miner. - [Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] What do we need to do?
[Matt] Uh, we need to walk that digger into the pit,
and you may have to do a bit of stripping.
- [Parker] Sweet. - [Matt] Yeah?
- [Parker] All right. - [Tyler] Perfect.
- [Parker] Put me to work. - [Matt] Okay. Let's get on with it.
[Paul] The team head to a five-acre plot of virgin ground
on the northwest side of the mine site.
[Matt] Parker is good. He's keen. He's young.
He's got a lot of knowledge.
And I think he's somebody that could add value to any mining operation.
It's just good to have another miner to hang out with
and give me a hand on the digger
and see what it's gonna come up with today.
And, um, maybe we'll have a bit of a discussion
about the business side of things later on.
[Tyler] This is so different to what I'm used to.
I'm just used to red dirt and flat.
It's actually quite refreshing to see some green grass.
[Parker] It's kind of cool, you know.
I haven't done too much like actual exploration here in New Zealand.
You know, it's like you never have proper equipment, so it's just cool.
Looking forward to seeing what's here.
Did any of us actually consider any of this?
I think if there's enough gold, it's always on the table.
[Paul] Parker excavates six feet of overburden.
The goal, run 20 yards of dirt to see if they've hit a pastry.
[Parker speaking]
[Daniel] There it is.
[Parker speaking]
All right, Ty, you can take that over to the washplant.
Thanks, Parker.
[Daniel] Talk to me about this as a, as a place to mine.
I mean, the reason why I jumped at the chance to spend a day
doing exploration with Matt is I'm always looking for ground.
I always say I'd go mining anywhere.
It wouldn't take much of a push to convince me
that this was a good place to be.
Awesome country.
Cool people.
Super pretty.
Why not?
[Parker] There's lots to learn about feeding plants
and moving dirt and stripping.
[Paul] In New Zealand, 27-year-old Parker Schnabel
has seized on an unexpected opportunity
and is prospecting a piece of ground.
We've just been talking about mining in general
and it's a hard industry to get into and, um,
to get the permits is not easy.
You've got to be able to show that you've got the financial capability
and you've got the expertise.
[Paul] Parker excavates pay...
[Jeff] Now that's a cool little plant.
[Paul] ...while Jeff and Matt get his two-foot test plant, little red, up and running.
[Matt] We're using the same sort of set up with the riffles
as what we are on the big yellow screen.
So we're using expanded metal and then onto a set of standards
and then the hydraulic riffles.
[Jeff] I think it's nice and simple, small, easy to move around.
I like how it's got the grizzly bars up so it minimizes
the chances of getting a, a clog.
This is, uh, perfect for what we're doing here, that's for sure.
Belt tension is good. We got oil. We got fuel.
And yeah, just got to get some water to the plant and fire it up.
And the next biggest step is when Tyler comes down with some pay.
[cows mooing]
[Tyler] Oh, [bleep].
[Tyler honks]
[Tyler] Okay, you definitely don't get this in Kalgoorlie.
[Tyler honks]
There's literally a herd of cows on the road.
[cows mooing]
I don't know what to do.
[chuckles]
[Tyler] Oh, my [bleep] That's gotta be like
three hundred head of cattle that I've just got in the way of.
[Parker on radio] You get a C-minus on a dump truck so far, Tyler.
[Tyler] Good gals. They can have it.
Come on.
[cows mooing]
We don't see that every day.
[Jeff] There she is now.
[Matt] Yeah, that'd be good.
[Jeff] All right, we got water.
[Matt] You better get up top there, straight away,
'cause it won't take me long to chew through that.
Yeah, roger. I'll get a move on, then.
[Jeff] Everything's going really good right now.
We're running quite a bit of pay.
We've got a really nice wash.
The, the sluice runs are running perfect.
And, yeah, the, the, the riffles aren't clogging up at all.
[Daniel] How was it down there?
Good. They've got it up and running.
Um, the trommel's working perfectly.
[Parker on radio] Sorry. We bring down another load and, and that'll do us.
Hey, Parker, just a heads up.
Matt said this is the last load.
[Parker on radio] All right. You're good to go.
All right, we're done.
[Tyler] Hello.
- [Jeff] How's it going, Parker? - [Tyler] A'ight.
- [Parker] This is cute. - [Jeff] It's working good.
[Daniel] Oh, it's a good-looking little thing, innit?
[Tyler] Yeah. Watch yourself.
[Daniel] Well made.
- [Parker] How's it going? - [Matt] Hey. Good.
[Parker] I like your trommel.
Hell, no lies, little red.
It's a bit more Granity than I thought, this wash.
It's got a lot of fines in it.
- [Parker] Yeah, a lot of fines. - [Matt] Yeah.
I have to get my terminology right.
Pay dirt equals wash.
[Parker] For testing you don't use a pan, huh?
You always usually do this?
[Matt] I'd rather run 20 buckets through here.
- And... - [Parker] Right.
[Matt] ...I've always found panning is a bit hit and miss, you know? And...
[Parker] Yeah, I mean, the bigger the sample,
the more accurate it's gonna be, right?
[Matt] Yeah, when, when you got the toys
for the same pay, you might as well play with them.
[Tyler] I think this is the last of it,
then he's gonna shut it down and then we'll hand it off.
[Paul] After running 20 yards of pay...
[Matt] We'd put that carpet into that big pan to start with.
[Parker] Gotcha.
[Matt] And then we'll have a look at that.
[Paul] Parker needs to decide if Matt's ground is rich enough to invest in.
[Matt] This is the stuff.
[Tyler] Oh, this is the good stuff.
How many colors would you want to see?
[Matt] Oh, if the full dish.
[Tyler chuckles] Silly question.
[Parker] There's some gold in here.
- [Matt] Yeah? - [Parker] Yeah, you see that?
[Matt] Oh, oh, yeah, getting a bit of color here.
- [Parker] Oh, yeah. - [Daniel] Oh, yeah, that is good.
[Parker] And that's just off the top in that.
And that's probably, what, a 20th of an ounce?
[Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] Something like that?
So that'd be an ounce per 120 yards.
[Paul] At one ounce per 120 yards, it's a lower recovery rate
than the one ounce per 100 yards
that Parker averages in the Yukon.
[Parker] Is it always like superfine like that?
[Matt] Yes.
[Parker] I mean, uh, it needs more exploration,
but probably not a ton of ground that's gonna be mineable on.
[Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] That's too much pressure on having a plant
that's operational this summer for Fairbanks.
- [Matt] Yeah. - No worries.
[Parker] One of the side missions on this trip was
to like meet people and build contacts.
I really get the feeling from him that if there's gold in an area,
he knows how to find it.
And contacts like that are invaluable.
[Tyler] It'll be good to get back tomorrow,
set the washplant up and running.
There's some things that are a bit different to what Parker's,
um, got running back in the Yukon, which is,
I think is great 'cause that's why we're here.
[Parker] Do you know anywhere around here we could camp?
[Matt] Yeah, anywhere really.
- [Parker] And we won't get shot? - [Matt] No, no.
- You'll be all right. - [Tyler] Thanks, Matt.
[Parker] Oh, man.
[Jeff] This is a spot.
There's a guy up here on a bike, Jeff, go speak to him.
- [Jeff] How's it going? - [farmer] Hi, there.
- [Tyler] Hello. - [Jeff] Yeah, Matt said you would come out.
- [Tyler] Are you the farmer from around here? - [farmer] Yeah.
[Tyler] Oh, awesome. I'm Tyler, by the way.
- [Daniel] This is awesome. - [Tyler] Wow.
[Daniel] Look at the view.
- [Tyler] Thanks so much. - [farmer] Oh, yeah--
- [Parker] Are those your cows? - [farmer] Yeah.
- Hard work farming, innit? - [farmer] Yeah.
[Parker] So is there anything we need to know?
[farmer] Yeah, milking is at 5:00 o'clock.
[all laugh]
Was that in exchange for this?
Yeah, a little bit.
I've milked cows before. I could help.
- [Daniel] Do you know how to do it? - Yeah-ish.
- I've milked cows. - [Parker] Have fun, guys.
- [farmer] All right, I'll let you know. - [Daniel] Nice one.
- What was your name? - Michael.
- [Daniel] Michael. Thanks, Michael. - [Michael] Yeah, it's cool.
- [Daniel] All right, man. - [Parker] Yeah, thanks, man. See you in the morning.
No.
Then it's not worth being shown a camping spot.
Like that is a bad negotiation.
We could have gone and camped somewhere else.
[Tyler] Good day, guys.
- [Daniel] Really good day. - [Parker] Yeah.
[Daniel] Were you happy with it?
Yeah, it was a really good day. Matt's awesome.
What's the plan for tomorrow?
[Jeff] I just want to see this plant run.
And once this plant runs and, you know,
at least have something to talk about.
[Parker] Yeah, we should probe him about that a bit tomorrow.
[Jeff] Time is kind of the essence right now.
We're, we're only here for so long.
Mmm-hmm. Great.
[Parker] Tomorrow we're going to see Matt's plant.
It's definitely got some things that are different
and stuff that I haven't seen around before.
I'm pretty keen to get my teeth sunk in.
We're up against it from a time standpoint.
That's the life of a miner.
Right.
- How are we looking there, Jeff? - [Jeff] Just about packed up.
[Paul] Parker and his crew are spending a second day at Matt Dove's claim...
- [Parker] You guys ready to rock? - [Tyler] Yep.
[Paul] ...on a mission to secure a washplant for next season.
- [Daniel] All done, Jeff? - [Jeff] Yeah. All locked up.
- [Daniel] Let's get out of here. - [Jeff] Let's do it.
[Paul] But first, they've got a debt to pay.
[Jeff] Oh.
- [Daniel] There they are. - [Jeff] Oh, man.
We got to do all these?
- [Daniel] I don't know-- - [Parker] I hope not.
[Jeff] How's it going?
[Michael] Good. Good. You ready to do some work?
[Jeff] I don't know. I'm nervous about this one.
I've just seen a cow [bleep] everywhere.
[Michael chuckles]
We'll give it a go and see what happens.
[Jeff] Oh, my [bleep]. Holy cow.
[Daniel] That's, that's, uh, that's, that's quite the view.
[Jeff chuckles]
[Daniel] Mate, that one's bottom's twitching a little.
I don't trust that one.
Do you feel like you're in the danger zone?
[Daniel] I feel like I'm in the danger zone.
[Parker chuckles]
How often do you get [bleep] on?
Uh, once a week, maybe.
[Parker speaks indistinctly]
- All right. - Yeah.
[Parker] So that's your milker device.
You use suction or something?
Yeah. Suction and pulsation.
[Parker] So how do you turn this on?
[Michael] Turn it on there.
- [Parker] Like that? - Aye.
I thought we were going to be sitting here, like pulling udders.
Go on, Ty.
[Tyler] Like this?
[Michael] Press at that lever down there.
And it gets the suction down.
How much milk do you get out from,
from one of these from one hit?
About seven liters.
- [Daniel] Seven liters each? - [Michael] Yeah.
[Paul] The cows are positioned on a rotating platform.
[Parker] [bleep] Calm down.
[Paul] So the team have to work fast to keep up.
- [Parker] Get in there, Jeff. - [Jeff] Oh, man.
[Parker] Try to use your fingers to fill it.
So you don't put your head down there.
[Jeff chuckles]
Oh, this is great.
- [Parker] Is that right? - Yeah, this is awesome.
[Parker] All right, Dan, you're up.
[Daniel] Uh, yeah, I guess I'd better.
[Parker] Tony Beets grew up on a dairy farm.
I don't, I don't think they had these things, though.
There you go, Dan.
- [Jeff] There's [bleep] coming out of that thing. - [Parker] Wow.
Oh, wow.
[chuckles]
[Jeff] A waterfall.
It's like the firing range, seriously.
[Jeff] This one's fighting me.
[Paul] Dairy is one of New Zealand's biggest industries,
with yearly exports worth over $11 billion.
Michael's team milked the 400 strong herd twice a day
to reach their daily target of 500 gallons.
Most of it going to make the best dairy product, ice cream.
[Parker] Come on, Jeffy boy.
[Daniel] Come on, Jeff.
Well done, mate.
- [Jeff] Oh, that one don't like it. - [Tyler] Oh.
[chuckles]
- [Jeff] Oh, there you go. - [Parker] [bleep] everywhere.
- Awesome. - [Tyler] Oh.
[laughs]
- [Parker] I got [bleep] on. - [Jeff chuckles]
That was close.
[Parker] So is that about it?
You paid for your camping now, so we're covered.
We're good.
[Parker] We definitely got the short end of the stick.
[Tyler] Oh, no, that was great. Thank you for that night.
[Parker] Never thanked somebody for getting [bleep] on the before but...
[all laugh]
- [Parker] There's a first too. - [Jeff] There's a first for everything.
[Paul] 40 cows expertly milked by the team...
[cows mooing]
[Paul] ...Parker turns his attention to his main goal,
finding a wash plant.
And his sights are set on testing Matt Dove's compact trommel.
So mind if we go take a look?
[Matt] It's got a few hydraulic issues going on this morning,
so we're working out a bit of a bush fix.
[Parker] Oh, [bleep].
[Tyler] Just so [bleep] typical.
Like, of course, this happens.
The whole machine's down.
[Parker] It's always something with this business, isn't it?
[Matt] Oh, yeah.
[Parker] I mean, it's been a good,
reliable screen up until today, really.
How are you guys doing?
You guys figuring out the problem?
[man 1] Um, we're gonna need a little bit longer.
[Jeff] What's happening?
[Matt] Oh, we replaced the coupling on the motor...
[Jeff] Oh, yeah.
[Matt] ...and put a new pump to drive the trommel.
But now we've put it back together the other pump
that drives the stack has broken down.
[Tyler] Trommel's not working.
It needs to work.
We need to be seeing machinery running or why the hell have
I dragged all the boys out here to a machine that doesn't work?
Are you any good at this sort of stuff, Parker?
No, he is.
- I can understand most of it, but... - [Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] ...um, when it comes to fixing things,
- I'm pretty useless. - [Matt] Yeah.
[Parker] Put Jeff to work. That's why we brought him.
[Jeff] You know, a bit of pressure on me.
I, I think he's hoping that I can get this thing up and running,
which, yeah, feel little bit of the pressure.
Having Jeff along gives us a bit more credibility
and ability to actually do some stuff.
Normally we come stumbling and tripping in.
Yeah, exactly.
Leave the place in a mess.
- Oh, is that the problem? - Yeah.
Right now, when I spin this,
- I'm feeling no resistance in there, so... - [Daniel] Oh.
[Jeff] ...it's definitely the hydraulic pump for the conveyor.
[man 1] Yeah. Not looking good.
[Jeff] No.
Without this, the conveyor is not going to turn on.
[man 1] No. So what is the hydraulic pump?
What, what, what purp... What's the purpose of it?
[Jeff] So without the hydraulic pump running,
it's not supplying hydraulic fluid up these lines to the motor
- that you can see there... - [Daniel] Yeah.
[Jeff] ...which turns the head pulley,
which moves the conveyor belt
and moves the discharge rock out of the trommel.
Without that happening, there's gonna be a massive jam up here.
[Paul] If the conveyor belt can't remove rocks from the trommel,
a machine won't run, and Parker's trip to Matt's mine will be over.
It's on Jeff to work out a bush fix for the pump.
Jeff really needs to deliver on this,
because if we don't get this fired up today, this is a wasted journey.
Do you reckon we'll get it done before we get out of here?
[Jeff] I'm gonna try my hardest to get this done
so we can see this run 'cause we are pressed for time
and we need to see this before we can go.
Not even sure this is gonna work,
but we got to go see if we can get some parts off this old plant
to get it up and running.
Hopefully we can come up with something.
[Daniel] Let's have a look.
[Jeff] Oh, I'm liking what I'm seeing here. It's gonna be the same.
Let's get this thing off and get this going here.
Pull her off, get her out, and get her on.
[Jeff] Got the pump.
We're just gonna see if this fits.
And if it fits, then we should be up and running pretty quick.
[Daniel] Moment of truth.
[Jeff] All right.
Just want to hold that the other way there.
- [Daniel] She fit? - [Jeff] Fits perfect.
Now we're just gonna tighten up these two bolts,
put the lines back up and fire up
and see if we can run this conveyor.
[Daniel] Sweet.
- [man 1] We're all tight. - [Jeff] Perfect.
- [man 1] She's on. - Done.
[Jeff] All right, bolts are tight.
Let's, uh, fire this thing up, see if she runs.
Let's do it.
[Parker] Got her sorted?
- [Jeff] Yeah, hoping so. - [Parker] Maybe?
Maybe.
Ninety percent chance.
- [Jeff] Guys, ready? - [Daniel] Is this it?
- Moment of truth? - [Jeff] We'res gonna fire it up.
[man 1] Here we go.
[trommel engine cranks on]
- [Jeff] Guys, ready? - [Daniel] Is this it? Moment of truth?
- [Jeff] We're gonna fire it up. - [man 1] Here we go.
It's gonna work perfect, though.
I can feel it in my bones.
[trommel engine cranks on]
[Parker] There you go.
[Tyler] Good job.
[Jeff] Oh, yeah.
She works.
- [Daniel] Happy, Jeff? - Oh, yeah, a happy Jeff.
Sweet.
Just need to feed the beast now, then.
[Parker] So what kind of controls do you guys run on these?
- CAT. - [Parker] Are they CAT controls?
- [Matt] You want to get in here? - [Parker] Yeah.
[Matt] All right, I'll hand her over.
[Matt] She's a weapon, the old date.
[Parker] You want a minute?
[Matt] Just 40 beats.
[Parker] Just take it easy.
[Matt] Normally, with the trommels you can tell
if the rings are dirty halfway down, you're feeding it too fast.
You're only really want that top section running dirty.
- [Parker] Gotcha. - [Matt] Yeah.
[Matt] Great little plan to start with
because you haven't got the side tables.
That's what I was just telling Dan.
I was like, "Man, for a lot of the ground that we're looking at,
it being road legal and just taking the stacker off is huge."
[Matt] Yeah, yeah.
You know, Fairbanks, there'll have to be a lot of thought
put into our portability because if you have to tear a washplant down
and take days to tear something down, to move it from site to site,
it's gonna have a pretty big effect on the operation.
One thing I like about this plant is that you can, uh, move
and set up in half a day probably, and that brings your costs down
because you can move the plant with just like two people
and, you know, a plant this size, Matt,
has it kind of turned down at, you know, 40 yards an hour,
which is probably smaller than where I'd like to be.
But there's something to be said for keeping it small and agile.
[Paul] Big yellow ticks the box for maneuverability.
But the biggest question remains.
Can it catch gold?
He's speeding it nicely.
He is bloody good as a digger.
Oh, yes.
- [Matt] He knows what he's doing. - [Tyler] He's a natural.
[Tyler] What are your thoughts?
[Jeff] Oh, I think it's a pretty cool, compact design.
Running at the yardage they're running at, I think it's fine for here.
[Tyler] Oh, yeah, definitely.
But I see a few issues Parker might run into trying to run
a little more material than they're running here.
I think if Parker is trying to run, you know,
he's telling me somewhere in the neighborhood
- of 160 to 180 cubic yards per hour... - [Tyler] Okay.
[Jeff] ...I think in theory, he's gonna overload the system.
That is, uh, definitely one thing to think about.
[Tyler] I don't think any washplants run like that.
I haven't seen one with the sluice running underneath it.
It seems to make sense to me, though.
[Jeff] Yeah, it's pretty cool.
To be honest, it's, uh, not something we typically see in the Klondike.
Uh, most, most of the time you see external sluice runs.
But it looks like well-made and compact and do you know what I mean?
Now I've seen some but... some plants and this looks like a bag of [bleep].
- Do you know what I mean? - This is a very nice plant.
It's built very nice.
Another, uh, big factor is when you're running hydraulic riffles,
it comes down to how much pressure you're running in here
so you don't get your riffles packing up too fast,
otherwise you start losing gold.
- It goes straight over the top. - [Jeff] Yeah.
You always want your fingers to kind of sink in a little bit.
If you apply a little bit of pressure,
you want them to kind of go down a little bit.
[Tyler] Yeah, okay.
[Jeff] So far so good.
[Matt] I would have liked to have run for our normal four hours this morning
is what I was trying to do and I would have showed you
how we rake the table and wash that and start off again.
Uh, it makes me feel better because I think we know
that we're not alone in all the breakdowns we have.
[Matt] Oh, yeah.
But anyway, it's 5:00 o'clock and we're running and it's time to knock off.
[Parker chuckles]
[Parker] Well, we're shutting down for the day,
so I'm gonna throw one more old scoop in here
and hope the boss doesn't fire me on day one.
[indistinct chatter]
Done.
- [Jeff] How was that? - [Parker] Good.
[Jeff] Feel like you're back at work?
Yeah.
But I don't do that at the mine site.
No, I didn't think so.
[Parker] I'm a desk jockey.
- [Jeff chuckles] - [Daniel] Got boys for that.
[Tyler] Matt, do you ever find nuggets or is it all just fines?
[Matt] Just... bulk of the gold is under three millimeter.
[Tyler] Yeah, okay.
[Matt] There's a fair bit on that for the time we've been running.
Oh, it's good Parker's here now.
You see, the gold's picked up.
- [chuckles] - [Tyler chuckles]
[Parker] I think that we've brought you nothing but bad luck.
[Paul] After running for three hours,
it's time for the moment of truth.
How are we looking there, Parker?
[Matt] A little bit of color.
[Parker] Oh, yeah.
- [Tyler] Oh, wow. - [Jeff] Oh, my.
[Matt] Oh, yeah, it looks all right.
[Parker] This is all black sand now.
Like, I'm shaking the [bleep] of this and I still can't get it.
[Matt] Oh, I tell you what I have got is a rare earth magnet.
[Paul] In gold mining, rare earth magnets are used to separate
heavy non precious metals from wash material, including black sand.
[Parker] Now that is a strong magnet.
[Paul] The black sand in New Zealand is created by ancient volcanic activity
and contains a naturally occurring
iron oxide mineral called magnetite,
giving the sand its magnetic quality.
[Matt] Now you're getting a better idea with the pan.
Just trying to pull as much of this [bleep] out of it as possible.
Feel it's heaps better now. It's going to the corner of the pan.
Nice bit of color.
[Parker] Purity here is pretty good too.
[Matt] Yeah, 96.5.
- [Parker] 96. - [Tyler] Wow.
[Parker] That purity makes a big difference.
[Paul] After seeing Matt's trommel in action and evidence
that it catches fine gold,
Parker compares notes with Jeff.
[Jeff] I like these underhung sluice runs.
It's nice and compact.
Um, it kind of keeps the sluice run underneath the system
rather than on the outside, making it a little bit wider.
I also like the way this conveyor is.
It's controlled by hydraulics so that it can turn a little left to the...
and to the right just to move your discharge pile
if you don't have time to move it.
It's a pretty cool feature.
[Parker] Sluice run width is gonna be a limiting factor in something like this, right?
[Jeff] Yeah.
[Parker] Do you have a tape on you?
[Jeff] Yeah.
Three feet.
Our big plants have 20 feet of width.
This thing has six.
[Jeff] So it's gonna knock you down on the yardage for sure.
[Parker] Yeah, big time.
I was thinking like, can you, could you widen this out
and still make it easy to get road legal?
[Jeff] We could do it.
But in doing it, there's gonna be some things we'll have to drop
and some things we'll have to change to, to make that work.
With running the amount of yardage you're looking for,
we're gonna have to do just a bit of a distribution system.
[Parker] Gotcha.
The amount of yardage that Matt's running, uh,
it's perfect for the way he has it.
Uh, but Parker is talking about running quite a bit of, uh,
cubic yards through his plant.
And in order to do that, we're gonna have to do some
distribution system underneath,
so it's gonna take place of where the sluice run is on this one.
[Paul] To increase the yardage of big yellow,
Jeff proposes incorporating a distribution system
and adding a much larger set of sluice runs.
But this would compromise its compact design.
[Parker speaks indistinctly]
And that's something that for Fairbanks we really need to consider.
Matt also said this thing costs $20 a, a day to run.
We burn that in 20 minutes on our big plants.
[Tyler] All right, so what do you guys think of the washplant?
Would that ever be an option, Parker?
Um... it's older, but it's also like classic New Zealand,
super portable, super easy to move around, extremely cheap to run.
Jeff, you're the evil genius when it comes to washplants.
Yeah, I think it's neat just to see the compactness of the underhung sluice.
[Parker] I think my problem with Matt's plant is
I don't know how you keep the good parts of it and scale it up.
How do you double that and keep all the good bits in it?
[Daniel] So we're not exactly where we want to be?
[Parker] Not necessarily.
[Daniel] So that plant... we're not buying that?
[Parker] I don't think so.
Let's go see him.
Thanks a ton for the time.
Really good learning experience for us.
But for our set ups, it's just too small.
[Matt] Yeah, okay. That's all fine.
I really enjoyed it.
It's been good to have some likeminded miners.
[Parker] With what our mission is
in terms of like looking at plants that are for sale
and seeing new technology and different kinds of plants,
is there somebody or some place that you'd recommend we go?
[Matt] Yeah, you just got to keep heading south and it'll come your way.
[Parker] Gotcha.
And we'd be able to see a bunch of different stuff happening there, huh?
[Matt] Yeah. Yeah.
[Parker] Cool.
[Daniel] Thanks, man. It's been a real pleasure.
[Jeff] Well, thanks, Matt. It was awesome running little red there. It's good.
Would love to come up to your workshop sometime.
[Jeff] Yeah, absolutely. Any time.
[Parker] And you better make it up to the Yukon.
- [Matt] Oh, yeah, yeah. - [Parker] All right. Good.
- Make it a trip. - [Tyler] I really appreciate that.
- [Daniel] Nice one. - Thanks, man.
[Parker] We'll take a few days off
and I'll give you the grand tour.
There you go.
[Tyler] The washplant I showed Parker wasn't the perfect match.
The goal after this is to keep the contacts up,
but also show washplants that make them both stop and go,
"This could be the one."
[Parker] This is a really good place to come
before starting a new operation.
Matt Dove was a really cool guy with a lot of good ideas.
He's talking about portable plants
and how to make an operation work with only three people.
And that's the kind of stuff that we need to focus on.
And hopefully we can go find some more washplants
and, uh, hopefully find one for sale.