I don't think that what I'm doing here
needs to be addressed.
This may be a tough one.
Yee-haw!
When I got here, I saw Mike needed help.
I think Freddy, he might learn something from what I'm doing.
You know, I'm curious to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot of moving parts here.
So, there's about four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine pieces of gold.
It's a bad sign.
If there's nine pieces in a pan,
that could be millions.
I've brought my wife and kids.
So, this needs to work out well.
Sharp mother--
- You all right? - Yeah.
This mountain is my life.
This is all he has.
He has no one else up here.
This place...
it's where my heart is.
Good to be with my buddy in his home state of Nevada.
So, what do you know about Miner Mike?
He's been at it for a long time.
So, he's a seasoned miner.
Sometimes, it takes us coming in
before they're willing to shut down
for a day or two to fix stuff.
'Cause they just wanna keep making gold, you know.
This might be our first mine intervention, Juano.
Freddy and Juan are in the Snake Mountain Range
south of Nevada's great basin,
en route to a struggling claim
run by veteran miner, Mike Stephens.
Gold was discovered here in the 1860s
by miners on their way west to California.
Historically seen as big gold's country,
in 1865, a 25-pound gold nugget,
worth over half a million dollars today,
was discovered a few miles north of Mike's claim.
- It's beautiful here. - I like it a lot.
Yeah.
For nearly three decades,
Mike has made a living hunting nuggets here.
But struggles of the past two seasons
threatened to sink more
than just his own livelihood.
- I'm Juan. - Hi, Juan.
- Will Mercer. - Will.
- Mike, nice to meet you. - Will.
- Yes, sir. - And Mike I assume.
Well, it's a cool-looking little plant you got here.
Thank you, it's a work in progress.
So is it just you two guys out here right now?
- Right now, yes it is. - Okay.
How much gold have you done this year?
Well, we just got started so far.
Bad year would be hundred ounces.
We need four ounces a day, and we're just not getting it.
Well, this is my 28th season up here.
You know, there was nothing here.
I built this place
from experience.
I didn't open up a textbook.
No one told me how to do this.
It was all from experience.
The resulting operation is all things that work.
What seemed to be the...
the main issues? What do you need out of us?
Thanks for coming, but right now...
we do a pretty good job on catching everything
with about a two percent loss.
So, Will's the one that called you in.
I'm on my second season in Nevada with this great guy.
But, there's a lot of things that I'm seeing that need a lot of help.
Um, he doesn't want to accept the fact that he's probably throwing gold away.
He's real big on catching nuggets.
I think we're not focusing on the other gold that we could be capturing.
Um, if there's any way that we can get y'all out here to give us a hand,
we could probably get this thing dialed in and make more money.
There's a lot of things that I saw right when I got here
that I didn't even know how to fix.
Oh, yeah.
I'm pretty sure that
- we're losing a lot of money. - Okay.
Will joined the operation two seasons ago.
Mike is looking for a partner
to come up and help him with his mine.
So, I contacted him and
next thing I know, I brought my family across the country
to do some mining.
When I got here, I saw Mike needed help.
I could see there's a lot of problems.
If Freddy and Juan didn't come this week
to help to get his mine more productive and catching more gold,
I don't know that Mike would be able to sustain mining.
And, you know, I get it. But, you know,
I brought my wife and kids, so...
that's a lot of mouths to feed.
Well, you got any of your gold with ya?
I do, I do, it's uh, this stuff is near and dear to me.
- So... - We won't steal it, promise.
I'd like you to see some of the...
some of the typical stuff we get up here.
- Ah, it's beautiful. - Very chunky.
Yeah, nice.
In the 28 years I've been doing this...
I would put it the certainty at about 100% that I've thrown away
- a large nugget, something very big. - Mmm-hmm.
That would make my eyes water.
Concentrate on your small stuff.
I'd rather have a bucket of that, than...
Oh, yeah.
...a bucket of those, to be honest with ya.
- That's real space. - I'd rather have a bucket of both.
Right. Yeah.
Well, show us around your plant, guys.
Okay, how about we start at the beginning?
Works for me.
I think that when they see it...
they're going to respect what I've done.
I do things a little differently here
than most placer operations do.
But, maybe Freddy and Juan can figure a way out
to catch those nuggets.
This is my CAT 773 haul truck.
I think he's gonna be a little guarded
because this is his baby.
This is all he has, he has no one else up here.
He has his excavators,
his rock truck and his trommel.
Cut 1,700 holes in there with the torch.
Diamond shape seemed to work best instead of round.
Does a really good job.
And I think anyone trying to make a change to it,
I think he might be a little stubborn.
It used to be
gear-driven, and a couple years ago,
14 teeth snapped off of it.
So, instead of trying to repair that,
I just ripped the gear off and then put a drive system in
- and driving it with a tire. - Yeah.
So, that works great.
Well, what do you think? Let's run it for four hours
and see how much gold you get.
- Hell, yeah. - Let's do it.
Right on.
They may see some things that
may not work in their minds,
but after a little bit of explanation, I think that, uh,
Freddy, he might learn something from what I'm doing.
Now, I'm not a rookie.
And I believe I know the ground.
I know how to catch gold.
Let's go!
Get some gold!
First bucket, Juan.
Hope we can get lucky with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
Twenty eight years ago,
Mike gave up his job as an electrician
to hunt for gold.
I was making good money,
insurance benefits and whatnot.
Then I said, it's time to go.
It's time to stop this for a little while.
You just take a little vacation.
I drove through this area and, uh,
uh, I started seeing these mountains and
the very first thing that came to my mind was...
there's gold there.
I decided I was gonna make a living in these mountains and you know,
I was gonna get this gold that's in the ground out of it.
It was a learning experience.
This is the real deal out here.
There's nobody standing behind ya
showing you how to do this and I had to learn it all...
right from scratch.
Mike spent nearly three decades
building this mine into not just his livelihood,
but also his home.
This is my life, what I do here.
I wanna keep doing it forever.
To live out in the country,
and look at God's creation every day.
You know, I'm curious to watch it run, Freddy.
There's a lot of moving parts here.
Yeah. You know, it's been around a while.
This may be a tough one.
- Yeah. - You know,
without rebuilding their plant.
It would take us two-three weeks just to get everything redone.
He's worried he may be losing good nuggets.
We'd need to start with what's going to get him the most gold
in his pocket, in the time that we're here.
Mike feeds pay dirt
into the 1940s converted asphalt dryer
he uses as a trommel.
Large rocks pass out the end
where Will collects them in a waiting dump truck.
The small material caught by the trommel
passes down through a series of pipes into a jig.
Anything smaller than one-eighth of an inch,
should fall through the jig screen
and into Mike's first sluice run.
The larger material passes into a nine-inch wide chute
which funnels into a repurposed oil barrel.
Calling this a de-watering barrel,
Mike punched holes into the drum
so when it spins,
the material gets broken up and dried out.
This finest material then passes down through the holes
and into his last chance sluice boxes.
You know, it's a little rough, but...
you know, he's got it set up the way he wants it.
Mike believes his plant's still very productive,
but there's a lot of problems, you know,
it's not that Mike's stubborn, it's just,
"Hey, we'll get to it, we'll get to it, we'll get to it.
It's patch, patch, patch."
You know, just, "Let's go, let's go, let's go."
It's a crap shoot.
We've been running this plant for so many years,
there's so many things worn out.
We fix them when we have time.
Look at that sluice down there.
We're only here for a week, so...
just trying to look and see if there's any things
that we can, uh, help them recover more gold with.
And he's doing a pretty good job.
You know, honestly, the big, chunky gold he has,
it's easy to catch.
- Easy to catch those nuggets. - Yeah.
It's the fine gold you gotta worry about.
So, maybe the bottom boxes...
That little guy?
What are you thinking?
It's got all nugget riffles in there.
They're just plugged right solid.
Yeah. That's something we're gonna have to address.
Just keep on looking.
This little chute here.
That really isn't gonna do anything, the way he's got it set up.
You know, with the amount of water you got coming off here,
there's gotta be some fine gold in there too.
Yeah, I would imagine so.
Pulling out all kinds of big rock.
Big rock means big gold.
This de-watering trommel,
it's just getting packed up.
We can fix that.
We'll figure something out.
To keep those holes cleaned out.
Keep them getting blinded up.
The de-watering trommel spins water off the wet rocks
and reroutes any material
that is 3/16th of an inch or less
into the last chance sluice.
Anything larger is sent up the conveyor
to the tailings pile.
I'll keep looking around, you wanna start panning?
- Yeah, I'll take a look at it, see what we're losing. - Okay.
Juan will sample the tailings out of the de-watering trommel
where, if Mike's right about catching 98% of his gold,
there should be nothing but clean gravel.
And there's gold in it.
See, right there.
There's about four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine...
nine pieces of gold.
One of them's actually pretty sizeable.
The other eight, they're not real big
but they're there.
It's a bad sign.
You know that de-watering screen?
What we're doing there, I think we're actually
creating kind of, a muddy mass,
and we're actually pushing it out the tailings conveyor.
We're never even having a chance to be able to sluice it.
Last bucket. One more.
Hoping to see some big nuggets.
Come on, big gold.
Shut it down.
Now, Mike...
so I panned some of your tailings coming on that conveyor.
Out of one pan, it was three-quarters full.
Had about nine pieces in it.
Freaking dumping gold.
They're little, but they're there.
I'm shocked.
And, that's out of one pan.
- Whoa! - We send pans through, all day, every day.
Damn.
If there's nine pieces in a pan going up,
that could be millions.
Heart-broken?
Don't be heart-broken, that's why we're here, Mike.
Freddy and I, we're here, we wanna help as best we can.
Uh, I'm just hoping that he's gonna be open to changes, you know.
What's going on, Mike?
Today was quite a shocking day.
When I saw the gold that was in the conveyor,
it's made my belly churn a little bit.
Honestly, you got a lot of it down.
You know, you've done a lot of work out here,
and you did all this with your money.
This mountain is my life.
And I put my heart and soul into this place.
I met my ex-wife and we got married.
So, I took her daughter under my wing
and, uh, did the best I could to be her father.
And, uh, you know,
I worked really hard to be that...
that person in her life.
That was solid.
But when she was 19,
she passed away.
I'm sorry to hear that.
That's a tough thing, man, that's a tough thing.
Shortly thereafter,
uh, I got divorced, so, lost my wife,
lost my daughter.
So, this place...
it's where my heart is.
This has been my crutch.
- That's real. - Yeah. Yeah.
Real. Man.
It's a big concern that I've invested my life,
I've given up my career, to be out here.
Like, right now, I need help.
Honestly, this mine's more than just a mine for him.
This is what's holding him together, this is his purpose.
This is his reason for being right now, so...
we really gotta pull out all the stops
and help him out as much as we can.
Time to lay some gold up, huh?
Yeah, and this is the gold we got from that four-hour run.
Dump her in.
To cover the soaring cost of fuel,
repairs and make a profit...
There's some chunky stuff in there.
... Mike needs around
four ounces per day.
And there's some fine stuff too.
This four-hour test must deliver
no less than two ounces.
There's 1.37.
Drop that guy in there too.
1.60.
We have some ideas.
One thing is, we know we're losing fine gold
and we need to focus on that, so,
it's not the most ideal situation,
but I know you're worried about your nuggets, right?
- Yeah. - Those big nuggets going off the end.
A guy I know...
he's a metal-detecting professional.
I thought about bringing him in to just
swing a metal detector around your tailings piles
and see if he finds a nice nugget there.
Sounds great.
- Sounds good. - See you in a minute, guys.
You know my... my deal structure with Mike
is I get a percentage of the gold at the end of the season.
If he can't get his mine more productive in catching more gold,
eventually, it's all gonna give.
It's truly, financially, it's a burden.
Looking for lost nuggets,
- Freddy! - How's it going, Steve?
Oh, man, great.
Freddy calls in an old friend and treasure hunter
to search hundreds of tones of coarse tailings.
Mike, the claim owner here,
he is worried and I can see why
that's he's losing some substantial size pieces of gold.
Okay, sure.
What I was hoping you'd do, Steve, is uh,
get your detector and start hitting some of his tailings piles.
Sure. Yeah, I'd be more than happy to.
I know you know what you're doing, so...
- All right. - ...I'll let you be and let you get busy.
I have dug some half-pound nuggets.
Metal detecting and, uh,
this machine will do a fabulous job at that
if you just get over one.
That's what I would call a screamer.
It's really loud.
Really obvious target.
It's exactly what a gold nugget would sound like.
If Steve finds nuggets in the tailings,
it will confirm Mike's fear
that his plant's allowing nuggets to pass right through.
And where is it?
Okay, I got it in a scoop.
Okay, now it's not in the scoop.
Put that down.
Back in the scoop and...
unfortunately...
in this case, it was a shell casing.
While Steve continues the hunt for lost big gold,
Well, honestly Freddy, there's...
there's a few things we can do here.
Freddy and Juan devise a plan
to capture the equally valuable finer stuff.
He's got that little trough, right?
I think we, uh,
cut in to here, make a wider sluice,
so that water is just deep in there, right?
It's not catching any gold.
This de-watering trommel,
what do you think about maybe putting a spray bar or a jet in here?
- So it's blowing through those holes. - Absolutely.
No, I think that's good.
Then he's got these little sluices here.
But he's got all nugget riffles in there.
They're just plugged right solid.
I think when you pull the nugget riffles out,
get it set for fine gold.
'Cause even if they're losing it here and here,
we get the opportunity to catch it here after that,
that's the number one goal right there.
Freddy and Juan will target three key areas
where Mike is losing fine gold.
The jig sends material through a narrow nice-inch chute.
A new 22-inch wide sluice box will slow the water
and allow the gold to settle.
The holes in the de-watering trommel block up,
letting gold pass out onto the tailings conveyor.
A high-powered spray bar will blast it
through the holes in the barrel
and safely into the sluices below.
The nugget riffles on the sluices clog
causing gold to wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles will prevent build up
and catch any gold brought down from the barrel.
After seven hours searching...
How's it going, Steve?
... Steve delivers the result from his nugget hunt.
Well, I think Mike's doing a good job honestly, uh,
found a lot of goodies, but none of it was gold nuggets, unfortunately.
There might be a lost nugget or two out there, but there's not like,
- a pile of lost gold. No. - Nothing to lose sleep over?
- No. I mean... - Good, he'll be happy to see that.
Steve not finding a big piece of gold,
you know, that's the final
decision for me, not to try to catch nuggets.
Thank you.
You know, thank you, Steve, for not finding a nugget,
and I don't know that I'll ever say that ever again.
With lost nuggets ruled out...
Well, we came up with a little bit of a game plan.
Freddy and Juan propose their fixes.
You know, one of the big issues that we did have
that we saw was
that material coming off the end of the conveyor,
it had gold in it still.
Try losing some of your smaller gold off the end of the jig,
we got an opportunity to catch it
with the new sluice box right there.
Which now, you're so narrow, it doesn't have much of a chance to find a home.
So, we talked about it and...
you know, with everything we're doing for you,
we'd like a... two ounces of gold.
Well...
Each.
- Two ounces each? - Two ounces each.
And that would cover our expenses.
It's a tough choice, but I'd say,
let's go, let's do it.
- Deal then. - Sounds good, it's a deal.
- Let's do it. - Appreciate it.
Well, we'll start working.
- Yes, sir, sounds good. - Thank you. Thank you.
You know, if I'm losing $50,000 a year,
well, that's substantial, and over a 20-year period,
$50,000 a year is a million bucks.
So, that's a good trade-off for four ounces of gold,
and the price of some material.
I don't know how much
longer that plant would run the way Mike has it.
But he needs to make, you know his last stand on this thing.
And right now, with Freddy and Juan coming up,
I think that they'll help him make that last stand
and get right back on track where he needs to be.
What I'm doing is designing the sluice box that Freddy wants to build.
In the cut trailer,
Juan gets to work fabricating the first of their fixes.
It's gonna be a little different,
it's not just a regular straight sluice box
it's gonna have a little bit of a taper at the front.
A bespoke 22-inch fine gold sluice
to replace Mike's narrow nine-inch chute.
You know, right now fuel costs is just killing everyone.
But it's gone to the point where
this extra percentage could actually mean
the difference of him eating or actually putting fuel in the plant.
One thing you wanna do with materials,
you can't let it have its own way.
You gotta force it into the situation
you want it into.
- Yeah, by funneling it. - Especially with gold.
In eastern Nevada, Freddy and Juan
are battling a patched up plant.
It's kinda like putting chutes in for cattle.
And a miner who's set in his ways.
This may be a tough one.
Freddy's first fix,
converting Mike's nine-inch steel chute
into a 22-inch gold-catching sluice.
If we catch it here, we don't have to worry about losing it farther down.
Let's say if we make that bottom in square...
then we got rock wearing on rock
cause rocks are gonna build up in these corners, right?
Then, when all those rocks are coming down,
they're gonna hit that,
they're gonna go over and down, but it's not wearing your steel off that way.
- It's gonna wear the rocks out. - Yup.
- I love it. - So, I'll go get started.
- Sounds good. - Laying out material.
- Thank you, sir. - Thank you.
Water is flowing too fast
through Mike's narrow nine-inch chute,
giving the gold no opportunity to be caught.
The new wider sluice
will allow the material to fan out and slow down,
allowing gold to settle in the new expanded metal riffles.
One of the things that we really wanna focus on
is we wanna make sure everything is completely
level and square and straight.
At the cut trailer,
the new sluice is taking shape.
If there's any kind of bows or bends,
what it'll do, it'll create a spot for that gold to go underneath and get lost.
These magnets are set up, so they're a true 90.
You put 'em in, you turn 'em on,
and it actually holds your plate in place,
so that way you can weld it and when you weld it,
you know it's 100%, it's gonna be a 90 degree.
To make the angle stay perfectly straight,
Juan has a clever trick.
So, what we're doing here...
we call these ribs, but what this does...
is basically gives the box itself a little more rigidity.
So that way, when we're moving it, or when it's on the plant
and it's turning, it's twisting, you know,
it doesn't get distorted.
So by putting these ribs in,
it doesn't flex, it doesn't move.
And there's no water going underneath the sluice.
All right, we got the last weld here.
Last weld, that was it.
Juan's up there building that new sluice box
for this area right now.
I think he got the easy job, me and Mike got the hard job.
Before they can install the new sluice,
Freddy and Mike must remove the old chute.
- Not moving at all. - Mmm-hmm.
After 20 years, the old chute is stuck firm.
- Felt like it moved that time. - Didn't budge.
Shoot.
While Juan waits for them to remove the old chute...
Some things are nice, you got your family here with ya.
Oh, I love it.
I don't know how I'd be able to do it out here all summer,
you know, without them.
He heads to meet Will's family,
who traveled 2000 miles across the country
for a better life.
- Come on, Calvin. - Hi.
Come say hi to Daddy. Hi, Mr. Juan.
- Nice to meet you. - How you doing? Nice to meet you, too.
- Juan. - Juan, Lauren.
- Nice to meet you, Lauren. How you doing? - Very nice to meet you.
- Andrew, Mr. Juan. - Andrew, how you doing, bud?
- Good. - Why don't you show
Mr. Juan what you got going on?
The main reason that I came out to mine is...
because of my son, Andrew.
Maybe he could fix your sluice box too.
- What have you got going on? - Hey, bud.
He has cystic fibrosis.
It's a genetic lung disease and it's hard on his lungs.
- I just crushed up this. - Mama.
You crushed it? How'd you crush it?
The average life expectancy right now
in the US is about 42.
As a parent, when you get a diagnosis like this,
specially something you don't fully understand,
it hits you hard.
Can I take a look at your pan?
Yes.
On the surface, he's a happy six-year-old,
ready to get out and enjoy life, run, jump, play.
But, you know, if Andrew catches a cold or the flu,
it could lead to permanent lung damage in his lungs.
Since birth, Andrew has needed daily treatment.
But the clean Nevada air has made a big difference.
Since coming back from, um, last year,
his lungs were crystal clear.
The doctors were just ecstatic, as were we.
And that's why we knew...
we're gonna continue this gold mining.
Andrew's got his rock crusher
that he can do his gold panning,
and find that gold like his daddy does 'cause...
he looks up to everything that Will does
and wants to be just like him.
I just trickle it on there.
This gold is actually the heaviest
so that means the water can't carry it.
- Or all the dirt will go down. - That's right.
Cystic fibrosis is a very, um, expensive disease.
- Nice to meet you, bud. - Good.
There are a lot of doctor visits,
there is a lot of medications
he takes in a days' time,
twenty-five pills roughly
that help, you know, keep his lungs as healthy as possible.
Bye.
I got four littles ones and...
you know, really, what we do is for them.
You know, so I totally get what you're doing now.
Makes a lot more sense.
Yeah, who else is crazy enough
to drag their family across the country?
It's amazing what he's doing out here with his son
and honestly, it's helping his son's health.
To me, that's one of the most noble things he could be doing.
Andrew's a great kid.
I'm gonna talk to Freddy, see what we can do
'cause now I wanna do something special for him.
Perfect.
Hey, Juano.
Give it a shot, huh?
With two build days remaining,
it's all hands on deck to install the new sluice box
in the 20-year-old system.
Well, it's gonna be sad to see that old girl go,
but out with the old, in with the new.
We didn't wanna cut it out till we had it safely secured.
'Cause if we'd have just cut it loose before,
it would have just fell before we would have tied on to it.
So, we gotta get it done safe.
- All right, it's got tension on it, Freddy. - Okay.
Ready to cut?
- Coming up. - Let's fly this kite.
Bye-bye, baby.
There's Mike over there saying goodbye to his baby.
Oh.
That's part of his life right there. It just got taken away.
Nice knowing ya.
You know how many patches we put in the damn thing?
Let's just get in there see what it looks like.
Cross your fingers, let's hope it fits.
Whoa! Oh, oh, oh! Pull that in that way.
Give it a push into that corner over there.
It's almost there.
There it is. The eagle has landed.
Let's weld it.
- Take it down just a smidge. - I did.
- Right there. - You're too high.
- Bring it down just a-- - Mike, I'm looking right at the top of it.
Okay.
- You happy, Will? - Yes.
Lock it in right there.
Bingo!
Ready to put some dirt through this thing.
Well, no matter what, we've got a lot to get done today.
It's the last day here we can work on stuff and...
you know, we're behind schedule as it is.
All we can do now is just press on.
And just work, work, work.
With just 24 hours to go,
Freddy needs to complete the de-watering fix.
Fishing.
I'm gonna throw it right there.
What we're gonna try to do is get some more water
into that de-watering screen.
I know it sounds crazy
but by getting more water into it,
it's gonna clean that material better,
and hopefully get it to those lower sluice boxes
we're gonna modify, instead of it going up in the conveyor
into the tailings pile.
The holes in the de-watering trommel
are packed with debris
allowing fine gold to escape up the conveyor.
Freddy and Juan's fix adds a high-powered spray bar
to keep water flowing,
cleaning material and the punch plate at the same time.
There is no chance of catching that piece of gold if it hits that conveyor.
But if we can get it before it hits that conveyor,
it's in these guys' pocket.
Gotta put some spurs on.
Back to my rodeo days. Back when I was barrel racing.
Freddy's first step,
weld a bracket to mount the spray bar
inside the free-spinning barrel.
Gonna weld the stand there.
Long range welding.
Don't roll in.
Sharp mother--
When you guys retire this drum,
you can sell it to a razor blade company.
I can't say, it's, uh,
super uncomfortable but I've been a heck of a lot more comfortable.
Well, one more job done.
Spray bar installed,
Freddy connects it to Mike's water supply.
Lots of stuff to do.
We gotta cut into his main line, put a valve on it.
Get a hose up there and get it hooked up.
So when we fire this plant back up, it's ready to go.
- Well, you wanna cut that? - Yeah, definitely.
So, you enjoying it out in the west?
Oh, yeah, I love it out here.
I mean, Mike has been a wealth of knowledge, you know,
and what I've learned in the last few years with him is...
feel like I can go to the Yukon and just strike it big.
Nah.
Stick with this spot.
- Yeah, I like it here. - Yeah.
- There she is. - Yeah.
Plumbing complete,
it's time to get back on the horse
for the finishing touches.
- Got some glue? - Yes, sir.
We'll get this on there.
Kinda see where it's at now.
- What do you think? - Yeah, make sure it clears.
I think it's going to.
- We're clearing that? - Yeah, we're gonna clear.
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah, we're good.
I like it.
- Perfect fix. - Perfect, man.
Only a few hours of daylight remaining.
Freddy rushes to complete his final fix
on the end sluices.
Well, right now, we're running out of time in here.
We got a lot of stuff to get done
so we can fire this plant up for another four-hour test run.
So we're gonna tune these up with some fine gold riffles.
The nugget riffles in Mike's final chance sluice run
quickly pack up, allowing gold to wash over the top.
A new set of fine gold riffles
made from expanded metal,
will prevent that build up
and catch any gold brought down from the barrel.
Do you have those heavy Hungarian riffles that are made...
that are made for coarser material, right?
What those were doing is they were blinding over on ya.
So whatever gold you were catching in here,
you were probably catching the first day.
And then, after that, the thing
locked up on you like concrete
and then any gold you would have caught in here
is now in your tailings pile.
So, this will alleviate that.
Win, win, win, win, win.
It's been awesome to see those guys
find all the problems in someone's plant and operation
and not embarrass 'em, but show 'em
a good, easy, solid fix.
Eyeballs.
You know, seeing the passion
that they have for it and seeing that they truly...
do care to try to help
us capture more gold, I mean, it's absolutely been amazing.
- How's it look? - Actually, that one's not square.
We're working late tonight 'cause...
there's more to this than what we initially thought
like just cutting that stuff out.
Coming along all right down there?
Little by little, it's kind of, uh,
- small. - Yeah.
You burn yourself in one spot
to weld to burn your plants off in another spot.
Oh, yeah.
You look at it and you think, "I can do that in two hours."
Four hours later, you're still
screwing with it, trying to tear it apart.
- You all right? - Yeah.
We gotta get it done.
'Cause tomorrow's judgement day to see if
what we've done here is gonna work or not gonna work.
Gold mining is thirsty work,
and lucky for Andrew,
there's only one stand in town.
- How you doing, buddy? - Hi, Mr. Freddy, hi, Mr. Juan.
- Hey, bud. - Bump.
- How you doin' buddy? - Hey, buddy.
All right, tell them what you're selling today.
- AU Lemonade. - What? Lemonade?
You probably don't get many visitors out here, huh?
So what's "AU" stand for?
- Gold. - Gold! That's right, give me five!
- There you go. - Knuckle-buster.
- There you go. - Attaboy.
I'll take the yellow lemonade.
- All different... - I'll take one of everything.
Excellent.
Do you take debit card, Andrew?
No, but you can give me some gold.
I'll tell you what, here you go.
- Thank you, sir. - Oh, my goodness.
What do you say?
- Thank you, sir. - Thank you.
- Bye, guys. - Bye, buddy.
- Thank you, pleasure to meet you guys. - Bye.
Don't drink too much of that, okay, Calvin?
World's most remote lemonade stand.
You know, we've had to go shut down for a couple days now but...
- Yes, you have. - I'm hoping that...
you know, the improvements we made are gonna help you guys out.
It's the final day on Freddy and Juan's mine intervention.
Time to see if their fixes can rescue Mike's dream.
You know, it's our goal that
the increased recovery will make up for it in short order.
- I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of it. - Yup.
Right here, we teed into your existing water line.
Now, we've got water
going into that de-watering barrel.
So, it will wash that material more and hopefully,
keep that gold from going up that conveyor
and gone forever.
Well, before, guys, you had some riffles in here
but it wasn't really a sluice box, it was a chute.
It was a good chute to transfer material,
but it was also transferring the gold
to go up that conveyor, right?
We actually built you a new sluice run.
Every chance we can give that gold
to get settled out and get trapped,
we want to make sure we can do that,
and that's what we're doing with that sluice.
Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing what that
sluice box actually gives us.
Well, in that little sluice down there, guys,
the riffles you had in it,
were the wrong riffle for that type of material.
We simplified it,
and we've got a riffle configuration in there now
that's gonna go after that fine gold.
I'm looking forward to those green mats turning yellow.
Well, really guys, there's only one thing left to do, huh?
- Run, run, run. - Let's run it.
- Let's fire it up. - Run, run, run.
- Fire it up! - Let's do it.
All right, firing up.
There it is.
- Started our run. - Four hours.
Hope we can get lucky with some gold today.
Whoo-hoo!
First bucket, huh?
- First bucket. - This site is ready.
Yee-haw!
Done first scoop with his new riffles.
Boldly put this dirt where no dirt has gone before.
So we built the real sluice box here.
Now the gold that's getting by that jig, has a fighting chance.
As long as it's got a fighting chance,
we've got a chance to catch it.
Well, the final chance sluices are running
a hell of a lot better than they were before.
You can see them doing their job now.
You can actually see in the drum.
How the drum from halfway over...
- Clean. Yup. - ...it's a little cleaner.
And look at the material, a bit cleaner.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
You can see it right now, it's visible.
It's already clean.
Compared to what the drum was before,
- it was completely brown, the whole thing. - Yeah. Yup.
Moment of truth. I'm gonna take a pan.
- Can it? - Juan took it there.
- We'll see what's in it. - Right off the conveyor.
Well, let's go pan this, guys.
It sounds counterproductive
because of the watering trommel.
But what it's doing is help break up
the rest of that material up and get it down.
Get it screened.
Rather lose a little water than a lot of gold.
Yeah, for sure.
The first test run
showed Mike was hemorrhaging gold
with nine pieces in just a single pan.
Not a speck of gold.
No. No gold.
Juano.
- Way better. - That's all you wanna see right there.
I'm happy with that.
- Yeah. - Extremely happy.
'Cause you have to make the material
do what you want it to to.
You have to force it to do it.
If you let it go on its own,
it's gonna do whatever it's gonna do.
I'd say y'all did it.
What Freddy just pulled off the conveyor,
I mean, it's a complete game changer.
Mike, last bucket! Four hours! Last bucket!
Moment of truth.
So, how does it look?
- It looks good. - Yeah?
The results of this test
will determine if Freddy and Juan's fixes
have successfully secured Mike and Will's future here.
If we get a 10% increase, I'll really be happy.
It'll also make me sad because...
we've been throwing some gold away.
This is what we got in the four-hour run.
Okay.
And once again, we got a nice, flat nugget
that didn't fit in the vial,
so I'm just gonna pour it in there what we got
in the four-hour run, a little bit better material.
The first test delivered 1.6 ounces.
Anything more than two ounces, promises a profit.
2.20.
2.2 ounces.
A 37% increase on the first run,
- over a 100-day season. - Whoo-hoo!
This could deliver Mike 440 ounces,
worth over three-quarters of a million dollars.
I am so happy
with you guys coming up here and the work you did.
You're gonna make us a lot of money
in the long run with this stuff.
That's right.
That's gonna be a windfall.
It's fabulous. I'm so happy for it.
And now we've got a better outlook on the future.
It's gonna help keep us afloat.
I think it's absolutely amazing.
I mean, y'all took something made an adjustment,
and it's proof right there that, I mean, it's gonna change our season.
When I work with Mike, you know we have a partnership
on this mine and...
just that increase in gold by the end of the year,
what I'll see different, it's gonna be a big change,
it's really gonna make life a lot easier.
It's amazing.
And I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
- Oh, you're welcome. - Thank you.
Well, Andrew, I think Freddy's got a little bit of a gift for you, bud.
- Ready, Juan? - Yeah, let's pull it out.
This is your wash plant. - Your wash plant.
This was Juan's idea.
- It's got your name on it. - Know what that says?
Andrew.
- Yeah! - Yeah, it does.
- Give Juan five on that one. - Here you go, buddy.
I think at first he was almost speechless,
'cause he wasn't sure what to expect, but...
once they explained to him exactly what it is
and how to use it,
he can't wait to start running some paydirt through it.
If Mike's trommel happens to break down, I'd lease him this for like...
a hundred dollars an hour.
so you can keep making gold out here.
With my new wash plant, I'll find so much gold.
I'll find more gold than Mr. Mike.
Right on, buddy. It's your own wash plant.
Thank y'all very much.
- You're welcome. - No problem, man.
Absolutely a pleasure.
In the last few days that Freddy and Juan have been here,
it's just been absolutely amazing.
For what Mike has going on up here,
I think it's gonna change his outlook
on the production of this mine.
I'm glad Juan and Freddy answered my call to get them to come up here.
- Well, you guys take care. - Bye guys, appreciate it.
- We're outta here. - Thank you, thanks again.
- Hey, I appreciate it. - Y'all be safe.
Well, what we've done for 'em this week is, uh,
we've emphasized on catching more of that fine gold.
Thanks, guys. See ya. Good luck.
Where these guys were... were losing
quite a percentage of it in the past but, uh,
you know, we got the plant tuned up.
What that means is more gold in his pocket,
means more money in his pocket.
It has been an emotional week.
It's a tough life.
And I've had a few issues that I've had to deal with
but thank God I have this place.
And it's helped me make it through some of the difficult times.
Man, I'm sure glad Will's called Freddy and Juan.
And the changes that they made are awesome.
And it's gonna help us stay afloat.
Thank you, Freddy and Juan.
You helped me out and you taught an old dog some new tricks.