Get ready for the violence.
This is absolutely the make it or break it year.
The spray bar broke off 11 seconds in.
Terry's a very sharp businessman.
[Freddy Dodge] Sparks will fly.
Very hopeful for the big investment.
[man] He needs to survive
but I know and I'd like to see to stay involved with.
I'm at 50-50 all summer.
Oh, that's an ash heap.
[Juan Ibarra] So that's going to be pretty ambitious
for the time we have here.
[man] It definitely seems like
if it's not one thing, it's another.
[man] I'm clogging up down here.
As of right now, it doesn't look good.
You can feel the tension in the air a little bit.
We've pushed ourselves maybe a bit too harsh this time.
[Freddy] We're going down here to a gentleman.
Sounds like he is pretty much
bunked up in a tent out here.
Man, it's got to be tough.
The past two seasons, he hasn't done well at all
on recovering gold.
You know, if he doesn't make it this year,
his gold mining career is probably done.
[Juan] He's got to really love what he is doing
or really, really believe in what he's doing.
Kind of like us, Juano.
That or he's just plain crazy,
which, very well, could be too.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan race through Northeast Oregon
on course for a 60-acre placer mine
in the historic mining area of Granite,
twelve miles northwest of Sumpter.
[man] Jasper.
The claim is owned by 53-year-old struggling miner
Chad Marmolejo.
He's called in best friend, Terry
for a final roll of the dice.
-[Juan] Hey, guys. -[Terry] Good morning, hi.
-[Juan] Hey. -[Chad] Good morning, I'm Chad.
-[Juan] Nice to meet you, Chad. -[Freddy] Chad, Freddy.
[Terry Larimer] Hi, Freddy, it's a real pleasure.
-What's your name? -Terry.
-Yup, good to meet you.
[Freddy] Nice to meet you, Terry.
How long have you been out here running, Chad?
Well, at this spot, here, about ten years.
I had some pans, a little trommel,
and I started there, [laughs]
and just doing little bits at a time
-evolving into this. -[Freddy] This way you got now, huh?
This is what I have now.
2008, I was a heating and air conditioning contractor.
One-man shop, the housing crashed,
forced my company to fail.
Being that I just became a dad
a few years before that,
I was, like, "Man, what the heck am I going to do now?"
You know, a lot of the places weren't hiring.
Just clicked in my brain,
I was like, "You know, I grew up in Gold Country."
I first started hunting on that very hill,
right there behind me
when I was 11 years old,
and I was like,
"Man, I think I ought to give that a whirl."
So I came up with a shovel and pans
and started finding gold right away.
Pretty much gold fever right then, right out of the gate.
[narrator] But just as Chad started out
on his dream to mine gold,
life had other ideas.
[Chad] My mom passed away
and that hit me pretty hard.
I took a one-year break.
It was just too hard to be over here.
So the first year when I got back,
and the wash plant would break down and then,
this year, all gung-ho, again
to get back at it,
but still kept fighting breakdowns.
It's just been
one challenge after another.
I can't keep having horrible season after horrible season
and not face reality
that, either, I'm not meant to do this,
or I'm not capable of doing this.
This is absolutely
the make-it or break-it-year.
How have you done the last few years,
as far as gold recovery?
To be honest, last couple of years were horrible.
-Okay. -[Chad] Between breakdowns
and the time that I could actually run,
it was very disheartening.
My driving force was that I wanted to
turn it into something that I could provide for my family.
And, when I started out in the beginning, it was very exciting.
I had a 12-ounce season.
That was my best year.
That doesn't even cover the money that I spent
getting over here and the fuel.
[Freddy] Yeah, that's not good.
[narrator] To keep this dream alive,
Chad called in the cavalry,
best friend and retired businessman, Terry Larimer.
Now, how long have you been up here, Terry?
I just started coming up this spring,
helping him repair stuff
and just trying to help him.
I got to admit, I got a little bite
of the gold fever, maybe.
-Okay. -I was mechanical heating,
air conditioning contractor for 36 years.
-[Freddy] Okay. -Yeah. Sold out back in January
and, actually, retired and looking for an investment.
[narrator] Terry's promised Chad
a much-needed cash injection
for fuel and equipment.
But first, he needs to be certain
the mine can turn a profit.
[Chad] And, you know, Terry's not only my best friend
but he's very sharp businessman,
so, he crunches numbers way better than I do,
and I'm very hopeful for the big investment
and that's a make-it or break-it decision.
[Terry] You know, I haven't made that decision, yet.
That kind of stinks.
You know, for it to be, for my decision
to affect his final decision.
But, you know, I ran a business for 30 years.
I know how business needs to run.
What do you need per day to make a living out here?
We're currently running about 50 yards a week,
getting ounce, ounce and a half.
If we get two and a half ounces a week,
-we're starting to break even. -Yeah.
He knows what he needs to survive,
but, I know what I'd like to see
to stay involved with him.
You know, I think my goal would be
to see him pull five ounces a week.
[Juan] So we got to double up here.
Yeah, it would definitely make the difference.
[Freddy and Juan] Okay.
When we drove up, I saw a camper.
-That's got to be yours, huh? -[Terry] Yeah.
Are you in that tent?
-Yes, I'm in the tent. -[Juan laughs]
-In the little Taj Mahal. -[Juan] Roughing it a little.
Well, let's fire up a plant,
and, maybe, help him get
where he can go from a tent to a camper.
-[Juan] Yeah, let's go. -Amen to that.
-Here you go. -[laughs]
Let's make some gold.
[Chad] Get ready for the violence.
[motor starts]
-It's a noisy little plant. -Yeah.
Jasper won't be able to take a nap, huh?
[Freddy] I'll start the timer.
[Juan] Water test, here it goes.
-First bucket. -Press timer.
[Juan] Fred, that...
-Spray bar just broke down. -[Freddy] It did.
Spray bar broke off 11 seconds in.
[Juan] Oh, here goes your water bar.
[Chad] Yeah, it's not what I was expecting to break.
You got a couple of them big zip ties or something?
Hi-tech stuff.
It's embarrassing when I have something
like a waterline break.
It definitely seems like, if it's not one thing, it's another.
[narrator] Juan's past experience
working for his father's plumbing business
gives them a vital perspective
on the pipework.
[Juan] He's got a double 90 down here
-and then, got a double 90 up here. -[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] He's got four 90s within about 10 feet.
[narrator] Every time the water in the pipe hits a 90-degree bend,
and heads off in a new direction,
it loses pressure.
Less water pressure in the wash plant
means gold and clay stay stuck to the rocks.
He's killing his flow right there.
-Probably 20-25% right there. -Mm-hmm.
[Freddy] All right. Let's try this again.
[narrator] Chad's operation features an unusual set-up.
Terry loads clay-rich pay into the hop.
It passes into a makeshift
vibrating mini screen deck
where the reattached spray bar
washes the first of the gold-bearing material of the rocks.
Grizzly bars screen off anything
bigger than five inches.
Next, the ten-foot trommel washes the material
and screens it down to less than half an inch.
Finally, it passes into the 40-foot sluice box,
where the gold should settle in the riffles.
[Chad] Hey, Terry. I think they're going to check
the box down at the end
to see if we have any fine gold
getting out of the sluice.
[Juan] I found one piece.
You know, this is off the end of the sluice box,
but if in one pan I was able to find that one piece,
you know we're losing gold.
So, we're going to have to do something
about the recovery as well.
[Terry] That's pretty heavy clay.
[narrator] Former wrench and Freddy
spots another problem in the wash pan.
[Freddy] The screen is there.
I think it's an old grain screen,
-like, for reed or crops. -Really?
Something, you know, to get the dust and stuff out of it.
It's not made for rocks like that.
Yeah, I know. That thing's about ready to break apart.
[Freddy] Lightweight as it is, with all these big rocks.
-[Juan] I know. -That's kind of like
bringing a spoon to a gun fight.
I'm looking at the trommel run right now.
You can see that material
is coming off the end of the trommel.
It's still really dirty.
When it's still really dirty like that,
we know we're losing gold.
So, that's going to be something
we're going to have to address.
[narrator] Clay is the biggest gold thief,
and the lack of water pressure at Chad's plant
is costing him gold he can ill-afford to lose.
[Terry] I'm loaded up here.
[Chad] I'm just really wanting to make this work
for being able to provide for my family,
actually make decent money.
I know what I'm out here trying to do.
But then, I also have my emotional breakdowns.
Being away from my daughters and my wife.
You know, missing them.
It is hard, especially on my youngest daughter, Paige,
because she is very active in sports.
And, where it gets hard is when they're like,
"Hey, Dad. I want a new pair of basketball shoes."
I'm like, "Yeah. It's not in the budget right now."
And my oldest daughter, Iris,
is mostly 17 right now.
She's a senior in high school.
College is right around the corner
and I honestly don't have the means,
saved debt to be able to
put her through college.
You know, that's brutal on me as a dad.
I love Chad but do I have the time
or the desire to be in another business again?
Or am I ready to, you know, just spend time
with my wife and my grandkids.
I haven't made that decision, yet.
[Juan] What do you think about the sluice pipings?
[Freddy] They don't have enough water.
So we narrow it up.
Just a little bit,
-to get more water in there. -[Juan] Yup.
-And then, remodify the sluices. -[Juan] Yeah.
[Freddy] Well, that's four hours, Juano.
[Juan] Should we call it last bucket?
I think so. Let's call it.
Last bucket, guys.
Last bucket.
-[Chad] Oh, yeah. -[Juan] Well, that doesn't look too horrible.
[Freddy] No.
[Freddy] There's some color there.
[Juan] Well, why don't we pull it apart
-and get it cleaned up. -[Chad] Okay.
[Juan] You know, that run wasn't the greatest, Fred
because the screen they had wasn't doing it.
I didn't think it was going to run four hours long.
From the sounds of it, Freddy,
it seems like they need five ounces a week
to be able to be making a little bit of money.
Well, you got to make money on it or you can't do it.
-Yeah. -And that's what worrying Terry
-about investing money into this-- -Yeah.
...is he just doesn't want to,
-you know, throw things at a sinking ship. -No kidding.
Really, the determining factor's going to be,
once we see the gold weight, where we're at.
But the plant need work.
-Needs a lot of work. [chuckles softly] -Might parts as well.
-[Freddy] How's it going, guys? -[Juan] Morning, guys.
[Terry] Good morning.
[narrator] In Northeast Oregon...
Oh, you got it pretty clean.
-Yeah, looks good. -[Chad] I tried. [chuckles]
[narrator] ...the first gold weigh at Chad Marmolejo's mine.
Well, guys, let's weigh it up.
See what you got.
Let's do it.
[narrator] To hit the five ounces
required to make the mine viable,
the four-hour test must produce 1.25 ounces.
[Freddy] That's not horrible, 0.86.
-[Juan] Yeah, that's actually pretty- -[Terry] 0.86.
[Freddy] Not a lot of super fine golden, though Juano.
You got super fine gold how much?
I don't know, but the way your sluice is running.
[Juan] Yeah, you're going to be losing that.
[Chad] Well, I wish it was more.
That's got me stressed.
[narrator] It's enough to break even.
But only two-thirds of what they need
to make this mine profitable.
[Chad] Really need to step it up to that next level,
to turn this into a viable business.
[narrator] And not nearly enough
to convince Terry to invest.
[Terry] We need to run twice as much material as what we are running.
And for us to really make this a go,
ultimately, to do what we want to do here.
We need five ounces a week,
before saying I will be part of it next year.
We got some ideas we'd want to, kind of, put
pen to paper and figure out
what it's going to be.
Here's your gold back.
[Freddy] We'll go talk, and we'll talk to you in a minute.
Okay, sounds great. Thank you.
What do you got, Juano?
Well, starting with that screen, Freddy.
Think it used to be like a grain screen of some kind.
We need to figure a way to be able to reinforce it,
and, maybe, it'll redo the drive system in it,
because it's going to beat itself apart.
It's either got another 10 minutes
or 10 days on this earth.
-I don't know which one but not very long. -Yeah.
[Freddy] So, I think, we pull this screen out,
-get rid of it. -Okay.
[Freddy] Then, I think, we just build a pipe scrapper.
-[Juan] We'll have to do a sub-frame for it. -Yup.
-[Juan] Rollers. -Yup.
We're going to have to add a drive system.
We're going to have to find a pipe.
[Freddy] That's going to be a tough one.
So, if we have that scrubber,
that have bars inside of it.
All right. I really like that Fred.
That's going to be pretty ambitious.
[Freddy] It's going to be a lot of work.
[Juan] And we maybe able to do
-couple of other little things, but-- -Hmm.
...that's going to take every bit of time that we have here.
[Freddy] Yup. He's low on water.
-Probably 20% low on water. -[Juan chuckles]
We'd be getting that back,
that will alleviate the water in the sluice.
Juan, here's the sluice.
I seen a few simple issues.
It needs a ramp in the front.
-[Juan] Mm-hmm. -There's one riffle
-in there that's doing nothing. -[Juan] Saw that.
[Juan] I saw that. [chuckles]
[Freddy] It maybe, actually,
it may be designed as a gold losing riffle system.
The first only gold losing riffle system.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan's success
relies on increasing production
with two innovative multi-step fixes.
First, they'll cut away the vibrating screen deck
and replace it with a rock scrubber,
fed by the existing hopper.
It will have steel rods
to break away the clay-rich, gold-bearing material.
Next, Freddy will reconfigure the plumbing
to increase the water pressure to wash the rocks.
And, finally, add a ramp, a new riffle system
to the sluice box to help catch the fine gold.
-[Juan] You guys looking for more gold? -[both] Yeah.
As you know, there are a little lot that we want to do.
That screen, we want to completely eliminate it,
and actually build you a scrubber.
[Terry] I actually... I was hoping,
praying that you would get rid of that
violent piece of equipment.
That's plagued me all summer.
[Juan] The scrubber's going to look a lot like a trommel.
Basically, it's just tumbling that material
and actually giving it a chance to fall back
on top of the material and get scrubbed.
Right now, you're trying to use that screen.
-[Chad] Uh-huh. -And I'm a screen guy.
Right? But not with balls of clay like you have.
First thing we're going to do
-is trying to find that pipe. -[Juan] Yeah.
-Okay. -We got to get that pipe coming.
Without it, it changes everything.
-[Terry] All right. -I got you.
[Juan] So, the scrubber's one of the things we wanted to do.
You know, obviously the material's not getting properly washed.
So we want to reconfigure the plumbing
going to the inlet of the water.
Yeah, that was just trying when we moved some stuff,
what we had on site that put together to connect it,
-and it was like-- -[Freddy] Yeah, we understand.
Juan seems to think
that we could probably get another...
-[Juan] 15-20%... -[Freddy] And I agree with him.
The next thing is, we want to do some work
-on the sluice box as well. -Okay.
We want to change some of your carpets
and redo a few things, so.
-[Chad] Okay. -As far as the gold goes,
you know, as far as payment,
we know you don't have it at the moment.
-Right. -But we'd like to seek two ounces a piece.
-[Chad] Okay. -Our time for the week,
for our material, our fabrication,
-and our expenses. -Right.
I guess, my one quick question I have is,
with doing these things,
what do you think the increase in the production will be?
Well, you know, if we could double
-your production going through the plant-- -[Chad] Yeah.
-[Freddy] You know, you go from 0.86 to 1.72. -Yeah.
And then, you're making a good living.
-[Chad] Yeah. -[Freddy] A really good living,
off this little plant.
Praise the Lord on that.
We're done, then.
-[Terry] Be up. Let's do it. -[Chad] Nice, guys.
[Freddy] Well, first thing we got to do,
we're going to go try to find some pipes, won't we?
-Yeah, let's go do it. -[Terry] All right.
-Talk to you guys in a bit. -[Freddy] See you in a bit, guys.
[Chad] It's a lot of work ahead,
but doubling that production
is just going to make the difference
from [inhales] eating hotdogs
to maybe, I'll have a steak once a week,
and know that my kids can get
their new basketball shoes
when the want them.
[Terry] If we could, potentially double our production,
I think it's feasible to take that step
from slightly above a hobby miner
to a full commercial mine.
But, like anything else,
it takes money to make money,
and I'm just trying to decide
if, you know, how big of investment,
you know, financially, and physically
and with equipment
do I want to have in this at this point.
So, still a lot to think about.
[Juan] So what Freddy and I would like to do
is actually build a scrubber,
but we got to find about 20-24 inch diameter pipe.
So we're heading into town right now.
But, if we have to, if we can't find the pipe,
we're going to have to reuse what he has
and just fix it, so it lasts a little longer.
That's really not what Freddy and I want to do,
but if we can't find the pipe,
that might be the only resort we have.
[Freddy] So we got our gold-losing riffle.
[narrator] Back at the claim,
Freddy's first priority, the sluice.
So I want to wanted to put a ramp in.
Then we're getting all the material underneath the carpet.
[narrator] Freddy's simple but ingenious plan,
a three-foot long steel strip
welded in as a ramp,
to force the material into the carpets
and riffles, tucked underneath.
[Freddy] So we got a ramp welded in,
with this gold and with the water and material,
you have to force it to do what you want it to do.
If you turn it loose, it's like a stray dog.
It's just gonna go from place to place to place.
One of the main things is get control over the material,
let it know that you are the boss, it's not the boss.
[narrator] 20 miles away,
Juan hunts for a 20-inch pipe at the local boneyard.
Unable to source a new one in time,
it's urgent that he find something usable.
[Juan] I don't know if there's something here that they might sell.
There's an old trommel drum right there, but, uh,
I don't really need to perforate it,
I actually just need a solid piece of pipe, so.
I'm just gonna poke around, see what they got,
maybe there's something here we can use.
[narrator] The boneyard is a legacy of Granite's mining heritage.
Prospectors first arrived in the 1860s,
and it soon became the most prominent mining region in Oregon.
It's produced nearly 4.5 million ounces of gold
from lode, placer, and dredge operations.
But when the US stopped gold mining
in 1942 for the war effort,
...the landscape became littered with ghost towns.
But even with so many relics left from a bygone era,
usable scraps are still hard to find.
I was hoping to find maybe a piece of 24-inch pipe
or something that we could cut up and,
and turn it into a scrubber that we needed, but, uh,
doesn't look like anything's here, nothing that we can use.
You know, it puts us in a tough spot.
We may have to go back to the drawing board,
I'm not 100% certain that we're gonna be able to find
that piece of pipe that we need in time.
So we may actually have to change our plan.
Hey, I'm looking for a piece of 20-inch pipe.
[narrator] With Juan's scavenge mission dead,
Freddy puts out an SOS to the Oregon mining community.
[Freddy] 10, 12, 15 feet long.
I don't care, beggars can't be choosers.
Whatever we can scrounge, we can't find any locally.
[Chad Marmolejo] This is my casa, from spring
through whenever I close up for the late fall.
[narrator] Later that afternoon...
[Juan] Your summer vacation home, huh?
-[Chad] Yeah, this is my summer vacation home. -[both laugh]
[Chad] You know, I make the best of it.
[narrator] ...Juan takes a tour of Chad's grade-A accommodation...
...where he spends seven months a year
isolated on this remote 60-acre mountain claim.
[Juan] You don't have any power out here, huh?
[Chad] No. I have a cot,
I got Jasper's bed, of course, right next to my heater.
I try to conserve the propane as much,
'cause fuel prices has gotten pretty crazy.
-I have to go to Sumpter to be able to take a shower, -[chuckles]
do laundry, you know?
-[Chad] It's brutal sometimes. -It is, that's tough.
[Chad] You know, my existence up here
is very primitive.
And it's hard living in the tent,
you know, springtime you're dealing with
rain, snow, and mud.
And in the summertimes, it's baking ya out here.
You are so remote
and supplies and things are so far away,
um, including help if you needed it.
And the time away from my family, too.
Trying to be a father and trying to be, uh,
man and provide for your family, it's tough, you know?
-All the sacrifices that are made. -Yeah.
All that time away from the family and the kids,
and missing a lot of how they're developing, it's tough.
You know, my little ones are still really small, but...
-Yeah. -You know, being on the road and still trying to keep up
-with being a dad. -Right.
-Look what you're doing. -Yeah.
You're out here roughing it, you know,
working day in and day out,
living in a tent, but, you know,
the goal is to try and make a living.
That's the goal, 100%.
[Juan] What he's got going on here is not luxurious at all.
It's pretty basic and, uh,
you know, the lengths that a man goes through
to be able to make a living for his family
and provide for his family, it's inspiring, you know?
And, uh, really, it's motivation for us
and do even more to help him out,
and help his situation out.
Because ultimately, that'll help his family out.
[car honks]
[narrator] 24 hours after they send out their SOS,
Freddy and Juan's prayers are answered...
...by some youthful miners they've met before.
-[Juan] Hey, guys. -How you doing, Juan?
[narrator] Two years ago, Freddy and Juan came to Oregon
to help out three young brothers, the Folletts...
[Dave Follett] That's Wylder, Rider, and Jagger.
[narrator] ...turning their fading dream...
I would say this stuff has almost no gold at all in it.
[narrator] ...into a lucrative business.
[all exclaiming]
-[Freddy] Holy cow. -[Juan] Look at that.
[Juan laughs] Now look at this one, guys.
-[Freddy] Half-ounce nugget. -Holy crap!
[Juan] There it is.
-Jagger, how you doing, buddy? Good to see you. -Good to see you too, dude.
-How's it going? -How're you doing?
-Pretty good. -What's going on, boys?
[Juan] Dude, that's awesome, I...
She gonna work for ya?
[Juan] Yeah, you bailed us out big time.
It's exactly what we're looking for.
-[Juan] How you guys been? -We just bought our own mine.
-Where are you guys at? -The new one's out in the Mormon Basin.
[Jagger] I haven't touched that one yet,
but we've been running the baker.
[Juan] Awesome.
You know, Freddy and Juan called me up, uh, needing some pipe.
And we had plenty of extra pipe just laying around,
but I'm just happy to help another miner
'cause there's gold in the ground, we just all gotta get it.
If we can help each other get it, fantastic. We can all get rich together.
Without you guys having that pipe locally here,
we wouldn't have been able to do it.
And we're still pushing it.
-Appreciate it. -Good luck mining, guys.
-[Jagger] Thank you, guys. Have a good one. -Find lots of gold.
[Jagger] We will.
[narrator] As the pipe is prepped...
[Freddy] Sparks will fly.
[narrator] ...Terry and Chad remove the part of the plant
they hate the most.
[Terry Larimer] There's one.
And that should be free.
Okay. I just wanna walk this trough...
...right down to the grizzlies just from here.
-Okay, it'll set right there just fine. -Yeah.
-[Chad] Perfect. -Thank you, sir.
[Terry] Okay, it's all clear.
She knows I wanna get rid of her.
-[Terry] She doesn't wanna give up. -No, she doesn't.
-[Chad] She's fighting. -She's gonna fight the whole way.
[Chad] So long, sucka.
[Terry] You're the one that didn't wanna see her go.
[Chad] Yeah, I know.
It's making me so happy.
Actually, I'm grateful to see it move.
But to be honest, a little emotional in some aspects.
I've had a love-hate relationship with that thing.
Mine's all hate.
Perfect. That's good right there.
[Chad] It's a big part of the mine going, um,
this was the only thing I had for a pre-wash
and, uh, now I won't have that,
but I'm gonna have some new Freddy and Juan magic
that I am super excited for.
So, um, yeah.
I am completely fine saying adios to this thing.
[in Spanish]
[Juan chuckles]
-Cool now, Chad. How you doing, buddy? -Not too bad.
Been really curious about what's been going on over here.
[Juan] Oh, I'm just trying to get everything together. We actually just got the pipe.
Uh, let me show you the,
let me show you the actual tube that we're gonna be using for your scrubber.
So...
[Chad] Wow, that's a heavy one.
So then inside here, we're gonna actually put bars to lift it.
And that way, the material, when it's inside there, it just doesn't slide.
It actually, it's forced to get lifted up and then tumble down.
-Okay. -So that tumbling action
is actually what's gonna clean up that material to break up that clay.
-Yeah. -It'll try to get some of that gold released
from that, that clay.
[Chad] Awesome.
[Juan] So, I got the basic frame built this morning.
[narrator] On the Marmolejo Claim,
Juan fabricates a base for the scrubber
in a race to double the operation's gold production.
So, uh, the design here, it's a little different.
Instead of using the casters,
we're actually just gonna use the rollers off the caster
and we're gonna build our own bracket.
[narrator] The delay in finding a pipe for the scrubber
means they're already behind schedule,
and each innovation has a trickle-down effect.
[Juan] What we've done in the past is we'll just use
these brackets that come with the casters.
But if you see here, you know the load's
gonna be pushing against the casters.
That way, and what happens a lot of times,
it'll either bend this bottom plate,
bend these arms, or break that well.
So we're gonna build a whole bracket to be able to paddle these in place.
At the end of the day it's gonna be a lot better design,
it's gonna be a lot more durable, and really, that's what they need.
So we're just getting all the parts cut out
for its rollers, and these are the supports.
-[Freddy] So this is your deep cut, huh? -[Terry] Yeah.
[Terry] I think I'm into some stuff you're gonna wanna check out.
-[Freddy] Lead the way. -[Terry] Come on down.
Got a lot of overburden. That's nasty.
Just trying to get a look at the wall here from a distance.
That clay layer there,
if gold mining doesn't work out for you,
you could start a pottery store.
-[laughs] Yeah. -[Freddy] You got enough clay.
[Terry] Yeah, I don't think so.
I think if gold mining doesn't work out,
-I won't be in this hole anymore. -[Freddy laughs]
[narrator] The time it takes to remove overburden
and haul pay to the plant means
Chad can only run two days a week.
[Freddy] Well, let's get outta the whole now.
Let's have a look at her.
There's definitely some nice color there.
-[Chad] Yeah. -[Freddy] And decent pieces.
[Freddy] For their size, they got some weight to 'em, looking at 'em.
-[Terry] Good. -Yeah, and this is where we got the material
that we ran the, the test,
-Okay. -for our test the other day.
[Freddy] This is promising material.
I mean, if it didn't have...
...40-foot overburden on it.
-[Chad] I agree. -[Freddy] Sure, it's pretty in the pan,
but it costs you two dollars to get one dollar's worth of gold,
-it's no longer feasible. -[Chad] Yeah, that's, that's some math.
[Chad] 'Cause that's the only thing holding me back right now.
[narrator] In addition to the fixes,
Freddy must help Chad solve the economics
of his mine site to make it truly viable.
It's all numbers, it's all dollars and cents, you know?
Just don't let gold lie to your wallet.
They gotta crunch their numbers
and find out if this one's cost-feasible to mine
to get that much material off of it.
Uh, you know, we had good gold in the cleanup
for the amount of material that was ran,
but is it good enough to take that 40 feet off?
[narrator] Back at the claim,
Juan makes slow progress on the scrubber fix.
We can see right now this is just the beginning of it.
But this is a lot heavier duty than just having regular rollers pick it up.
The whole point is we wanna build something that's gonna last,
and it's gonna be here for a while for these guys to be able to make some money.
We're actually gonna get the drum on top,
get it on there, get it lined up where we want it,
so that way we can start figuring where we're gonna put the drive system on it.
You know, hopefully by the end of the day we'll be in a little better,
better position than we're in right now.
I'm a little nervous right now because, uh, there's still is so much to do.
Let's get the drum on there.
I just wanna see how it looks, see how it feels,
make sure my measurements are correct.
We're clear. Drop.
Well, looks good.
You know, this is just the beginning of it.
I wanted to kinda test it on, uh, on the frame,
make sure we're good with the frame.
Uh, looks good right now.
Next, we're gonna cut out a sprocket for it.
And then we have to build an engine mount and a gear drive mount.
So, uh, we still got a lot to do.
Fortunately, uh, I'm starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.
[Freddy] Well, I wanna look at your ground a little bit up here, too.
[narrator] To solve Chad's all-time issue,
Freddy investigates an old cut
just a few hundred feet away from the wash plant.
[Chad] The dilemma that I'm facing,
the dirt here is sporadic to say the best.
It peters out into nothing.
[Freddy] It's not all full of clay, which is good.
[Chad] You know, the other mine site, it's a lot more identifiable.
-Uh-huh. -But this is right here next to the plant.
[Freddy] What you got here in my estimation
of the five minutes I've looked at it now,
-decomposed bedrock. That's what this is. -Mmm-hmm.
-[Chad] Okay. -Right? All this stuff here,
I think it's pay from here to here...
-...looking at it. -Okay.
So, what I would do, I would get the topsoil off of it, and the ash.
-Mmm-hmm. -Get it off of it, I'd run all this.
-Here down, and see what you got. -Yep.
[Chad] Trust the color that's in the box.
-That's right. That's exactly... hey. -[chuckles]
That's a good call. Yup.
I wanna try a little bit way down the face here.
-[Freddy] Well, let's go pan this. -Yeah.
[Freddy] A lot less clay here than the stuff we ran.
-[Freddy] Good earth color in there. -Yeah.
I mean, it's... there's three pieces, four pieces right there.
Think probably with those smaller pieces,
I've been really struggling to catch those in my box.
Well, let's get your plant set up where you're catching more of this fine gold.
I think that could really make a difference here.
For an ounce a hundred here and we're two ounces there,
-Yeah. -that ounce in the middle, that extra ounce,
will it pay to get rid of that overburden?
-And to truck it up here, right? -Right. Right.
-Especially with just two guys, right? -Right.
-So here, you could almost run every day. -Yes.
There, you can't. You gotta go down there and strip and dig.
[Chad] What I was really excited about learning
at the upper cut where the wash plant is,
that material's much easier to mine,
and even if it doesn't, you know, pay the same,
the actual cost of running that material is a lot cheaper.
Well, this stuff here is cheaper by far. You have no overburden.
If this was my mine, I would mine this spot right here.
What we thought was clay we now know from Freddy
that is decomposed, uh, bedrock.
So, it doubles the amount of pay material we have to run here,
which excites me. It makes me feel better about this claim.
But you know, there's still a lot to think about.
[Juan] You know, I would say I'm probably halfway on the build on the scrubber.
-[Freddy] Okay. -[Juan] Roughly about halfway.
[narrator] In northeast Oregon,
there's only two days left for Freddy and Juan
to complete their most ambitious fix to date
and double Chad's gold production.
Sorry I'm not over there helping you with that.
No. So I didn't get to see the cuts, Freddy.
-What's the differences there? -Well, that,
that material we ran had 40 foot of overburden on it,
plus they have to truck it a couple miles with a dump truck
to get it to the plant.
That other... now, the other cut,
-it's right next to the plant. -Yeah.
You know, the stuff, it's got gold in it. there's only two foot
-of overburden on top of it. -Well.
So, it may not be as good a gold, but they'll make more money.
[Juan] Yeah, well, less work to get to it.
I mean, if it was half the gold,
I think it would still be better to run what you have there
-at the site, less time to truck it in. -That's my thought.
[Freddy] My thoughts as well.
We're gonna cut up the most intricate piece for the scrubber build.
And it's a sprocket. 'Cause without that sprocket,
we can't get a chain around it to drive it.
So this is actually gonna be the drive mechanism for the scrubber.
[narrator] But there's a problem with the pipe the Folletts brought them.
[Juan] The pipe, unfortunately, is not perfectly round,
so we're just gonna have to adapt.
I'm gonna make the borehole just a little bit bigger,
hopefully it'll be able to slide on and, uh, fit in place.
[machine whirring]
[Juan] Perfect.
We're gonna have to do a little clean up on that, but it's good.
New mats, I'm excited!
[narrator] Freddy adjusts the sluice box to catch the finer gold
he's discovered in the cut next to the wash plant.
[Freddy] Leave a little gap there, just a little one.
Like, one inch. Makes a change right there,
so a piece of gold doesn't like it may like it right there.
-[Freddy] Change is good. -Okay. Awesome.
We're really excited that they're not actually dismantling
my whole sluice box, it's named after my daughter.
Always makes me think of her.
Both my daughters, actually, I miss them a lot when I'm up here.
But I keep reminding myself that as much as I miss them,
it's part of the sacrifice I have to make to, uh,
try to provide better for them.
[Freddy] Scary, you know, huh? Cutting my expensive carpet up.
[Freddy laughs]
[Freddy] The reason I'm doing that
is I don't want any miner's moss under this light riffle I'm putting in.
So, this will catch you more fine gold.
Not worried about the nuggets.
They catch nuggets in a toilet.
This is exciting.
Where do I get one of those toilets that catch those nuggets?
[both laugh]
[narrator] Carpets in, Freddy adds the new riffle system
designed to catch the fine gold
and make their cleanup more time efficient.
So, we can tip them out now.
-You couldn't tip them out before. -Oh, right.
-You see I happened to try and slide it. -Yup, I did.
[Freddy] Now you can tip them out,
make your cleanup so much faster.
And what's that gonna do for ya?
-Give me more running time. -That's exactly right.
More digging time, more running time, more gold in your pocket.
This ramp in here,
this will get it up on top of the carpet,
then there's another one down there in the next sluice.
-[Chad] Yeah. -You should catch most of your gold right here
in this first four feet.
[narrator] Freddy's got a hack to increase
the water flow in Chad's sluice.
We're gonna narrow it up, and we're gonna narrow it up in a simple way.
So we're just gonna use wood.
So you're gonna have a double, we're gonna narrow this up an inch and a half.
Take some screws.
We just increased your water flow
with a two-by-four.
Wow.
Right? How long did it take to screw it on there?
[Chad] Seconds, really. Yeah, no time at all, three screws.
[Freddy] So you should get more water with three screws.
If you don't have enough water again,
put another one on the other side.
This one is set up for fine gold.
You'll catch a lot of it up there, too,
-but this one... -[Chad] Right.
...this one I set up for you
to catch that really fine gold, right?
Piece of gold, we've got two different riffle variation there.
-[Chad] Mmm-hmm. -[Freddy] So we've got one, two, three
four,
five changes right here.
All in the first damn fill of the box.
Yeah, the piece of that doesn't like that,
you know, bounces down, maybe it likes that,
maybe it doesn't, maybe it comes here and likes this,
but we're gonna give it an opportunity to find
the hotel room that it wants to stay in.
Perfect, let it move in.
Sometimes you don't need to build a new sluice box,
you just need to tune it up.
[narrator] As daylight fades, Freddy joins Juan at the scrubber fix.
Right now we're putting up bars inside of it,
so it rolls that material
and really knocks that clay off.
There's no way to climb in and veld it,
so we've drilled holes in the outside here,
and we're gonna plug veld it from the outside.
That looks good, Fred, thank you.
Can you get the rest of the plug veld done, you think?
-Uh, I'm gonna get 'em welded, yeah. Yup. -Okay, perfect.
-I got the ring cut out, so... -Okay.
I actually over sized the board
'cause I was worried that the pipe was a little oval,
but it's all right.
We'll just stitch it on.
-Yeah, that's a-- -You got the sprocket there?
Yeah, I'm just cleaning it up right now.
We still got a whole lot of work to do, though.
-Yeah. Yeah. -[Juan] Okay.
-I'm gonna get to it. -Yeah.
-[Juan] Thanks, Freddy. -You're welcome, bud.
We got a heck of a lot more left to do,
and, uh, we're starting to lose daylight right now.
We might've, uh, bit off more than we can chew here.
[Terry] Taking it across the road
to the other side of the climb.
[narrator] Just one day remaining
on the Marmolejo Mine...
...the team still need to complete the monster task
of assembling the new pre-wash system.
[Juan] Well, we've got the frame coming in with the hopper,
we're actually gonna put our scrubber on top of that frame.
What Terry did was he went out there,
and he got all the old screen cut off,
so basically, it's just a blank canvas,
we're gonna put our, uh, new scrubber on that fame,
get it adjusted where it needed,
so that way, we get it all welded in place
before we take it up there.
You know, this is a really ambitious project for Freddy and I,
right now, all hands are on deck trying to get this done.
[narrator] Juan welds in the sprocket,
which will engage the drive chain and spin the scrubber.
The chain is gonna go over it, so it's really important that
we get this perfectly straight
and as even as we can get it,
so it doesn't wear out prematurely.
[narrator] Freddy's next mission,
get the rocks washed as cleanly as possible.
They use to have this spray bar
on that screen coming out of here
going down and putting water on that material,
so what I'm doing here now, it's gone,
so... [clears throat]
we're gonna put all the water in the hopper
to go down into that scrubber
and clean that material up, knock that clay off.
I'd like to see pretty much spotless material
by the time it gets through the system.
Spin that up, and see how you like it.
-[Freddy] I like. -Yeah, yeah.
[narrator] With the final builds in full scramble...
...Chad hunts out cell service for his weekly call home.
How's things going at home?
Um, things are going okay, I can manage.
I think Terry has been a little skeptical
at times at some of this stuff.
Well, I really appreciate all the hard work and time
that you put in over there.
I know it can't be easy.
No, no, it's certainly not.
A lot rides on this for our family.
Yeah, if nothing, then [inhales]
I'm right back to where I started.
[Amber] I just want my bills paid.
Hey, I better get back to the mine and get to work,
but, um, I sure miss you.
Missing you a bunch, too, babe.
-Love you. -[Chad] Love you, love you.
Man, it's tough, I sure miss 'em.
Back to the grindstone.
[narrator] It's been an all-day effort...
-Ready? -Yeah.
[narrator] ...but the motor is finally in place.
Freddy and Juan test it before darkness falls.
Got it.
-She's alive. -[Freddy] She's alive.
First rock.
-[Juan] It's good? -Bueno.
-Good job, guys.
Let's call it a day.
Well, basically, we're a day behind right now,
literally, maybe more than a day behind, but, uh...
...it's gonna get dark real quick on us,
so we're gonna pull out for the night,
and if we have to put in another extremely long day tomorrow,
that's what we need to do, we'll get it done.
You can feel the tension in the air a little bit.
Yeah, I think we're, uh, under, under a little pressure right now.
[Freddy] Juan, hook that front.
[narrator] It's the final day of the rescue,
and Freddy and Juan still need to finish the fix
and run the test
if their mission to double gold production
and earn Terry's investment is to be successful.
[Terry] All clear!
[Freddy] Clear.
Wow.
This is a big thing, big moment in a lot of different ways
because this could make a big difference for my family.
[Juan] What do you think, Chad?
[Chad] Dude.
-Thank you, man. -Oh, come here, buddy.
[both chuckle]
I'm so excited.
[Terry] Hope everybody is ready. Coming in hot.
[Chad] That's looking decent.
-Bring him this way. -Bring it back.
Juano.
What have we got to get to this grizzly?
Six feet, Fred.
-That's as far as she is gonna go, Fred. -Okay.
[narrator] A six foot gap between the scrubber and the grizzly...
[Freddy] Hell, I don't know.
[narrator] ...means pay will miss the trommel
if a solution to connect them is not found.
We got a lot of work left to get that material
from the scrubber onto those grizzly bars
to get it into the trommel,
so...
...not a lot of spare time to screw around, that's for damn sure.
What have we got to get to this grizzly.
-We're gonna have to use that chute. -Yup.
Right now, we're out of time, and, uh,
we gotta tie that chute together,
get it lined up.
You're not gonna have enough reach.
Fred, you want me to go get my truck and put it down there?
-I can park down there and-- -It'll take a long time to get yours.
-Mine's ready. -Huh?
-Mine's ready. -What do you think? Roll all the hoses?
Yeah, she's ready, she's ready to roll.
I'll go grab her real quick.
Ah, we got Freddy's truck in, in place,
he doesn't have a long enough crane,
so I'm gonna actually go grab my truck,
and I'll be able to lift it from down below and get that chute in place.
I got a little more boom on mine.
Absolutely size matters when it comes to cranes. [chuckles]
All we have to do now is, uh, get that chute in place, get it welded.
I've been beat down many times here,
and it's almost always been up there at that shaker...
...but with the Freddy and Juan
new scrubber on there,
that should eliminate those problems,
so I'm really hopeful and really excited.
[Juan] We got scrubber in, we got the chute in,
really, all we got left to do is the water.
We're almost there.
[Freddy] There's no rest for the wicked right now.
You had that system here where you had
up, a ninety, up, a ninety, a ninety,
and then, a bunch of other stuff, too,
so we got rid off all that,
the water flow is gonna be better,
it's gonna increase the water flow in this plant,
so, uh, I bet we get another 10, 15% more water.
Let the glue set for a minute or two, push,
and then, uh...
...we're gonna test.
We worked our ass off on this, all of us.
[narrator] Juan has got one last trommel fix.
[Juan] So we noticed that the spray bar doesn't have enough spray holes,
so we're gonna just drill a couple more holes,
so that we get proper cleaning inside the trommel.
By adding two little jets,
it's actually gonna increase the recovery
because it's gonna get a better wash on the material
right here at the end of the trommel.
There is it, Fred.
All done.
-What do you think, guy? -It's awesome.
I'm excited about it.
What we did, uh, down below is
to your spray bar inside your trommel,
we added a couple of more holes to it.
[Chad] Okay.
So now you've got, those spray bars are actually
hitting where the material is coming over to the screens
to actually wash that material down into your sluice box.
-Awesome. -And at that plumbing,
you had a ninety into a ninety...
-Into two more nineties. -two more nineties.
...into a ninety.
-[Chad] Yeah. -[Terry] Yeah.
[Freddy] Right, so you were chocking what water you had down.
[Juan] Yeah, you were restricting it way down.
You didn't have enough water before,
with the same pump, you have enough water now.
You see the sluice box down there?
-[Chad] Yeah. -[Freddy] That we modified there, right?
-Yeah, you did. -We got different riffle configurations,
we got multiple changes, we got different carpets.
[Juan] But you know, really, with all that we did here,
you know, this is gonna be biggest fix right here.
And we were genuinely concerned that we were,
we weren't gonna get it done in time, just--
-[Terry] I was, too. -[Juan] It is a lot of work.
See those bars we welded inside?
-Plug welded from the outside? -[Terry] Yeah. Yeah.
-Plug veld. -That's the only way to get in there, you know?
I'm a little too big to get in that little 20-inch pipe, so.
-Are you sure, man? -Just a little bit.
[all laughing]
All came out good, we're happy with it.
Let's just hope it works as, uh, as good as it looks.
-I'm happy with it. -We're about to find out.
-Yeah. -Yeah, let's do it.
No other way to find out but run.
[Chad] This is it.
[Terry] First bucket, guys.
First bucket, here we go.
Moment of truth, Juano.
[narrator] In the first run, no water pressure meant
rocks weren't being cleaned properly,
passing out the end of the trommel
still covered in gold bearing clay.
[Freddy] Look at the difference, Juan.
This is from our previous run,
the first test, look at all the clay on there.
[Juan] Yeah, you can tell.
-Yeah, look at her. -I mean, if you compare this, it's night and day.
[Freddy] All that material on there
and how much cleaner it is now,
it's a heck of a lot less mud on there now.
Huge difference, Juan.
[narrative] At the sluice box,
the effects of the fixes are plain to see.
[Freddy] There is a lot more water in here
than there was before by narrowing that out.
-Yeah. -Right?
And redoing that plumbing up there has made difference,
I bet we got 10 to 15% more water now.
Awesome.
Yeah, you can definitely see the water action increase in it.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -[Chad] In the box.
Man, Terry, from down here,
it looks like we're just flying through the material.
-We're smoking it. -[Chad] Awesome.
I think, I think I've run half as much material already
as we ran the whole run the other day.
[narrator] The amount of material passing through
is causing Chad a welcome headache.
I'm clogging up down here, it's very obvious
we've doubled or even tripled our production.
I can't even clear it with a shovel.
We're, we're pushing so much through.
This is a problem I can deal with,
it's-- [chuckles]
I'm happy to have this problem.
Well, Freddy, I gotta say,
you know, for kinda of shot in the dark,
you know, I know we've built trommels before,
but we've never built a scrubber like that.
You know, I was a little nervous about it,
but it's doing a great job.
They're running more material now than they've ever ran.
They're running a lot more material,
and it's a lot cleaner than it's ever been.
Where are we at on time, Fred?
-Oh. We're almost-- Yeah, we're there. -One more minute, last bucket.
Four hours and one minute.
-[Juan] Hey, guys, last bucket. -[Freddy] Last bucket.
Terry.
-Well... -I just beat you here
Have a look at that.
-[Chad] Holy smokes. -Holy smokes, that's what I'm talking about.
Even I can see gold clear down here.
[Chad laughs]
-Yeah. -[Terry] Dude.
[Freddy] But the exciting thing
is look how deep all this gold is in the carpet, right?
-[Terry] Yeah. -[Chad] Oh it's gold we see yeah.
-[Freddy] Right in the carpet itself it's loaded.
-You have never seen gold like that in the box before? -[Terry] No. No.
-[Chad] Freddy, I-- -You'll see it again.
I can't say thank you enough.
I really can't, from the bottom of my heart.
I've-- [chuckles]
I've only had dreams of seeing gold like that,
but here I'm actually looking at it.
That's what dreams are made of, right there.
-[Chad] Yeah. -Dreams and incomes.
[Chad] Oh, I'm swelling with emotion,
happiness, uh, pride also,
but relief.
[Freddy] I couldn't be happier right now.
The line of gold at the top of the sluice,
phenomenal for the amount of material that ran.
We've taken 'em from what was a hobby before
they were struggling at
to now they can make a living,
and it looks like a damn good living.
[Terry] We're gonna clean it up now,
weigh it up, see what we got.
[narrator] Freddy's mining skills are well-known...
-What do you got going on there? -[imitates a siren]
[narrator] ...but Dr. Dodge Little is a man of many talents.
-[Jasper barking] -[imitates a siren]
[Juan] Trying to communicate with Jasper, huh, Fred?
-What's-- What is that, Jasper? -[imitates a siren]
Come here, little buddy.
Oh, you're good. You're a good little pup-pup, aren't you?
[imitates a siren]
[speaking Spanish]
-[Juan] What's going on, guys? -[Terry] How is going?
-[Juan] Good morning. -[Chad] It's going good.
[narrator] After six days at the Marmolejo Mine
in North-East Oregon,
it's time to see if Freddy and Juan's fixes
can double the gold haul to make this mine profitable.
We got a lot of fine in there
that I've never seen in there before. That's a fact.
[Freddy] Yeah, look at all--
[Juan] Yeah, you can see it in there.
-[Freddy] Yeah, there's a bunch of fine in there. -Yeah.
Well, you guy ready to, uh,
see what you got?
-[Terry] Let's check it out. -Absolutely.
It's some pretty gold, guys.
-Beautiful gold. -[Juan] Yeah.
[narrator] The first four-hour run
saw 0.86 ounces of gold.
[Freddy] Well, there is over a half ounce.
[narrator] Chad needs it doubled
if he is to tempt best friend, Terry, to invest.
[Freddy] We're over 0.86 from last time.
And, uh...
1.68.
-Whoo-hoo. -Oh, wow.
[Juan] Double-- Hey, I told you.
-[Terry] Double. -[Chad] Double, yeah.
-Double. -[Chad] I know! We did it, guys.
-All right, guys. -[Terry] Double.
Yeah.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan's fixes have brought
an earning potential of over $12,000 per week.
[Terry] That's what we needed.
-That's what we needed, guys. -[Juan laughing]
-Yeah. -[Terry] That's awesome.
You know, originally, you guys had
two and a half ounces to just break even a week, right?
So now you're gonna be able to make a little money.
I can't tell you what that,
I mean, I've beat my head against this place for a decade, you know.
It's been very difficult here,
but the gold weight was awesome,
and if we keep running like that,
six ounces a week, it's, it's very doable.
It proved we can turn this into a viable business.
It's huge for my family.
[Juan] And you know the great thing is
you didn't have to worry about any breakdowns,
the plant runs, ran flawlessly.
I can hear.
-[Freddy] You can hear. What? -[Juan laughs]
-[Terry] I can hear. -[all laughing]
[Freddy] And the good thing, guys,
is you got gold in multiple places here.
You've got that cut that this came out off,
-and you've got all this up here. -[Juan] Definitely.
You know, by the looks of it, you guys have got a real future here.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -[Juan] You know, it's not gonna be
one summer and you're done here,
-you got multiple years here, so. -[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator] But the big question.
Is this gold weigh enough to confirm
Terry's investment in the mine?
[Juan] Hopefully, that put your mind at ease,
you know, about getting involved here
because that's really, that's a good cleanup.
After seeing that box, I called my wife and I said,
"You know, this, this is it, this is real,
this is a viable thing and,
you know, we're ready to do this thing"
-I'm all in. -[Chad] Yeah, okay.
I mean, if you'll still have as a partner on this thing...
-[Chad] Thank you, Terry. -[Terry] ...I'm all in, I'm ready to do this.
Terry is my, not only my best friends, but he is like my brother,
and this is a big investment, and, you know, it's a lot of pressure on me, too...
-I'm ready. -Yeah, me, too.
...but I'm very hopeful for the, for the future.
[Terry] I'm in, I'm in.
What this means for Chad and the future of the mine
is, um, he's gonna be able to provide for his family
in a, in a way that he hasn't been able to since 2008.
I'm hoping and praying that this is the step that
takes him to the next level where he can really provide a good,
you know, a good outcome for them.
-Yeah. -[Freddy] You know what, guys?
Juan and myself talked about it,
-we would mine here. -[Juan] Yeah.
-[Terry] That means a lot. -Wow.
-That means a lot. -[Terry] It's awesome.
-You guys are on to something here. -[Juan] Yeah.
[Freddy] Well, guys, we gotta get on the road.
[Chad] Safe travels.
-Thank you. -Thank you, sir.
-Thank you. -Sorry, man, I gotta, I gotta hug you, bud.
[Freddy] Take care, guys.
[Chad] All right, you be safe on the road.
Honestly, we took on more than we probably should have,
but it worked out just great.
They went from, you know, just being able to make it, barely make it,
not they're actually gonna be able to make it
and be able to put money in their pocket.
[Freddy] You know, I couldn't be happier.
These guys have a really good future here.
They do.
And, I said, I'd mine here.
Amber, Freddy and Juan
absolutely doubled our production.
The gold has been absolutely fabulous.
Terry is gonna stay in with the mine.
Now, that sounds amazing, I'm happy.
[Chad] And I really see this moving forward in a big, big way.