[suspenseful music playing]
[birds chirping]
When it comes to liberating gold
from hardrock,
do you have to be crazy enough to go and get it? Yes.
Rock, rock.
Underground, everything wants to kill ya.
Out, out, out, out, out. We gotta go,
we gotta go, we gotta go.
[Chad] It is the hardest form
of gold mining to get into.
The mill site has a couple of flaws.
The whole process, it's very demanding.
We're not getting there
as much gold as we should be.
We can go a couple days without seeing anything.
[Chad] I have put a lot of money into this,
hard life savings.
I've personally invested
probably a quarter million into the project.
[Harry] I gotta take care of my mom and my family.
We are all gonna fail together or succeed together.
[Sean] It's this or possible financial ruin.
And that's why I am here
100% asking for help
so that this could be turned
in to a viable, livable outcome
for me and for the men on my team.
[Chad] I've put all my savings into this.
Um, I don't know, man. Sorry.
[Freddy] Let's make some gold, guys.
[narrator] Freddy Dodge.
There's no guarantees in gold, buddy.
[narrator] And Juan Ibarra.
All right. Well, let's do it, huh?
[narrator] Have mastered the art
of getting gold out of the ground.
[Juan] Look at that.
[narrator] In the most rugged places on earth.
[Juan] I'm feeling a little sick, Freddy.
[narrator] Now, they rescue struggling miners.
Ooh. That's not good.
[narrator] Who risked it all to be rich.
[Freddy] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Shut it down.
[narrator] Who are about to lose everything.
Eyeballs.
[narrator] To revive these failing mines,
Freddy and Juan engineered the impossible.
-[man] All good. -[Juan] Well, I've never heard of a under sluice before.
[narrator] Deliver some hard truths.
This material you're digging now is totally worthless.
[narrator] And track down the gold.
That's what dreams are made of right there.
[narrator] But if they don't at least double
the miners' gold recovery,
they won't take a dime in return.
But it's 10 times the amount of gold.
-Woo! -[Freddy] That's awesome.
[laughter]
[birds chirping]
It's 8:00 in the morning and it's only, uh, 85 degrees.
Yeah. Nice brisk 85.
Perfect welding weather.
We're on camera.
You better smile.
-First job in California, buddy. -Yeah, I know.
-Hopefully it's not our last. -[laughs]
Well, shoot. It's pretty desolate out here, Fred.
[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator] It's late spring, and Freddy and Juan
are in a remote corner of California's Mojave Desert,
at the Gretzner Mine.
Already facing triple-digit temperatures,
they've landed at their first ever hardrock rescue
of a problem-plagued operation,
struggling to stay above ground.
[Freddy] This isn't a mine for sure,
but it's the right address.
Well, there's been a lot of gold come out of California.
-Tremendous amount. -Yeah.
[narrator] Gold was first discovered 18 miles
from here in 1881
when miners came in search of a gold-bearing quartz vein
up to 10 feet thick.
Over 100 years,
this region has produced
185,000 ounces of gold
worth $350 million
in today's money.
-[Greg] Howdy. -[Chad] How's it going?
[Greg] Oh, my gosh.
Good meeting you.
-Chad? -Glad you can make it.
-[Juan] How you doing? -Nice to meet you.
-I'm Chad. -Juan.
-Freddy. -Greg, I assume.
This is my wife, Sallie.
-Hi, Sallie. -Hi.
-Hi. How you doing, brother? -Oh my gosh.
I'm so excited to meet you, guys.
Where's your mine at, then?
Our mine is few miles that way.
And you can see the hills.
-[Freddy] Those mountains over there? -[Chad] Yup.
-Right there. -[Freddy] Okay.
[narrator] In the last five years,
44-year-old miner Chad
and his crew of investors
stake seven hardrock claims
with access to over 260 acres of land,
13 underground shafts,
and 16 tunnels.
He built a rock-crushing mill
from salvaged equipment
located 7 miles from his mines.
[Chad] The first time I felt gold was, uh,
when I went gold panning in the San Gabriel River.
I found the first gold ever.
I was super excited.
I've been in retail.
I've been in sales.
I've been in service. I've been in construction.
But I like the hard work of gold mining.
The chance to live off of the land,
to build something for my family.
And one day have this turn into a successful business.
Right now, gold mining isn't my full-time job.
I am a research engineer.
There's sometimes a large gap
between contracts and I find myself without work.
And so, you definitely get nervous wondering
where your next paycheck is gonna come from.
[narrator] In the 10-month mining season,
Chad lives away from his family by the mill
with his dad, Greg
and his stepmom, Sallie.
The gold mining operation
is really at the heart of the relationship
I have with my dad.
I know it would really be hard
on both of us if it didn't succeed.
We have had our ups and downs.
There is a big gap in our relationship,
uh, over 20 years.
So, being able to mend that
has been an important part of our life.
I'm a different guy than I was
back in our strange years.
I pursued, you know, the rock and roll thing
and little partying too much,
but we figured out a way to mend things up.
And now, we are just... We're solid.
Setting up a hardrock operation ain't cheap,
you know, especially when you got a mill set up and everything else.
What kind of money you guys have invested into this?
Uh, we have between $150,000 to $250,000
depending on how you look at it.
Yeah.
-[Chad] Yeah. -Okay.
Have you recovered any of your money back yet?
-No. -[Freddy] No?
Very little. We're not getting near
as much gold as we should be.
So, what does your mining season look like?
Is it year round?
We would like it to be, but
the heat, the summer months,
it's so hot out here we can't run our equipment
over 104 degrees for some of the electrical motors.
-[Juan] Oh, for sure. -And we have to shut down.
So, what's your goal?
We need to be able to hit 20 ounces
before summer.
I've put all my savings into this.
We need to start seeing a return on this.
[narrator] In the Mojave Desert,
peak summer sun causes
heavy equipment to overheat,
shutting down operations until the fall.
Where you guys at right now on that?
We're at 2 ounces of gold.
[narrator] With just seven weeks before they must shut down,
the Gretzner Mine needs more than
2.5 ounces a week to stay afloat.
So, what do you guys have to lose
if this doesn't work out for you?
We have a... Our life savings invested
in this, uh, along with our partners.
Now, is there multiple partners,
or just you guys?
[Chad] Uh, multiple partners on this.
Uh, we got five.
-Did they have money invested as well? -[Greg] Oh, yes.
-[Freddy] All of you do? -[Juan] Everyone's all out, huh?
-[Freddy] Y'all got skin in the game. -[Greg] Oh, yes.
[Chad] I've put a lot of money and time
into making this successful.
-So, is the rest of the crew here? -Yeah.
-Check out the mill. -[Greg] Let's do it.
-All right. Sounds good. -[Greg] See you a little bit, honey.
[Sallie] All right.
This is the first rescue that Freddy and I have done
that's a hardrock mine, um, that's got a mill set up,
but, uh, you know, we actually came out from that industry.
That's actually where I started mining
and I know Freddy's had some experience there as well.
So, uh, it's kinda good to be back to our roots.
[Freddy] Now, hardrock mining.
It's definitely harder in a lot of ways
than placer mining is.
You gotta free it from the rock.
You gotta blast it,
pick it,
crush it,
and then do all these other things
that you don't have to do in placer mining.
It's a tough game.
-Hey. Nice to meet you. -How you doing?
-I'm Ron. -Ron, Juan.
Nice to meet you, Juan.
Hey, we really appreciate you coming out.
[narrator] Over two years, Chad assembled a crew
of part-time weekend warriors.
Ron, Harry, and Sean,
who are also investors.
Well, we'll have a look at what you got.
Why don't you show us around?
-[Sean] Come on in. -[Ron] Okay. Come on in.
[Greg] Let's go.
[Freddy] You got a couch.
-That's the office. -Is that right?
-[Chad] Yeah. -[laughter]
[Juan] So what does your gold look like?
[Chad] So our gold is super fine.
This is, uh, this is what
the finished product looks like for us.
[Juan] There you go.
[narrator] Gold rich rock is found in quartz veins
that rise through the earth over millions of years.
Hardrock miners chase these veins
by digging hundreds of feet underground
to extract the ore rock.
Good ground is equal to eight to ten grams per ton of ore.
The Gretzners have extracted six tons
ready to be processed through their mill.
[Freddy] Well, you guys wanna fire up your mill?
-What do you think? Two-hour test run? -Yes, sir.
-[Juan] Let's try it. -[Freddy] See what it does.
-[Chad] Let's do it. -[Freddy] Let's do it.
[Chad] Let's crush some rock.
[narrator] Stage one, gold-bearing ore is fed
into a large hopper and crushed into pieces.
Then it's transported to a surge hopper
where the oversized rock is removed.
And the final stage of the process,
the small rocks are ground to a powder
in a milling machine.
Water is added
and the mix is piped to a table
where gold is separated from the worthless material.
When operating correctly,
the process should be fully automated
with very little human intervention.
[Freddy] I [bleep] hate those chain balls.
[Juan] Yeah. Those are painfully slow.
[Freddy] Four and a half minutes to pick those
first bag up and dump it in the hopper.
[Juan] Right now it's not really efficient.
It takes four guys to load the plant.
[Freddy] Just have to feed it by hand with a shovel up there.
There's a lot of wasted time right there, Freddy.
A lot of wasted time.
[narrator] Next step, Chad pushes the rock
through the hopper into a machine
called a jaw crusher,
which pulverizes the large rock into pieces.
I'm a little embarrassed,
because there's so many things wrong
with our equipment, and they're seeing it.
And there's no way to hide it.
Is that on?
There's nothing.
Right now, the hopper,
it's not feeding the material.
He's feeding the material
into the jaw with a shovel, so.
To make work,
they'd almost be better off feeding it directly
into the jaw out of the ore sack.
They really... They really would be.
[Freddy] We got a bunch of issues going on here.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Juan] That's green right there.
We need to do something better about that.
[narrator] The vibrating screen
that sorts the rock lacks enough power.
So, Chad's crew must also do it by hand.
Right now he's down there with a hammer.
He'd hire a trained monkey to do that, but no.
Essentially, it's become a manual screen,
even though he has a vibrator on it.
[narrator] With the rock sorted,
Ron and Sean now reduced the flow
of material up the conveyor.
[Freddy] Well, and then we've got him here
putting everything to center.
Why are you putting that to center like that?
[Sean] Any more than this and it overloads the table.
[Freddy] Okay. Understood.
They got time killers all down the line.
[Sean] I'm seeing a little gold in there.
[Ron] Yeah, it's mixed with the black sand.
[narrator] The shaker table uses water and gravity
to separate gold from lighter material.
[Freddy] Lot of rocks on the table.
[Ron speaking]
[narrator] If larger rocks reach the table,
they risk displacing fine gold.
[Freddy] I'd hang a light from the roof,
like an eight foot LED over the middle of 'em.
That's what I have on all my tables.
[man 1] How far up?
-[man 2] Oh. -Oh, yeah. Okay.
Right here so it's not shining in your eyes,
but it's enough to spread the table.
[Harry] That's a good idea.
All right. Shut it down.
[narrator] After two hours,
time is called on the test.
[Juan] All right. Let's shut it down.
-[Freddy] Hopper's empty. -[man] Hopper's empty?
Thank you, sir.
[Freddy] On the test run today,
Juan and myself seen a lot of manual labor.
You got all this equipment,
yet it takes manual labor to make it work.
That did not impress me at all.
It wasn't good.
And we've got some ideas
to save 'em a lot of labor, a lot of time.
At least if they're not doing the job,
they don't need to be doing,
they can be doing other things to catch more gold.
It's a tough game, hardrock mining is.
We might have taken on more work than we can handle here.
[suspenseful music playing]
I wouldn't mind panning a little bit
-to see what the gold looks like down. -[Juan] Take a look at it.
[Freddy] Yeah. You wanna do it, or me?
[Juan] You go ahead and do it.
I haven't watched your videos enough.
[narrator] Deep in the scorching Mojave Desert,
the Gretzner crew clean up the gold
from their two-hour test.
[man] I hope we have gold for Freddy on one.
[narrator] Freddy takes a pan for an early indication.
[man] This is nothing.
[Freddy] Lots of rocks in it.
Yeah, that's not good.
[Freddy] Why don't you guys get it cleaned up?
'Cause that's just one pan.
It wasn't good is all I can say.
I've done better pans out of the bank on a creek,
so, you know, hopefully there's more in that concentrate
and we'll find out more in the morning.
That pan did not thrill me at all.
[Harry] It's real fine.
-[man] Oh, yeah. -[Harry] Looks like a thin line of gold
right at the top.
There's a lot at stake.
I mean, there's been so much money invested already.
I put a good amount of money in myself.
And, uh, if things get a little shaky,
it's not gonna be that easy to weather it.
It looks like a little flake right there.
When it comes to gold, it's location, location, location.
Hardrock testing can be a hell of a lot harder.
Your underground, your chasing seams,
the vein disappears,
but at the same time, the ore can be really rich.
You can do really well.
Well, that wasn't very good for that first run.
[Juan] Oof.
They've taken on a lot, you know,
for them to get together,
purchase the building, put the mill up,
get all the equipment that they needed for the mill.
That's a quite a big undertaking.
Really, their whole process,
it's, uh, very labor-intensive.
It's time to eliminate some jobs
so they can get on to better things.
[Juan] Yeah, absolutely.
[crickets chirping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Harry] Here you go, Chad. Grab this.
[narrator] Next morning, back at the mill site.
You know, I could probably use
that connection off of your air compression.
I can hook up to my sand blaster.
[narrator] Chad and Harry have cleaned up the gold
from one ton of ore the crew ran
through their two-hour test.
Chad's definitely one of my good friends.
Um, we've been at this for a while
and we've learned about each other
and we've grown over time
and we've shared a lot of thoughts and trouble,
so, yeah, we're close.
[narrator] Right-hand man, Harry,
has been on Chad's crew for six years
and invested $40,000
into the mining operation.
When you're on the vein and on the gold, it's awesome.
Getting gold out of the ground and turn it into a bar,
I mean, that's pretty rad.
Everything I've ever learned in my whole life
has just been working with my hands
and I like digging holes
and it's just a natural fit for me.
Turning wrenches, fixing equipment,
and blowing up rock.
[narrator] Harry first met Chad on a prospecting mission
in 2017.
His experience in engineering
makes him a valuable member of the team.
[Harry] When I first got together with these guys,
I gotten outta the Marine Corps for a while
and, you know, I was having a rough time.
These guys have brought me back to where I need to be
and it's helped me at home
and relationship with my family.
-[Freddy] Well, weigh it up on one. -[Juan] Yup.
-[Freddy] You guys got it all dried up? -[Harry] Yes, sir.
-[Chad] Yeah. -[Juan] Well, let's take a look at it.
-Where's your dad at? -You know, he's pretty tired.
He's not feeling good.
-Okay. -He put his all
into being out here with you guys, uh,
it kinda kicked his butt.
[Freddy] Right. Right.
Well, hopefully he feels better.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm. -Thanks.
I feel pressure.
Not only have I seen our team
invest everything they have in this,
my dad and I,
we've invested a lot in this.
If this doesn't work out,
it would be really hard on him.
So, I don't want... I don't wanna see that.
I wanna see us succeed and we'll find a way.
[Freddy] Well, let's weigh it up.
-Yup. -You do the honors, Chad.
[Chad] All right. Here we go.
[narrator] Chad and his team need to make $700 a day
to breakeven.
[Freddy] Don't spill it.
-[Juan] .03. -[Freddy] .03. Yup.
Nine-tenths of a gram.
-[Juan] Almost a gram. -[Chad] Almost a gram
-from one ton of ore. -Hmm.
[narrator] Worth less than $60.
It's not even enough to cover fuel for the mill.
Five guys, right?
Five guys, uh, a day to pull one ton from the mine.
-[Freddy] Yup. -[Chad] Haul it here...
-Yup. -[Chad] and then a day to run it and...
Yeah.
[Juan] That's a tremendous amount of work
for that small of a payday.
Yeah.
What is required for you guys to be able
to pay your bills and pay your guys something?
We'd come up with what, two to two
and a half ounces a week.
-[Juan] You know... Well, with this ore... -[Freddy] With this ore...
-it's not possible. -it's not gonna be possible.
[Chad] Maybe we get your help
on finding some better ground.
Well, that's a tough one in the time we're here.
Without running it,
there's no way I can tell you anything.
-We'd love to look at your mine. -[Juan] Yeah.
But we need to spend most of our time
making your equipment more efficient
so you can test your own mines at a quicker rate.
And then once you find that vein, that good vein,
you'll be able to rock and roll
and just blow it right through the mill.
We've both worked underground before
and I've seen just crazy veins come out, you know,
where it's visible gold, 2,600 ounces a ton.
-[Harry] Yeah. -[Freddy] So it all comes down to the ore.
[Chad] Hey, I'm glad you guys are here
because we need the help.
We're ready for the challenge.
-[Harry] Definitely. -We're ready for it.
[Juan] The good news is that Freddy and I,
we did notice a lot of things in the mill
that we can improve on.
Ultimately, it's gonna come down to a combination
of getting the production up,
but also getting on better ore.
They need to get out of those other veins they've got,
those other mines, and see what's there.
And once they find that better gold,
they will have a plant here
that not only is it the test plant
to find the better gold,
but it's the one that puts gold in their pocket,
puts money in the bank.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan have four more days
to put the Gretzner's on track
for their 2.5 ounce a week target.
[Freddy] What do you think, Juan?
Well, Freddy, I think there's quite a few things
we can improve on inside that mill.
Yeah.
[Juan] I'd like to get rid of that chain ball.
-[Freddy] They're slow. -[Juan] Ah.
[Freddy] Miserably slow.
[Juan] Yeah, terribly slow.
[Freddy] I'm thinking on this.
They got that little vibrator on there,
-on that hopper. -[Juan] It's doing nothing.
Yeah.
Do one of your eccentrics down below here,
will be able to get more throw out of that hopper
so it feeds properly
instead of having to get up there
-and shovel it by hand. -[Freddy] Yup.
[narrator] An eccentric motor uses offset weights
to create a throwing movement.
Freddy and Juan's plan,
first, they'll upgrade the hopper
with an electric winch
and whole new shaking process
for moving pay into the jaw crusher behind.
Next, at the second hopper,
they'll add a screen at the top
to divert oversized rock.
Finally, after the rock has been milled to dust
and the gold liberated,
a vibrating screen,
a new sluice box will help catch the bigger gold
before the fine get caught on the table.
How's it going, guys?
[Chad] Hey.
Well, we watched you guys run and, uh,
you know, multiple things we think we can help you with.
What we really wanna do is make this circuit,
the crushing circuit a one-man job...
-Yeah. -without being, you know,
a five-man team,
you know, starting from the beginning.
We're gonna put an electric wench
so it's not...
[Freddy] Four minutes of bag just to get it up.
On this, we wanna redo your hopper assembly there.
We're gonna put airbags on it and then put a real eccentric in it.
-Oh, wow. -Okay. [laughs]
So, your surge hopper,
where you've got your screen there is the exact wrong spot.
Even if we have to cut in to your hopper just a little bit,
we wanna put a screen up there.
Pipe it down, have your wheelbarrow right there,
and get it back in this test.
So another idea that we had is coming off your mill here,
but a small tiny sluice box,
but it'll have a screen on top of it.
[man] Keep it from going on the table.
Keep it from going on the table.
-Wow. -So it'll catch 40% to 60%
of your gold on that sluice box.
-That'd be awesome. -[Chad] Much needed.
[Juan] Now we need to talk about the money situation.
-All right. -We're gonna need
about $2,000 in material.
And then on top of that, we would like you guys
to cover our expenses.
[Freddy] Let's throw some dice here.
If we don't get you 10 times the amount of gold
that was in that first cleanup,
our labor's free.
We could make this work, right?
Can we pull together and we'll make it work?
[man] Yeah, we'll find a way.
[Juan] You guys are good with it? We're good with it?
[Freddy] And you guys are ready to help?
-Because we only have -[Chad] We're ready to work this.
a limited amount of time.
-Done. -All right, guys.
-All right. -[Freddy] Deal.
Deal.
[Chad] The fixes that Freddy and Juan have proposed,
they're ambitious in such a short period of time.
It's gonna be some long hours
and we're gonna have to give them a hand
and help them however we can.
[dramatic music playing]
[Freddy] Whoa. What is that?
[narrator] Coming up.
[Chad] Let's get outta here.
Out, out, out, out, out.
We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go.
[tense music playing]
[instrumental music playing]
[Chad] Hey, Dad.
[narrator] At the Gretzner's Desert mine,
Chad's dad, Greg, back on the job.
Hey, how you feeling?
Yeah, hanging in there.
[narrator] Diagnosed with degenerative
nerve damage in 2010,
Greg's found salvation in mining
but the desert heat takes its toll.
Yeah, as long as I have, you know, uh,
some time off here and there, I can regroup and heal up.
I'm always rooting for him
and encourage him to try
to lay it low,
cut back because, uh, he's been in pain.
[narrator] Although they now work together
on their hardrock mine,
Chad and Greg haven't always had
the best father-son relationship.
He had left us and divorced my mom when I was 14.
Dad loved rock and roll.
You know, around the rock and roll atmosphere
and a lot of alcohol there, a lot of drugs,
a lot of women, and, uh, usually that doesn't work out
well for a family environment with kids.
[Greg] The years that I was kind of being,
you know, dumb, if you will.
Looking back it's, like,
yeah, I could've been a little wiser.
I thought it was a lost thing,
but, uh, last few years,
my son and I have had a great relationship.
Uh, just makes me really happy.
I love it.
[narrator] Reconnected since 2016,
father Greg has invested all his lifesavings
but still struggles to find his place on the mine.
Man, that gold weight just didn't come in the way
any of us were anticipating.
Oh, really?
Yeah, the .03 ounces to the time or .9 grams,
that was dismal.
We've overcame obstacles before.
So, I know you got it in you. I know I do.
We can't go any lower so we can only go up.
[Chad] Yeah. I know. And you push yourself hard.
So, we all appreciate that.
Oh, thank you.
Right. I'm giving it my all.
-All right, Dad. Thank you. -All right. Get over here.
-All right. Appreciate that. -Yeah.
All right.
[acoustic music playing]
We gotta divide and conquer a little bit here.
[narrator] Inbound for the day,
Freddy and Juan plan their attack.
I wanna start working on that hopper.
Kinda have in my mind what I wanna do there.
Well, then I think I'll that run out,
look at their mines
because the ore that we ran yesterday...
-Yeah. -it's no good.
-No bueno. -Yeah. No. It's not...
It's not worth running.
We could double their throughput
but still double the gold
of what we just saw still terrible.
Well, just making 'em gold, go broke faster.
-That's good. -That's what that would do.
[dramatic music playing]
We're gonna see how we can't put some people
out of work here.
At least, if they're not doing the job
they don't need to be doing,
they can be doing other things to catch more gold.
We can... We can always mock it up and see.
[Juan] Yeah, 'cause right now, the one I have...
-[Harry] Yeah. -it's probably shoot.
It's gonna be another six inches shorter.
-[Harry] Six inches? -Longer than... Yeah.
-See what it looks like. -Okay.
[narrator] To get the ball rolling,
Juan and Freddy begin with an easy win.
A new electric hoist.
[Freddy] Uh, I'm just setting up this new, uh, hoist.
Electric hoist.
It's a hell lot easier than pulling on that chain.
[acoustic music playing]
So, with the chain fall, you know, it was...
it was four minutes, up and down.
-Minimum. -Minimum.
And then on top of that, by the end of the day,
you got sore arms, you know?
-And our hope... -Yeah.
is that you guys are gonna run so much material.
You're not gonna want that chain fall.
You're gonna want something fast up and down.
[electric hoist whirring]
The cable hoist looks like it's gonna help us out a lot
and keep Chad off the top of that machine
and we can focus more and just getting bags in there
and not starving the jaw crusher.
21 seconds, 22 seconds,
plus another 5 seconds to take it in.
So, let's call it 30 seconds.
So, we've cut this by three-fourths.
So, you got 75% less time with the winch.
-[Greg] Hey, Juan. -[Juan] Hey, Greg. How you doing, buddy?
-[Greg] Good. -[Juan] Feeling better?
Yeah, yeah. I'm doing a lot better.
Do you wanna give me a hand real quick?
[Greg] Yeah, most definitely.
[narrator] Next, Juan and Greg redesigned the hopper.
Go ahead and pull that off and then what I'll have you do
is once I get these parts cut out, you can help me.
We'll start getting this all welded together.
-[Greg] Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Getting it all jigged up.
-[Greg] I like it. -Perfect. Thank you, sir.
In order to feed the material,
that hopper has to move enough
that it actually can push that material forward
and it doesn't have enough power to do that.
[narrator] Mounted with springs,
the hopper lacks the ability to shake out the material.
Juan's fix,
install four sets of adjustable airbags
to control the force of the hopper's movement,
a first for Mine Rescue.
Give it a little lift.
Yeah. Okay.
So, what I'm doing is I'm cutting out the brackets right now.
These brackets are gonna be for the airbags to support it
and give it that cushion it needs so when it vibrates,
it actually vibrates.
It's got the hole through the mounting brackets
and then also, the hole for the air.
[narrator] While Freddy prepares the hopper
for the new fittings,
Juan is assembling the frame to house the airbags.
[Juan] I'm gonna rust these mounts together,
we're gonna put some supports on them
and that way, when it's vibrating,
it'll absorb that impact
so it doesn't bend it over.
-[Greg] Very cool. -[Juan] Well, let's get it rigged up on your side.
You wanna get those, uh, hooks in there?
[Greg] Yup.
All right.
[Juan] Greg was wanting to soak up
everything I was going.
And hopefully, by us being here
and helping him out, you know,
he's able to learn a little bit.
Working alongside of Freddy and Juan
is so amazing and awesome to me.
Their honest concern and their willingness
to do these changes,
I was happy I could jump in
and help out wherever I could.
[Juan] You wanna keep an eye on both [indistinct] all right.
-Awesome. -Back on.
These are just really simple.
They're actually kind of an automotive airbag.
But, you know, sometimes you gotta use what you can get.
And that's what we could get
and they work good, so we're gonna use 'em.
[Greg] Awesome.
-Very, very cool. Thank you. -[Juan] Good work.
Yeah. No problem.
What do you guys think about running out
to your mine real quick?
[narrator] Across the claim...
-We're gonna show it to you. -Yeah.
[narrator] Freddy is keen
to get eyes on Chad's mine.
Pretty weak around that first one, so...
-[Chad] All right. -[man] Let's do it.
[Chad] We have hardrock gold mines
that we own all the mineral rights on.
They are also proven mines that the old timers worked.
So, being able to go into existing workings
and then sample there and develop it.
The downside and negative to that
is it's expensive and dangerous
to get into these old workings.
So, Freddy could absolutely help us out.
[Chad] I think you'll like the work we've done on it.
There's a lot of things that Juan and myself can do
to help their plant.
But the gold, I wasn't really impressed with.
They're losing money right now.
They have six other mines.
You got the right ore
with the right amount of gold in it,
you can do really well.
[narrator] Freddy and Chad head
into the mountain 7 miles west,
where hundreds of tunnels on their claim
crisscrossed these historic gold fields.
[Freddy] How long have you guys had this place,
-your family? -[Chad] Uh, four years.
-[Freddy] Four years? -I don't know why.
I just have this drive, Freddy.
This determination.
I'm gonna find a way to make it work.
Our team does look to me as the mine boss.
So, it's a big responsibility to lead these guys
and I don't wanna let them down.
I wanna make sure that I'm doing my part
to lead us in the right direction.
We're here.
So, this your hole in the ground, huh?
[Chad] Sure is.
[Freddy] I've worked underground enough
to know how tough it is.
It's far more expensive
and dangerous than placer mining.
It's a hard game to play.
Sure, the ore is richer and the rewards are great,
but the risks are many.
Well, I guess get geared up and head down, huh?
[Chad] Yeah.
-[man] Yeah. -Let's get him tied up.
[Chad] Just watch your little hole but you got a deck here.
You can step on it.
[Freddy] Getting darker, that's for sure.
[Chad] No run. Rock, rock.
[narrator] The quartz vein they are working
is 85 feet below the ground.
Hey, guys.
Don't take any of the film crew any further than that.
[Chad] The hanging wall is separating two inches.
There are stools holding it up,
but that's the danger zone.
I'm not going back there.
[Chad] Um, this is one of the spots
we're working and sampling.
[Freddy] I can see the vein structure there.
Not easy to get out of here either.
[narrator] Over 95%
of the world's gold left unmined
is believed to be underground
with over three trillion dollars in gold reserves
yet to be mined.
Almost all large mining companies
draw their gold
from a hard rock source.
[Freddy] You got a microscope.
-Search some gold. -There's a piece.
-Right. -[Chad] Yeah, all right.
-[Freddy] That's so small. -A lot of times,
that doesn't cut it, right?
So, we typically have three to four guys work in here.
I mean, if everybody's available, we'll have all five.
-And you're doing it by hand? -[Chad] Yeah.
-Getting out. -[Freddy] I see your buckets here.
Is that how you're mucking this over?
Every bucket is probably 50 pounds coming out of here.
-Forty, fifty pounds. -[Chad] Yeah.
Ooh, so to get a ton, it takes a lot of manpower.
[Chad] Our record in one day was eight tons.
You ever have any of this hanging wall bust off on you?
I see you got it curved in a few places here.
[Chad] Yeah, you see little pieces like that.
[Freddy] Yeah. Well, it's dark and it's tight.
It's not the easiest place to get in to.
There's just not enough gold in the ore.
So, go to a different spot.
Whoa. What's that?
[Chad] A piece fell off the roof.
[Freddy] Guys, I wouldn't go any further.
-[Chad] Let's get outta here. -[Freddy] What the [bleep] going on?
[Chad] Out, out, out, out, out. We gotta go.
We gotta go. We gotta go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Freddy] I'm not going back there.
[Chad] Yeah.
[narrator] In the Mojave Desert,
a rock fall has halted Freddy's investigation
into the Gretzner's hardrock mine.
[Freddy] It's not a job for the timid in that mine.
It's dark and it's tight down there.
And those guys, I can tell they have
to work their butts off
to get that ore out of that mine.
Hand chisel each piece of rock out
to get it out of there
to find out if there's enough gold in it.
Right now, these guys are deep in the hole, cost-wise.
If all their mines are similar to this one,
then, uh, they won't be in business very long.
Yeah. The structure you're on right now,
-you're gonna go broke on. -Yeah.
You know? Average wage
is with the amount of labor you had in it.
Well, it was taken you guys were averaging
about 50 cents an hour apiece, so...
Oh, yeah. That's horrible.
Trying to sample and prove out the mines,
uh, but then also at the same time trying
-to make gold. -[Freddy] That's what I think.
We got six other mines to go look at.
But, there's a lot of things that have to be done
to make this plant run more efficiently.
We haven't got a lot of time.
So, if we can streamline that,
it's gonna help the efficiency in the field.
Hopefully, get, you know,
your mill running more efficiently,
you can test
these different main structures you've got
or different parts of 'em...
-Yes. -at a more efficient rate.
[dramatic music playing]
[Juan] Whatever we can do, we'll do it.
[narrator] Back at the Gretzner Mill,
one pushes on with the second hopper fix.
[Juan] We're kind of behind the 8 Ball now.
[narrator] Having fitted the new airbags,
he needs to upgrade the vibrator.
I'm already starting to work on all the brackets
for the eccentric vibrator.
We gotta get going on it
'cause if we don't get started now,
we'll never finish this project.
So this is something different that we haven't really done.
This is a... This is gonna be a vibrator
but what we're actually doing is doing an eccentric
before they had a little, tiny vibrator on the back here
that wasn't doing anything.
All it was doing was compacting the material.
[narrator] An eccentric vibrator
uses off-center weight mounted on a bar
to create a throwing back and forth movement.
Juan's theory, this movement will help
the hopper stay unclogged,
saving time and manpower.
We're gonna use these weights that we cut out on the table
and we'll have opposing weights,
so one this way, one the other way.
All that weight will be off-center on the shaft
and what it'll do, it'll actually throw
the material forward.
So that's what these are.
[narrator] By spinning heavy weights
on a bar below the hopper,
the eccentric vibrator will pulsate
a steady supply of rocks
into the jaw crusher.
[Juan] It took five guys to feed it,
so what we're trying to do is trying to eliminate
all that extra labor
to make it one smooth transition
where you feed it, it feeds itself into the jaw,
and you catch it on the other side.
[Ron] That's brilliant.
Everything that we've got going here,
they look at it with new eyes
and they see stuff that we haven't seen
and they pull really cool tricks out of the hat
and make it work.
[laughing] I'm really happy about it.
Chad'll have to file for unemployment. [chuckles]
-[Juan] Should be good. It looks okay. -[Ron] Yeah.
Hopefully it works as good as it looks.
[Ron] Almost looks like you know what you're doing.
Kind of. I saw it in a book once.
-[Ron] Saw it on a cartoon? -Yeah.
[laughter]
[narrator] One of the most experienced miners
in the crew, Ron,
is Chad's largest investor.
Yeah, I've personally invested probably a quarter million
into the project.
[narrator] Building contractor by night,
gold miner by day,
Ron is determined to make a success
of the Hard Rock Mine
with his band of brothers.
[Ron] I've invested all I could.
My mom left me a little money when she passed.
I wanted to...
[sobbing]
I wanted to...
Sorry.
Wasn't expecting this.
Um, I just wanted,
uh, her legacy to live on
and then I hope that my boy and grandsons,
if nothing else, they'll learn the camaraderie
and the hard work that comes with that.
I know that we can succeed.
I can't quit... Can't quit.
I'm not a quitter.
I'm trying to find Greg. I need a little bit of help
on that screen I'm gonna build.
[narrator] With the Hopper complete,
Juan turns his attention to the next planned fix
with Chad's father Greg.
But he's nowhere to be seen.
-[Juan] Hey, Sallie. -Oh, hey, Juan.
-How's it going? -Good. How you doing?
[exhales sharply] I'm doing okay.
I'm trying to get this mess cleaned up a little bit.
Cleaning up a little bit? Nice.
-Yeah. -Hey, is Greg around?
Uh, he'll be out in the afternoon.
-[Juan] Okay. Okay. -Yeah.
Yeah, I was just gonna have him help me
with that screen we're gonna build.
He normally works for a couple of days.
And then, he has to probably lay down and take a little nap
and then, he'll be out this afternoon.
Hopefully he feels a little better
but when he has a chance, come out and give me a hand.
-[Sallie] Yeah, I will. Definitely. -Awesome. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
[narrator] Married in 2005,
mining mom Sallie has been by Greg's side
through thick and thin.
[Sallie] He was a musician when I met him.
And I think that drawed me to him.
So here we are 22 years later, married.
[narrator] Living on a fixed income,
Sallie and Greg have gambled everything
on this gold hunting venture.
[Sallie] We have a lot at stake here.
We have a lot of money invested into this mill site.
So, it could be devastating...
if it doesn't work out.
-Juano. -Hey, Fred.
[narrator] Back at the compound.
[exhales] It's hot.
-It's a warm one, huh? -Yeah.
No. Look over there at the mine site.
Well, I went underground
to that one they're playing around with down there.
And, you know, they don't have the resources
to really go underground
-right at this moment. -Yeah.
[Freddy] You know, they're handpicking down there,
then they're pulling it out in buckets. Holy cow.
You know, I got a lot going on here with the... With the build,
so I'll be tied up doing this for the next day or so
but if you can go out there and give them a hand,
you know, that's really what they need.
You know, underground mining
is a whole different animal, you know.
You know, you and I both have been underground before
and it's a whole different type of mining.
-[Freddy] Yup. -It really is.
You gotta have rich ground to go underground
-on a small scale. Yeah. -Yeah.
Yeah, especially doing it the way they're doing
with picks and shovels.
That's tough.
-That's a hard way to do it. -85 feet
to the surface...
and then loading it in trucks
and hauling it in, crushing it.
But they're mucking it all out
by hand underneath there.
-So it's a lot of work. -Yeah.
[narrator] Commercial operations can mine lower ground ores
and still make a profit due
to the huge volumes of material
that they're able to process.
But Chad's mine runs only a ton a day.
Refocusing his manpower
could get him closer to the gold.
That big brown bushing in there is probably wore out, huh?
[Freddy] Juan and I are spinning a lot of plates right now.
[Juan] There's some space in there.
But the stage these guys are in right now,
getting rid of the labor in here
helped the efficiency in this building.
It's gonna help the efficiency in the field,
because two or three of them can go.
And they can start getting more ore.
If there's not enough gold
in the spot that you're testing,
get out of there before it takes your money away.
[dramatic music playing]
Juan, can you come over? We need your help.
[narrator] In the California desert...
Curious what they have to say about that.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan face their first hard rock rescue...
[Sean] We think that might be the banging noise.
Probably so.
[narrator] At a mine run by Chad Gretzner
and a crew of investors.
So, yeah, I'll let you yank this out, Chad.
All right.
[narrator] Freddy's most urgent task
is to investigate the other mines
on Chad's property
and find more gold.
But first, he will lay the groundwork of the next fix.
I'm pretty proud of this design, but it's not doing what I--
This is backwards right here.
So what I wanna do right here,
I'm gonna build a screen up here
so we'll get the material while it's going
into the surge hopper,
catch it, and then, you can run it back through
while you're running your crushing circuit.
[narrator] To help sort the crushed rock
into different sizes,
Freddy will remove Greg's inefficient screen
at the bottom of the hopper
and build a new classifier at the top
to remove larger rock.
This is an exciting fix,
because now we can run more material
and it takes two guys
off of this whole process back here.
-Ready? -[Chad] Yup.
We're gonna take... Pick up the front.
-[Chad] All right. -Go.
[Chad] Oh. Perfect.
Perfect is good enough if you can't do any better.
That's what I'm talking about.
Right there is your screen, huh?
[narrator] As fixes stack up,
Freddy looks to save time and money
by salvaging material.
[Freddy] Well, it's a little wore out,
-but it should work, huh? -[Chad] Yeah.
[Freddy] Use what you got.
[Chad] All right. So let's get this out of here.
[Ron] Are you ready?
Lift with your back.
-Two, three. -Stand her up.
If you don't keep working, it doesn't get done.
Okay.
I'm gonna start on that other screen deck
-up top under the hopper. -Yup.
So I'm gonna build it.
We'll use one of the vibrators on it.
Yeah. If you want me to buzz off
-the frame for you real quick. -[Freddy] Okay.
Well, you're on your project too though, so...
Yeah, but I'm gonna be cutting.
Right now I'm designing, so I can cut
a bunch of [bleep] real quick for you.
[Freddy] Yeah. So picture a four-foot long...
-Yes. -flat bottom,
10-gauge bottom in it probably.
-That'll work. -[Juan] No problem.
[Freddy] I'm gonna start building a screen in here
over the top of their surge hopper.
Hopefully we can get that material screened
before it goes in, not after.
You know, Freddy and I, we always divide and conquer.
Right now, I'm gonna try to cut out
that little screen for him
so he can put his vibrator
and his mesh material on it.
Chad and the guys did a great job
installing everything here in the mill.
I think they just don't have some experience
with some of the other equipment that we have.
[narrator] Designed program,
Juan's cut table uses a torch
burning a 25,000-degree jet of plasma
to slice through three-quarter inch steel.
[Juan] As we start doing our builds
and start seeing what we can do in the mills,
sometimes that doesn't really come to pass.
So what we have to do is kind of alter our plan
and make it fit for their situation.
We're gonna have to make it work, you know,
because we're gonna build a separate screen.
It's a lot more work, it's a lot more build time
but, you know what? This machine is a time saver,
so we just gotta keep on plugging along.
That cut out on the table, that saves us, you know,
a day worth of work.
[dramatic music playing]
Freddy, what can I help with?
Well, we're gonna need to move this around a little bit.
-Pivot? -Right, well...
Or tilt?
[narrator] When he's not working in real estate,
hard rock mining greenhorn Sean
spends his weekends at the mill chasing gold.
Freddy's expertise and Juan's knowledge
at fabrication can really get us over the hump
and get those ounces per week we need.
[narrator] Sean's gold fever started over 20 years ago
during a trip to California.
[Sean] The first time I found gold,
I was in a river in Northern California.
I pulled back the flap on a dredge.
I saw a line of gold lying across the mat,
and I was absolutely hooked.
I reached in, I picked that gold up.
Like a marlin hitting a lure.
I mean, bang, I was on
and... [makes sound] fish on. There was...
My life's never been the same since.
[narrator] Finding gold
might have rocked Sean's world,
but bricks and mortar pay his bills.
[Sean] Real estate has been wonderful to me.
But there are forces that are making that
real estate business extremely difficult,
and it's not financially as viable anymore.
My wife and I sit down at the beginning of the month
and it's time to write some checks
and pay some bills.
Scares the heck out of me.
It's sleepless nights.
I was up last night
thinking about this stuff.
I wanna be able to not survive but thrive.
And the opportunity that we have with Freddy and Juan,
I think, we've have a shot at that.
I don't have a backup plan.
It's this or possible financial ruin.
That's thick enough to weld to, isn't it?
-[Freddy] Oh, yeah. -Or do you want a screw to it?
[Freddy] Fine to weld to it.
[narrator] Juan has cut all the pieces
for the screen deck.
Now, he must weld them in place
before Freddy can install the wire mesh.
At the top of the second hopper,
the new screen will divert oversized rock
down a chute
so it can be rerun through the crusher immediately.
[Juan] So I'll get started on that surge bin screen
so all the material go into the surge bin.
Anything that's over half inch
is gonna go back to the...
to the crusher.
I guess that's it.
This will make it a lot more efficient, it will be nice.
Well, we essentially put about four guys out of work, Freddy.
[Freddy] Four different jobs, yeah.
[Juan] Yeah. Four different jobs.
[Freddy] But there's lots of other more beneficial jobs
-for them to do. -[Juan] Yup.
All right, Fred. I'mma get back to work.
Okay. Thanks, Juan.
Well, you guys ready
-to hang this? -[Sean] Yes, sir.
[narrator] With Freddy scouted
the other mine sites pressing,
Ron and Sean help and test his design.
[Freddy] Let's do a test run on it.
You wanna hand me some of that gravel there?
-Well, you ready? -[Ron] Yeah.
You ready, Sean?
[Sean] Hold on. Plugging it in.
[Freddy] There you go.
Take her down a couple more degrees.
Right now, it's not shaking quite strong enough.
We're gonna have to pitch it down just a little bit
for these square rocks.
Okay. Come up.
Come on.
Fire it up!
[machine whirring]
-[Ron] That's worse. -Yeah.
[Ron] That's [bleep] locked in though.
[narrator] A frustrating setback,
as the sharp rock catches in the mesh screen.
[Sean] Yeah. Because of all the angles,
-it's all crushed. -Yeah.
I'm frustrated on every fix sometimes,
especially when you're behind the eight ball.
Things take longer than you think they should
where you planned them.
You just keep your spirits up and you keep workin'.
I wouldn't mind cuttin' another inch off your hopper.
[Ron] Okay.
When you're crushing rock,
it's all angular,
so it doesn't flow like a river rock.
I think Freddy is getting a little frustrated,
but he's sticking to it, he says he doesn't...
He's not gonna let it beat him.
Just square-ass rocks and just no time left.
Yeah, I don't think this is gonna [bleep] work.
[bleep]
[dramatic music playing]
-[Sean] Here we go. -Fire in the hole.
Nope. Shut it off!
Shut it off!
[dramatic music playing]
[Freddy] You can see rocks still stuck in the screen,
and they're jammed in there,
so it's gonna get worse the more it runs.
I'm gonna have to bring it down about 3 more degrees.
Right now, it's probably 8 degrees.
[Juan] Is any much coming off of it or no?
-Very little. -Yeah?
[Freddy] There's a lot of things that have to be done
to make this plant run more efficiently.
If we leave a couple pieces of the puzzle out here,
we're not gonna get the efficiency rate
that we'd like to see out of it,
out of what we're gonna do.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] With the salvaged wire screen unusable,
Freddy goes back to the drawing board.
[Freddy] I kind of drew up a generic punch plate here.
What do you think? Can you cut me one out?
I'm not liking that wire cloth on there
-that screen cloth. -[Juan] Yeah. That's easy.
-We can do that. -Thank you, sir.
I'll spend the rest of the afternoon
looking at some of their other mines.
[Juan] Okay.
All right, Freddy. Sounds good.
[Freddy] Juan and the guys
will have to carry on without me
and get these fixes done.
[dramatic music playing]
We got a lot of work to do to the plant,
but we also gotta try to find some better ore,
so it's time to get out
and look at some of the other mines.
So the mine that we're headed to
is made up of a few different mines.
And it's like an underground city.
It's impressive.
[narrator] After a narrow escape
from the previous mine,
Chad's hoping he can convince Freddy
his second mine has potential.
Now, these veins strike over 5,000 feet in length.
The vein's as wide as the truck.
[Freddy] What year did they stop mining here?
[Chad] '42.
[narrator] Completed in 1916,
Chad's other mine extends
300 feet below the surface,
with a labyrinth of tunnels
that chase gold veins up to 12 feet wide.
In its 26 years of operation,
it produced 67,000 ounces
worth $127 million in today's money.
[Freddy] So this is your other spot, huh?
[Chad] Yeah.
We're at the main hollow shaft.
This goes down 300 feet.
How far does this mine go?
The strike of the vein is over 5,000 feet.
-It's a deep hole. -[Freddy] Yeah.
At 300 feet, I'm not building that long a ladder.
You got any maps or anything in the mine?
[Chad] Yeah, I do.
Back in the '80s, uh, some geologists explored
the mine, mapped it, and then took some samples.
This is one of the parallel veins
right next to the largest gold mine in the district
going over 1,250 feet deep.
Your cost of playing with this
are gonna be high.
Your other mine, your costs are high
when you're underground, right?
[Chad] Right.
[Freddy] Maybe a half-ounce a ton
to make a profit.
It ain't gonna work.
It's not even worth looking at your other mine sites
if this is the best one you have.
But what do we think here?
That's gonna be all dump material?
Dump material over there,
just sitting here on the surface.
[narrator] When the old-timers decided
gold ore was too low value,
they dumped the rock in piles on the surface.
[Freddy] So I'm gonna say 100 feet,
let's average it by 20 feet?
You don't have to haul it from underground.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Freddy's hunch,
rock left at the entrance of the mine
known as an ore dump could be far richer
than what Chad and his crew are currently mining.
I'm just flippin' a coin,
but I'd test the old-timers' waste
that they couldn't get the gold out of.
And I'm serious. I got a friend,
that's what he does for a living.
[Harry] Amazing news.
-[Chad] That's pretty rad. -[Harry] Yeah.
[Freddy] This is where I'd start,
because there's a whack of it sitting here.
[Chad] There is.
They didn't have the jaw crusher sometimes.
You know, some of those really old mines.
They had to cherry-pick the highest grade stuff.
-They high graded it by hand. -Yeah.
Yup. "No, that's not good enough."
That's only quarter ounce per ton, right?
We have a few mines with mine dumps on it.
[Freddy] I guess if this is a quarter ounce per ton
and just sitting here, 40,000 tons,
we're standing on?
40,000 times .25
equals 10,000 ounces.
[Chad] Yes, sir.
So $17 million worth of gold
you're possibly standing on right here.
[Harry] I like those numbers.
[Chad] Yeah. I like those numbers.
If you got more of this. Who knows?
You may never have to go underground again.
[narrator] If the numbers are right,
this dump site could not only be profitable
ahead of summer, but gives them capital
to explore the other mines on their claim.
I'm super happy what Freddy just told us.
What we have here at the mine
and what we can get on the surface,
we're excited to get after it.
[Freddy] You know, the sky's the limit.
[Chad] I like the sound of this.
This actually could be a lifeline
for our team and for our season.
But the only way to find out is to do a bulk test.
I don't want the guys to get too excited.
We can't bank on anything right now
until we have the numbers and the gold to prove it.
So it even becomes more important
for Juan and myself to get their mill
operating better than it was in the past
so they can get more material through per day
and get the gold in their pockets.
Off to see the wizard.
[dramatic music playing]
[Chad] I'm excited to run a sample from that dump.
[narrator] Back at the mill,
before Chad and his investor crew
roll the dice
on the old-timers' ore dump...
Awesomesauce.
[narrator] They need to confirm Freddy's hunch
and crush a 5-gallon sample
to see if it contains gold.
[Chad] All right. So this thing's, um,
gonna get it down to 8 inch.
This is as true of a sample as we could get.
I love the science behind hard rock mining,
the geology, the engineering.
That's what has captured my attention,
and that's why I do what I do.
[dramatic music playing]
It seems like gold fever is a disease.
Absolutely.
To help control it,
I try to base my hope on science
and some of the testing that we do,
because gold fever
can sometimes steer you down the wrong route.
So you gotta make good decisions,
you gotta know for a fact it's there,
you gotta test like crazy, sample, sample, sample.
That's a good crush there, Harry.
If you don't,
and you're just going on that hunch,
there's a really good chance that
you might be throwing your money down the drain.
[Harry] Greg, ready for it?
-[Greg] Yeah, it's running. -Okay. Cool.
[Chad] Yeah. Let's go get it over there.
[rock music playing]
[Juan] So we're just finishing up
the punch plate with Freddy.
We have the wire mesh,
but the wire mesh really didn't work for we want it.
[narrator] With just two days remaining
at the Gretzner's hard rock mine,
Juan puts the finishing touches
on Freddy's new screen for the surge hopper.
So there it is.
So I'm gonna go give it to Freddy
so he can get it installed, keep on workin'.
-It's ready to go in, buddy. -[Freddy] Nice.
Thank you, sir. It looks good.
[narrator] Before, oversized rock
collected under the hopper
and had to be removed by hand.
Now, Freddy's new screen will divert
oversized rock down a chute,
ready to be rerun through the crusher.
[dramatic music playing]
[metal clanking]
[Freddy] What do you think, Juan?
I like it, Freddy.
[Freddy] Can get some rocks and throw on there.
[Juan] See what it does, huh?
Just getting the rocks screened out,
so all the material going into the surge hopper
is the size it needs to be,
and it allows them to re-crush that material
on the same circuit
with the same ore
so they aren't watering down
another batch of material.
[country music playing]
[Freddy] Well, the screen is working
but we only had the one vibrator,
so use what you got,
and there's no getting one in time.
She may not be the prettiest girl
at the dance but she's at the dance.
[Juan] I like it.
[Freddy] It oughta work, huh?
Okay. Are we ready for milling?
Yeah. Boy, look at the color of that.
[narrator] With the ore dump sample crushed,
Greg steps up to mill the material
into a fine powder to release the gold.
[Chad] So, Dad, I got your mask right here,
I'll set it in your screen so it doesn't blow away.
-All right. -Yeah.
This has been quite the seven years.
If this works out, we're gonna have
a great opportunity to take your job off
and you'll fulfill your dream.
Yeah. Thanks, Dad.
That's been, you know, my dream, too.
-You did a lot of work, man. -Thanks, Dad.
-We got lot more coming up. -Yeah.
So thank you for sticking with it
and, you know, keeping us...
keeping us rolling.
Yeah. We all love it.
We haven't let any of these challenges
that we've faced, you know, come between us.
All right. Well, let's get some gold, darn it.
-All right. -[chuckles]
[Greg] He's a big part of my life,
and I wanna see his goals reached.
He's put so much work into it.
And to have him make this thing work
and maybe quit his job one day,
it'd be such a blessing.
I would love that.
[narrator] After milling the ore...
[Chad] Awesome.
[narrator] Greg runs it through a small sluice.
We get about 87% recovery on the first run.
All right. Clean up after this one.
-Hey, funky-doo. -Hey, honey.
-How are you feeling? -I'm feeling good.
I brought you a water.
How's your hands feeling?
Yeah, they're okay.
-Yeah? -Yeah. We'll get by.
You know, mining with Chad
has given Greg a new sense of purpose.
And he's just a new man
being closer to his son.
This had rock mining is not easy.
You know, I've seen him build it from the ground up,
and it's amazing what they've built.
It's nice to see you and Chad working together.
Yeah, okay. Are you kidding me?
-I love it. -That's just amazing.
We turned into a hell of a team.
Absolutely.
[Chad] Gonna take this final pan over.
-[chuckles] -This is really cool, son.
The results of this test is very important.
This is... This is a crucial test.
I'm hoping that we'll be able to find out
how many grams of gold we could recover.
From what I'm seeing in this pan right now,
I am super excited, because I am seeing some gold.
Yeah, baby.
[laughs]
Man, we need this.
Oh, I can't wait to show the guys this.
Hey, guys. Grab Freddy, he needs to see this.
[Sean] What's that?
This might be better than we were anticipating.
-I can see it from here. -Oh.
Yup. And this is from the dump?
This is from the dump, sir.
Well, if that's 10 [indistinct]
we multiply it by 200 per ton, right?
[Chad] Yes, sir.
That's $300 a ton material.
Okay.
[narrator] Chad could earn up to $3,000 a day
running this grade of pay through his plant.
[Freddy] Well guys, that looks pretty good in the pan
for that dump material.
It's better than what you ran the first time, it looks like.
Let's run it on the final test,
and let's learn together on what lives in it,
how much gold's in it, okay?
All right. Thanks, Freddy.
[Freddy] Yeah. See you in a bit, guys.
[birds chirping]
[Chad] He ran the math, and he looked at it
and said, "That's $300 a ton."
-What? -What?
[Chad] On the dump.
We can literally go and pull this from the surface.
-Wow. -That would be amazing.
-Unbelievable. -That's awesome.
-I'm like, "Really?" -Man.
-[Ron] That's awesome. -It's amazing, man.
-Oh, my God. -[laughs]
It's good. I'm telling you.
-Yeah. -We need this.
This could not only save our season now,
but next year.
[Greg] It sounds like we're sitting on a gold mine.
[chuckles]
So... Literally.
I just did not expect this to happen.
You... sometimes, you don't see it.
It takes somebody else's eyes to show it to you.
Wow.
Where's Freddy? I need to hug him.
[laughs]
-Good panning. -Great news.
-Good sluicing. -Nice.
Oh, thank you.
Seeing that much gold
for such a small amount of material
tells us that it's possible
that we can be successful doing this
and making a living at it.
It's never easy,
stuff will always break down,
but we know that when we persevere
and we sample, sample, sample, we can do this.
[dramatic music playing]
-Hey, guys. -Hey.
We're gonna have to do some grading on this road
before we get the mini ex here.
[narrator] In the blazing sun of the Mojave desert,
the Gretzner crew collect ore from the old timers' dump
for a two-hour run.
Yeah, working out here in the California desert,
chasing the American dream.
Hopefully, this bulk test is gonna bear some fruit.
The thought of 10,000 ounces being here,
this would change the lives for our team.
We're hopeful that we'll be able
to run the volume that we need
to get the gold out of this ground right here.
[Harry] This will be our last bucket load.
-[Chad] Oh, yeah, we're full. -[Harry] Both bags are full.
-That's done. -Secure our load.
There are so much left in the hills.
Is it easy to get?
Yes.
-Let's go. -Let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
[Juan] So I was thinking about coming out the top there.
[narrator] At the Gretzner's hard rock mill...
What do you think?
[narrator] With just 12 hours
before the final test,
Juan races to finish the sluice
that will be positioned
after the mill crushes the rock to a powder.
We're gonna do a small sluice box
but on top of that small sluice box,
we're gonna build a little bit of a screen
to be able to cut that bigger material out.
[narrator] To prevent small rocks
disturbing the flow of gold on the table,
Juan has fabricated a vibrating screen
to remove them
and made a mini sluice to catch gold before the table.
-Juan. -Hey, how are you doing, Greg?
-Oh, doing a lot better. -Feeling better?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Happy to hear that, buddy.
You know, we love the whole dynamic here,
you know, you and your son,
and if we can help you guys, we wanna help you guys,
you know, reach your goal.
Well, I can see you already have immensely,
-so again, thank you so much. -Hey, no problem.
From the bottom of my heart, man.
-Hey, thank you. -All right.
-I'll see you in a bit. -I like your setup, too.
-Thank you. -[Greg] It's pretty bitchin'.
Take care, bud.
Working alongside of Freddy and Juan,
at first, I was, I mean, nervous,
you know, it was like, "Oh, my gosh.
It's Freddy and Juan."
But then, when I saw their work ethics
and they're just regular guys,
it just makes you really happy.
[country music playing]
[Juan] What do you think of that little guy, Freddy?
[Freddy] I like it.
[Juan] I narrowed it up a little bit
so it would fit inside that trough.
[Freddy] That's perfect, yeah.
I just finished up the screen, all it's gonna do is cut out
anything that's eighth of an inch and bigger,
gonna cut it out into a bucket,
the smaller material in the water
should still travel down the sluice box,
and be able to get recovered here in the little riffles
we're gonna put in, and then make its way to the table.
[country music playing]
[Juan] I need to drop this a little more in the front.
Yup. You do.
Yeah, it's hitting the bottom of that chute,
taking away some of the vibration.
You know, this is not ideal.
You know, typically, Freddy and I
like to get done a little quicker
so that way we have a little more time to work out...
Iron out any bugs if there's any.
But unfortunately, we didn't have that
with this build.
[country music playing]
[Juan] Well, I'm excited to see it run.
-Looking forward to it. -[Freddy] Yeah, me, too.
It's been a hard work, though.
-It's been a busy week. -It's been hard,
hot, lot of work.
Mmm-hmm.
Get the material in here and run a test.
Let's do it.
Well guys, what do you think?
Ready to do a test run?
-Yes, sir. -Yes, sir.
Well, I hope this material
has got as much gold in it as that test
that you guys crushed in that little crusher.
[Juan] Let's do it.
-[Chad] We got fuel. -[Freddy] Turn it on, Juan.
Lining up the jaw crusher.
Oh, I am tickled to see all these new fixes work.
[Chad] Clear the belt.
-I'll set a timer. -Yeah.
Two hours.
Light it up, Harry.
[dramatic music playing]
[Chad] All right. Going uphill first batch.
[narrator] Hard rock sourced from the old timers' ore dump
is loaded into the hopper.
That's perfect. I like it.
[narrator] Previously, with the chain pull,
it was a four-minute four-man job
and ore could compact in the hopper.
[Freddy] The way that eccentric's designed,
there's two weights on each side,
so as we bring those back opposite of each other,
you can slow down that feed down, we can speed it up.
[narrator] Now, the winch takes less than 20 seconds
to unload the bag
and the eccentric motor
aided by adjustable airbags
helps throw the rock directly into the jaw crusher.
Freddy, it's working good.
I don't have to rake anymore.
[Chad speaking]
[narrator] In the first test, oversized rock
clogged up the milling process in the second hopper
and on the gold table, losing valuable time and gold.
Look how fine this is
with the... With the oversize knocked off.
Well, that screen down there didn't work at all.
You had to sit there with a hammer,
so now we're getting it out of there
when it needs to be out of there.
[Juan] Yeah.
[narrator] Now, Freddy and Juan have fitted screens
throughout the system
which will filter out any small rocks
that block the finer gold from settling on the table.
[Chad] Oh, yeah, look at the line of gold.
[Freddy speaking]
Yeah.
And it's not competing for the same space
-that the gold is, you know. -[Juan] Exactly.
I'd rather deal with it here than down here.
[Chad] Absolutely.
System's primed.
[narrator] Outside, while the test continues...
Here comes the water.
[narrator] Harry is trying to rescue
another valuable commodity...
water.
[Chad] Can you check the table and see if we got good flow.
Go look.
All right. I'll check the water. Copy.
[Harry] It's not pumping at all right now.
[Freddy] So what's going on?
[Harry] For some reason, this sand screw stopped performing.
[narrator] A sand screw is able to recycle water
for the gold table
by separating it from the gravel.
The spiral of metal, known as a weir,
slowly turns upwards carrying the sodden material.
As it lifts, the water runs down
from the weir blade
to collect in the calming pool below.
The gravel sticks to the blades
and travels up to the top
becoming drier tailings.
Oh, that's all [bleep] up.
Oh, [bleep], it's plugged solid.
Look how soupy this is.
It's probably 30% water.
Out here, every drop of water counts for you guys.
-I'll bet you. -[Harry] This is true.
[Freddy] We can save a bunch of his water here.
Right now, it's not working. It's too steep, for one.
It's set about eight degrees
steeper than the steepest point
you should have a sand screw out.
Something I was thinking my way through,
figure out a way to make it work.
It's 26 degrees.
First thing I seen and I'm like,
"That thing's way too steep."
So I think we pick this end up,
and then we just shovel out from under it
and then keep coming down with it
-until we get probably 15. -Yes, sir.
Well, let's lower it down.
[Harry] Clear.
Keep going.
We're down.
Right now, we're at about 19 and a half degrees,
which is a lot better than 26,
because you seen it would not carry your material up
at that pitch.
Well, let's put some material in it and some water.
See what it does.
[narrator] Freddy's simple fix could save the crew time
and over 50% of their water.
[intense music playing]
We got a problem down here.
It's still blinding down in the bottom.
I don't know.
I really don't know.
Well, I have to figure something out
and I don't have time for you guys right now.
Just leave me alone with the cameras for a bit.
[intense music playing]
[Freddy] Vulture gold mine, Juan.
[narrator] While traveling the Lower 48
helping struggling miners,
Freddy and Juan take a break
at the famous Hard Rock Vulture mine.
There's 5,000 people here, Juan at one time.
[Juan] Man, think about the families that lived out here,
the men that worked out here.
-[Freddy] Men that died here. -[Juan] Yeah.
It was a tough way to make a living back then.
Still is.
I've worked underground enough to know how tough it is.
-Better not be claustrophobic. -[Juan] Nope. Nope.
[Freddy] When the lights go out, it's darkness.
[Juan] Oh, you've never felt darkness like that.
[Freddy] There is no darkness like it.
No. [laughs]
In Colorado, you'd go in at, like,
12,000 feet, be 40 below zero,
and get down to the bottom,
it's 110.
Every bit of you is just wet.
That's why they call it the dry up top.
Yeah, exactly. [laughs]
These old timers were tough, Freddy.
Damn tough.
It's a rough life back there, but I guarantee
if we'd had the opportunity to...
-Yeah. -We'd probably been there.
You know, I think it's kind of in our blood.
-[Freddy] Is that allure? -[Juan] Yeah, exactly.
[laughs]
[country music playing]
[Freddy] Eyeballs.
[tool whirring]
[Freddy] Is it scary of me cutting your machine up like this?
[Harry] There's a lot of things that scare me,
but cutting a piece of metal's not one of them.
[narrator] At the Gretzner mine in California,
an hour into the test, Freddy spotted a problem.
Takes a lot of resources for these guys
to get water out here. They have to haul it,
so every bit we can save
is gonna save them money down the line and time
where they could be doing other things,
such as finding better gold deposits.
I'm gonna take a little less out than I initially was,
just in case your material doesn't like it.
We can always take more out.
[narrator] In order for the sand screw to work,
Freddy cuts a drainage channel down one weir
to let more water drain out.
Well, let's dump some sand and water in it
and see what it does.
[Harry] Roger that. Sand's coming.
[Freddy] Well, hopefully this works here
'cause we're running out of time fast.
I'm really curious to see that plug working.
That's something I would've never thought of.
That's why these guys are out here.
[Juan] How's it working, Freddy?
Is it working good? Nice.
Look at the water how it's heaping, heaping,
heaping, heaping, then look up here.
[Juan] Yeah, it cuts it out by a lot.
[Freddy] It's cutting 90% of the water out of it
from down here.
[narrator] Freddy's idea to drop the angle
of the sand screw
and cut a drainage channel in the weir
has paid off.
-Huge difference, huh? -[Juan] Looking good.
[Freddy] Just from that little gap right there.
[Juan] It's crazy how something so simple
-works so well, Freddy. -[Freddy] Yeah.
Well, if this thing keeps working like it is now,
you just lost a job out here.
[Harry] I don't mind that part.
-[Freddy] Yup. Welcome. -And much appreciated.
[Harry] Yeah, working with Freddy's been cool.
Anytime I meet someone new
and work with someone I haven't before,
to get an opportunity to see
some of the tricks of the trade
and been watching 'em carefully,
so that's been nice.
-[Ron] How's it going? -[Greg] Not bad. No visible.
-No? -But that's usual.
[Freddy] All right. Shut it off there, guys,
'cause by the time this gets up to the belt,
it will probably be exactly two hours.
[Chad] Right.
All right. Let's shut her down.
[narrator] In the two-hour test run,
the Gretzner crew has run double the amount
of pay through its mill.
There's gold in it.
Right here.
-A whole band of gold. -Right here.
Up here is a bunch of gold.
[Harry] Water's off.
[Freddy] These guys have been great to work with.
You know, they're not lazy,
you know, they aren't sitting on their thumbs.
They wanna get involved
and that's good.
Without that involvement from this group,
we wouldn't have got the amount of things done
that we got done.
[country music playing]
[Freddy] How's it going, guys?
-[Chad] Hey, Freddy. -[man] Hey. There they are.
-[Chad] Hey, Juan. -You got the gold all dried?
-Yeah, we do. -Oh, yeah.
Let's do it. [Juan]
During the first two hour test run?
[Chad] Yes.
It wasn't good, you know, for that amount of labor
that you guys put into it.
I know it's labor of love, but when you're going broke,
it's not worth it.
Well, weigh it up, Juan.
[Juan] Well, let's let Chad do it.
-[Freddy] Yeah. -[Juan] There you go, Chad.
[Freddy] It's your mine, you do the honors.
[narrator] To make the mine viable,
Chad must produce at least a quarter of an ounce of gold.
-[Juan] There we go. -[Freddy] Okay.
[Juan] 0.01.
[Freddy] We're past what we did...
-Yeah, there we are. -what we did last time.
-[Juan] Yup, yup. -[Freddy] Yup.
There's still a lot of gold in the jar.
-Wow. -0.07, 0.09, 0.10, 0.11.
-[Sean] Wow. Look at that. -[Sallie] Wow.
[Freddy] 0.20, 0.23,
-0.25, 0.26. -.26.
[man] .26.
[cheers]
[Freddy] Just over a quarter of an ounce.
-Yeah. -[Juan] That's awesome.
-Yeah. -That's sweet.
[narrator] Worth almost $500.
Freddy and Juan have increased
the Gretzner's gold by 767%.
So it's dang near 10 times the amount of gold
in that pan with a lot less work.
[narrator] Freddy's gamble to run the old-timer's
ore dump has paid off.
Remind us again, what was your goal
for the rest of the season?
We got to hit 20 ounces
before summer heats us up, you know.
Okay. And we don't have a whole lot of time left
-to do that, but-- -Yeah. Maybe six weeks.
[Freddy] That's achievable, easily.
You're gonna exceed your goal.
If you can get a 10-hour day running here, right?
At 1.1 tons per hour,
that's 11 tons a day, right?
If you kept it running every day,
that's 100,000 bucks a month.
[narrator] In just 30 days,
the crew has the potential
to beat their 20-ounce season goal twice over.
That's no joke. That's some serious money.
[Sallie] Yeah. That's amazing.
[Freddy] There's 40,000 tons there roughly.
You'll be grinding on that stuff for a while.
[Chad] What do you guys think about that?
-That is awesome. -[Chad] That's massive.
-[Greg] Wow. -I gotta...
I couldn't be happier, you know,
because what we've done here may change these guys' future
and seeing the smiles on their faces
when we weigh the gold,
you know, nothing beats that.
Oh, my gosh, that's so pretty.
Right?
Gold mining has definitely
brought my son and I so much closer.
I wouldn't trade it for the world.
It didn't just solidify my son and me,
but our whole team.
Our whole team, so yeah, one hell of a week.
We're excited for you guys.
You know, honestly, we see that,
it makes everything we did
and all the hard work you guys have put in,
you know, worth it, because now it's a possibility.
This is a real possibility.
Freddy and I are actually leaving today
knowing that the adjustments we made in their mill,
they at least have the tools to be able to make themselves successful.
Stay in touch, guys.
Chad, good working with you, buddy.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-Take care. -Take care. Bye.
I'm really excited about this.
The potential now with what I saw today.
Prior to that gold weigh,
we were running this out of our pockets,
because we weren't making enough gold
to basically even pay the electric bill.
Now, that's off the table.
With what Freddy and Juan have designed for us
and the efficiencies that we have
and this gold dump that Freddy discovered
is gonna put us in the profit column.
The future definitely looks bright in this regard
considering the gold recovery we just got
and what we're potentially standing on,
but I'm gonna go through it and make it happen first.
And then... And then I'll do the happy dance.
Our future is wide open.
Our future is so bright, we got to wear shades.
Like it's gonna be wonderful.
[Chad] Well, this week has been a roller coaster.
The gold recovery that we have
and now what that means for our team,
what matters most to us is relationships.
And I think, we'll...
We have a strong relationship now than even ever.
Our future looks bright, guys.
Let's go make it happen.
[Greg] What do you say we go get some...
-Go get some gold? -[Ron] Yeah.
-Let's go get some gold. -[Greg] All right.
[truck honks]
[upbeat music playing]