I've been in the gold room doing someone else's job,
and I'm unaware of the issues that we're having up here
at the wash plant.
[narrator] On this episode of "Mine Rescue"...
- [heavy crash] - [bleep]!
Argh!
A widowed mine owner makes a last stand
on her inherited claim.
Everyone just need to be on the same page.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa! - Shut it down.
But with winter closing in...
We've been broke down more than we've been able to run.
The frustration levels are very high for me.
That's got to be one of the shortest test runs, huh?
Two seconds.
...and more than just gold at stake...
[Chrisie] He would have been so proud of me that I can ride
the loader, drive the loader, that I can mine.
...the pressure is on for Freddy and Juan to help them
find fortune.
I was hoping to see more gold in the pan.
Or face failure.
[Juan] We are trying to cram two weeks worth of work in a week.
[Freddy] I just spotted a huge problem, guys.
Could be a season-ender.
Probably the highest mine rescue we've ever done, huh?
I think it's 14,400 feet, that mountain.
The thin air, lack of water, and shorter season make
Colorado's Rocky Mountains one of the hardest places
to mine in the U.S.
On the doorstep of winter, Freddy and Juan race to
the Leadville Mining District, where the miners make what will
be their last stand before financial ruin.
- Hi! - How are you doing?
Good to see you.
Good to see you guys. Freddy.
- Sean. - Nice to meet you, Sean.
- Chrisie. - Freddy.
- Nice to meet you. - [Freddy] So how's it going?
Well, we're having our struggles.
- [Juan] Yeah? - Struggles.
We've only ran 36 days.
[Juan] You've only ran 36 days, huh?
You broke down a lot then?
[Chrisie] On and off for about five months.
[Sean] Lots of breakdowns.
[Juan] What have been your main issues as far as breakdowns go?
Everything.
It's been from one end to the other.
It's cost employees, health, friendships.
It's been a real heartache.
Never really had frustrations this bad.
But on top of that, when we drove in,
it was a little snowy, so...
[Freddy] The trees are changing colors, so that says mining season
up here is coming to an end.
- [Sean] Yeah, sir. - [Chrisie] Yep.
You know, it may not seem like a whole lot, but, you know,
genuinely, when you don't have a whole lot of time left,
you know, it could be a big hurdle.
That is true.
That's part of our struggle as well.
We're running out of time.
Originally a family business, Chrisie has taken over running
the 3,000-acre Willow Creek Mine.
The plan was for my husband and I to run the mine
and have our family here.
Things happened, he passed away...
[sighs]
[Sean] Chrisie never got an opportunity to do anything
with her husband on this mine, and they just kind of let
everything go dormant.
Her and I crossed paths and struck a deal,
and here I am.
My relationship with Sean is like a brother-sister
kind of relationship. We kind of joke about that.
He's great. His family's great.
- Almost got me. - [Chrisie] Almost got you.
I've learned so much from him.
Chrisie, do you have somewhere to put this?
[Chrisie] There's no other person who's going to lease your land
and then let you come and help.
Ooh, that's a pretty one.
[Sean] That's a nice one.
Or be any part of what they're doing.
All right, I'm sticking it in my pocket.
Don't let me forget.
But for Sean, this season isn't just critical.
Failure could end his mining career for good.
I always had a passion for gold, so that led me to
chase the dream.
Mining has put a strain on my family.
I've lost quite a bit of money in the past, you know,
some of our life savings.
My wife, she's given me one more chance to succeed at this,
and if I don't succeed,
then I'm gonna have to get out of gold mining.
- [Freddy] Do you have any of the gold... - [Sean] Yes, sir.
...that you're pulling out of the ground up here
that we can look at? - Yes, sir.
[Freddy] Combination of chunky and fine, huh?
- [Juan] Beautiful. - [Freddy] Yeah.
Chunky and fine gold
indicate multiple events on the land,
a high potential target if the gold can be captured.
[Juan] So how much have you gotten this season so far?
We've gotten 87 ounces already this season.
[Juan] Not terrible.
Well, what's your goal for this season?
We really need probably around 350.
To keep up all the claims,
all the equipment, the insurance.
It's going to be a hard one because the one thing about
being this high up is winter comes quick, right?
[Sean] Yes, sir.
[Juan] You probably only have 40 days left.
To help them run consistently,
a rescue must increase production to at least
6.5 ounces a day
to stand any hope of hitting their goal.
What's been your best day?
We had a day where we got nine ounces out of a thousand tons,
but we haven't been able to do that since.
[Juan] So that tells us that there is some spotty ground here.
So more than likely it's going to be a combination of working
on the plant, but then also trying to figure out where that
gold is and follow that. - Absolutely.
'Cause if gold was everywhere, it wouldn't be worth anything.
- True. - What have you invested so far?
I got a start up $50,000 on this.
[Freddy] And who loaned you that money?
Chrisie did.
[Freddy] OK.
Well, what happens, you know, if you don't get
your goal this year?
Well, I'm going to have to pay back my debt.
[Freddy] Right.
[Sean] And I'm gonna have to go get a real job and pay them
back out of my payroll.
Well, we'll do our best to help you.
[Sean] The frustration levels are very high for me.
We've been broke down more than we've been able to run.
[Juan] Well, you know, what we like to do is typically we want to
watch a test run and go from there so we can kind of assess
what's going on and figure out what we can do
to help you, OK? - [Chrisie] Sounds great.
- Thank you. - [Juan] All right.
Right off the get-go, they seem like really nice people,
but, you know, I think they might be a little
unrealistic with some of their goals right now,
so they definitely need some help.
I'm not 100% sure if their goal is really,
you know, attainable. - Fire it up.
Let's do it. Start the gen.
The crew, led by Sean,
includes Chrisie's cousin, Dan,
and contractor, Ezekiah.
Start the timer.
[heavy crash]
[Freddy] Oh, [bleep].
- Shut her down. - Whoa!
[bleep] Argh!
- [bleep] - [honking]
[bleep]
Are you kidding me?
That's got to be one of the shortest test runs, huh?
Two seconds.
- Yeah, that's a record. - Unbelievable.
[Chrisie] Not good.
[Sean] Oh, man.
One of the clamps came apart from one of the water hoses
and got a little crazy. So now, once again, we're down.
I'm being pushed to get gold,
but it's just not happening because of the breakdowns.
This is going to take forever.
Well, I'm keeping the clock running.
You know, it's still part of the four-hour run.
Exactly.
Big deal here, you know, the climate here is
the same as [indistinct] Alaska. - Mm-hmm.
So, I mean, you only have so much of a season to run.
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's not a good start,
but I can see why they haven't ran a whole lot.
You guys ready to fire up again?
[Juan] Well, there we go.
Hopefully we can get a bucket in there now.
30 minutes later, first bucket.
Yep.
Pay is fed into a 40-foot rotating trommel,
where spray bars inside wash the pay from the gravels into
a triple-sluice run where the gold should be recovered.
While, to save their limited water, a sand screw separates
fine tailings from the snow melt they need to rely on
all season.
[Juan] That chain that's slapping on the bottom of the drive?
- See how it's climbing? - Yeah.
[Juan] Eventually, it's gonna double up on itself.
Right now, the drive chain's getting hung up on the sprocket.
Eventually, it might break the chain or possibly
break the gearbox.
We're lean, lean, lean on water.
[Freddy] Yeah, way lean.
Working at such elevation above the cloud line means
the Willow Creek Mine gets just six inches of rain a year
to replenish the wash ponds.
[Freddy] The thicker the water gets, the more gold you lose.
That's what happens when you sluice out of a mud puddle.
[Juan] One whole section of the sluice box that's not being used.
This section right here is completely packed.
We've got a lot of issues here.
Look at that big rock going up.
- [Chrisie] Where? Uh-oh, uh-oh. - [Sean] Oh, [bleep].
Too big of rocks going through, man.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[Dan] It's going to shred this thing!
[Sean] [bleep], get it out of there.
[bleep], we gotta shut down again.
[Dan] Yeah.
Just shut the conveyor off.
Oh, they did. Let's go take a look.
[Sean] Another breakdown.
Look, it shredded the belt up there.
[Chrisie] Oh, my [bleep].
We got some big rocks coming through and wedging in
the frame, and it's tearing up my belt.
Look at that big cut right up there.
[bleep]
[Juan] Well, I can see why they're not having
a whole lot of runtime.
A little problem here, a little problem there.
- It shuts you down, yep. - [Juan] It adds up.
You have multiples throughout a day, yeah,
you're losing hours of runtime.
- [Freddy] Mm-hmm. - And motivation.
Man, this gets old.
This is tiring, man.
[Juan] That conveyor's not gonna last much longer anyways, Freddy.
I think we should shut the test down.
We're gonna have to.
Hey, guys, just shut down.
All right.
[Freddy] Not good on the conveyor, huh?
You say you might have 40 days of a season left this year.
This conveyor will cost you 20 of them working on it.
The belt's too narrow
for the amount of material you're running.
That's why you're having rocks come off the side,
and that's a safety issue.
This conveyor is not gonna make the rest of the season.
I know it was only an hour, but let's clean the box up
and see what we got so we kind of have, you know,
at least-- - [Freddy] A baseline.
- [Juan] Baseline, yeah. - OK, sounds good.
[Juan] To figure out what we got in that hour,
and then Freddy and I are gonna put our heads together
and figure out what we can do.
- We'll come up with a game plan. - [Chrisie] Sounds good.
- Sounds good? - Thank you so much.
- Appreciate it. - Thanks, guys.
[Chrisie] I have a lot of responsibility to make this happen.
My family is relying on me, but with all the breakdowns,
I'm just not sure how much longer
we can survive.
Now I see what Sean's up against.
You know, it's frustrating, and it's really kind of brings
to light why he hasn't been able to run all that much.
[rugged music playing]
[Freddy] How's it going, Chrisie?
In Colorado,
at the Willow Creek Mine...
- Hey, Freddy, what's going on? - [Freddy] Didn't scare you, did I?
Oh, no. [laughs]
I was mesmerized by the table.
Freddy checks in with mine owner Chrisie, who cleans up
the gold from the aborted one-hour test.
[Chrisie] There we go.
There's a little bit of gold in it, huh?
A little bit, a little bit.
[Freddy] What got you into gold mining?
[Chrisie] Well, my dad bought into this quite a few years ago.
Shortly after that, I was up here with my husband.
- [Freddy] Yeah. - [Chrisie] We came up, spent a month up here,
and surveyed the whole area here with my dad.
We were gonna start a new life, do some gold mining,
and unfortunately my husband passed away.
- Massive heart attack. - I'm sorry to hear that.
Thank you, thank you.
What made me want to be a gold miner was probably just
the adventure of it, just coming up here
and learning more about it.
And that intrigued me, and so I just got more involved in it.
It's hard being here without my husband being here.
I feel that this is where I'm supposed to be.
Without her husband's help to run the mine, Chrisie nearly
abandoned it until Sean stepped in.
[Chrisie] This is where I am,
and I'm going to make it happen.
The ultimate dream for this mine is for our family's
interests to help make it very successful for years to come.
Everyone recovering gold and being miners.
I think Matt, my husband, would be very proud
of what I'm doing today.
I can't-- [voice breaks].
[Freddy] Kinda knocked the wind out of your sails.
Yeah, it's been difficult at times, but it's good, too,
because I know he's watching over us and I think he's happy
that I'm up here. - [Freddy] Yeah, I bet he is.
[Chrisie] I want to do better, bigger things with this mine.
[Freddy] Well, this year's super important then.
- [Chrisie] It's very, very important. - Yeah.
You know, it's either make it or break it, you know.
[Freddy] Well, hopefully we can help you make your goal.
It's important for Chrisie to make this a success.
And I tell you what, she's a devoted person.
You know, she wants to learn. She works hard.
So if the season lasts long enough,
there's a good chance they'll succeed.
[Juan] How we doing? Got it all cleaned up?
[Sean] Yes, sir.
Cleanup complete,
Freddy and Juan join the crew to weigh the gold
from the one-hour test run.
Let's have a look.
- Here's what we got. - [Freddy] OK.
Nice, clean gold.
Well, let's do it.
[Chrisie] Excited to see what we got?
[Sean] Yeah.
[Juan] Oh, there's a little chunk in there, too.
[Freddy] Little nugget in there.
- Quarter ounce. - [Juan] Quarter ounce, yeah.
[Freddy] Half ounce.
- Here's an ounce. - [Chrisie] There's an ounce.
[Juan] That's pretty decent, 1.18.
- [Freddy] Yeah. - [Juan] Yeah.
- [Freddy] Yeah, it's good. - [Juan] Wow.
Yeah, considering the breakdowns,
that's not bad at all. - [Sean] Right.
[Freddy] Looks like you got decent gold here, but if you can't run,
you know, you can't get it.
Yeah, and you know-- and the truth is,
you might have hit a hot spot, you know.
You guys have mentioned before that you guys had really great
cleanups and then the next day, nothing, right?
That is true. That is true.
But let us get back to the truck and figure out what
we can do, and we'll come back and see you guys in just a bit.
- That sounds great. - OK, we appreciate it.
[Freddy] There's a lot of issues with that plant.
[Juan] Yeah.
[Freddy] We've got distribution and water issues.
[Juan] Right now, all three sluice boxes are packed with sediment.
I think we need to start thinking about ground as well.
[Freddy] You know, the ground's going to be a big part of it.
[Juan] That conveyor, we need to get rid of it.
- [Freddy] It needs to go. - Yeah, put a pit in there,
they can muck the material out.
- Yeah, pit and a ramp to get in with the loader. - Yep.
On that drive system, I think maybe just an idler
or something there to be able to take up that slop.
- [Freddy] Yeah. - Because eventually,
that chain's gonna double up on itself.
Uh-huh, and it's gonna tear that gearbox apart.
- Let's go talk to 'em. - Let's do it.
[hawk screeching]
- How's it going, guys? - [Chrisie] Hey, guys.
[Juan] Kind of came up with a few ideas of what we can do
to help you guys out.
One of the things that we're a little worried about is just
the inconsistency of the ground, right?
- I want to go into the cut with you. - [Sean] OK.
So we'll have a look at the geology up here and,
you know, do a bunch of test panning. - OK.
But then we want to get your plant tuned up, too.
Most important is that distribution.
We'll try to get it where it's an even feed into
all your sluices. - [Sean] OK.
[Freddy] And then we want to put a tensioner on your chain
because your chain's not long for the world
the way it's running.
- [Sean] A big mess. - Oh, it is.
[Freddy] A very expensive mess.
You know, you break that box, you know, you're probably
25 grand for that box.
The biggest thing we want to do is make sure that the plant is
reliable, that you guys are able to run a full 10-hour day
with no issues. - [Chrisie] Yes.
[Freddy] It takes a lot of resources to get water out here.
So every bit we can save is gonna save money
down the line.
[Juan] We can introduce more water on the backside.
And with all that said, you know, we want
an ounce of gold apiece.
Yeah, and then as far as the material goes,
$6,000 for material. - [Sean] OK.
[Freddy] Conveyor's number one.
All right. Well, let's do it.
You guys are good with it?
- Yeah. - [Freddy] Deal?
- Yeah, yeah, all right. - Yeah, deal.
- Sounds great. - All right.
In an ambitious wash plant overhaul to improve
reliability, Freddy and Juan will remove the conveyor
and replace it with a hassle-free tailings pit that
can be easily cleared.
On the trommel, the drive chain has become slack.
Juan will fabricate an idler to regulate the tension.
And a new distribution chute will direct the silt-heavy
concentrates into the sluice runs, which will be sealed,
leveled, and raised to help catch more gold.
[Juan] I got my rig right here for it.
Juan's first task?
Remove the nine-ton conveyor.
We should be able to lift it and get it out from underneath
that stand and then be able to bring it down.
You want to just go with the chain around it
and back to your hook? - Yep, yep.
Right now, we've got the legs
dug out, and we're going to see if we can lift that conveyor.
[Juan] There's a lot of things that could go wrong right now.
You know, if it's too much weight and we get off
the stand, it could pull the truck over.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to lift it just a little
bit to see if I can handle it. If I can handle it, great.
If not, then we'll reposition.
OK.
There you go.
[Dan] Yeah!
[Juan] That'll work.
Got it done in a few minutes, but-- I appreciate it.
- No worries, no worries. - Thank you.
I am new to mining, but, yeah, I probably have
a little bit of gold fever.
Sean's right-hand man is Chrisie's cousin, Dan,
who came for family, but stays for gold.
[Dan] I'm here to help Chrisie.
She's trying to prove that she can make
this mine successful.
Very exciting to see your results when
you do have a good run and a good cleanup.
But I'm also doing this for my family, my two daughters
and my wife, so that I can make a better life for them.
Listen, once I get this dragged back a little bit, come with me.
Now it's down on the ground, they can manage it,
get it out of here.
♪
[donkeys braying]
We won't have any more problems with our conveyor belt.
Freddy and Juan had us get that conveyor belt
out of the way.
So I'm digging out a tailings pit here, nice and deep.
Definitely going to work out a lot better having that
conveyor belt that always breaks down on me.
We're going to speed things up.
[Freddy] How's it going, Sean?
[Sean] Good, Freddy. How are you doing?
[Freddy] Doing all right.
I'm just finishing up on this ramp here.
What do you think about sloping it a little more gentle
for your loader? - [Sean] We can do that.
[Freddy] Save you a bunch of fuel.
[Sean] Yeah, right.
And wear and tear on your loader.
Yeah, absolutely.
But that should hold some tailings, huh?
[Freddy] Yeah, it looks good.
No, this'll work.
Getting rid of that conveyor's the best thing for this plant.
I agree, 100%. OK, Freddy.
- See you in a bit. - [Sean] Thank you.
Freddy and Juan showed up just right at the nick of time.
When Chrisie first came up here, she was sad.
She was very heartbroken.
This ship was ready to sink, and now there's a glimmer of
hope that I can repay my debts and end this season
on a good note.
That should be deep enough.
At 14,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains...
Let me design it out real quick and we'll get it cut.
...Juan begins work on a new distribution chute for
the Willow Creek Mine.
When you have a limited season, I'm hoping that once
we get it in there,
it's really going to help the production.
But ultimately, we don't know until we actually put it
in place and try it out.
The chute will focus the pay from the trommel
to a central box.
A dampener will slow the material down and force it
to divide equally across the three sluices.
And that way that material comes over, hits that center
chamber, so it can fan out over the box
and have equal distribution over the sluices.
So we got all the parts cut out.
Now I'm going to get down to the plant, get it installed.
- This your cut then, huh? - Yes, sir.
[Freddy] Well, let's go have a look.
[Sean] All righty.
After a season of inconsistent cleanups, Freddy gets eyes on
the material Sean is running.
[Freddy] Why did you pick this area here, Sean?
You're looking up at the mountain
and how the draw came down,
and it came down through here. - [Freddy] Yeah.
[Sean] This would be the stuff I took for our test right here.
- [Freddy] Looks like clay, huh? - [Sean] Yeah.
My thoughts here without panning yet...
- [Sean] Uh-huh. - ...is that top layer
is probably low grade.
It hasn't been reworked a lot.
It's kind of a glacial till on top.
And this material down below, you can see how the rocks
are laying in there.
So this got reworked by a stream system at some point.
That did not. That got pushed there.
[Sean] Do you think this could have been
a really wide river at one time?
[Freddy] Don't know. Don't know.
A stream doesn't have to be really wide, right?
But it's gonna go back and forth over millions
of years, right? - [Sean] OK, yeah.
- So it makes a valley wider. - Interesting.
[Freddy] Well, let's take a sample of this and see what we get.
[Sean] OK.
Ooh, that water's cold.
Ice cold.
Not a tremendous amount of heavies in it.
Hm.
[Sean] Is that hit-and-miss thing here, huh?
Usually not with gold like this, though.
Fine gold spread fairly evenly through a layer like that.
I was hoping to see more gold in the pan
after that gold weigh.
And there's gold in it, but not much.
[Sean] Well, it's surprising that
you're seeing very little in there, 'cause...
I've done a few pans along here,
and they've been pretty good.
[Freddy] Hm.
Now, you pick a spot this time.
OK.
- See anything? - Nope.
Let's take it down farther. You want me to take--
you want me to finish it? - Yeah, yeah.
[Freddy] So right now I'm watching that tip out there.
So if there's a piece of gold in there,
you're going to see it.
Two specks.
- [Sean] I see them. - [Freddy] There and there.
So it's no better than the other one.
[Sean] Huh.
I'm pretty surprised about that.
You know, we did that one hour run, got over an ounce.
I'm really shocked that we're not seeing the gold in the pans
like I'm seeing up there at the plant.
[Freddy] There's gold in it, but nothing like that test.
So, I'm going to call a buddy in,
that mine's just down the hill here, and bring him up.
He probably knows more about, you know, this type deposit
up here than anybody alive today.
So, his information may be very helpful.
[Juan] Hell yeah.
At the plant, Juan assembles the distribution box,
which will feed pay evenly to the sluices.
[Juan] We'll make it work.
That's good. Perfect.
We're going to funnel all that material in, and then we have
this little bit of a dampener.
What this does is going to force the material in the water
to be able to level out, and then that way it can divide
three ways evenly across these sluice boxes.
I still got to get everything built for the idler,
and we have a lot of stuff we got to get fabricated before
we can install it on the plant.
[Freddy] How's it going, Lance?
At the entrance to the mine...
Good to see you, sir.
[Lance] Good seeing you, as always.
...Freddy calls in friend and fellow mining mogul
Lance Baller to get an insider's read on the ground.
[Freddy] I appreciate you coming up the mountain.
So, how is-- how are things looking?
[Freddy] Well, I'd sure like to pick your brain on this area.
You probably know it better than anybody.
Let me grab my hard hat and I'll be right over.
[Freddy] All righty.
Here's where they got that pay from, Lance.
[Lance] Uh-huh.
[Freddy] Right over here.
Looks like it's been reworked
and it looks good, but the pans weren't good
out of it. Have you ran any of this stuff?
[Lance] Yeah, so,
we lost a lot of money over those first few years trying to
figure this stuff out. We panned a lot of it.
It was very marginal. We couldn't figure it out.
It was just not paying good. It didn't look good.
And then we found out that there was a seam in there that
was about 24 inches thick and 95% of all the gold was
just in that seam.
[Freddy] Do you see that seam in here?
[Lance] Yeah, so you got your bigger rock coming down here and then
you hit this layer and it looks like it's pay,
it has rocks in there.
It's not.
It's going to be very, very low gold content until it hits this
clay layer in here, as you see.
So there's going to be a layer in between those clays that
most of that gold is in between.
Millions of years ago, mineral-rich hot springs
bubbled up beneath Leadville, turning rock into clay,
which traps a rich layer of gold.
So this stuff, I would run.
It's gonna mess up his ponds.
That's why he's probably not running it,
but it has gold in it and a lot of gold usually.
But he doesn't have a whole lot of water
looking at it up there. - [Lance] Yeah.
I've seen his pond.
So if he can just manage the clays to try to get as much
gold as he can out of this, he's in a hot, hot area here.
He's going to do really well on this.
[Freddy] Well, I learned more about the geology of this area
in an afternoon with Lance than I could have done in maybe
a season, because he's been mining up in here for a long
time and he's had pitfalls of his own.
So, he's learned his way through them,
so now I can pass on that information to Sean,
and, well, he can run from there.
Well, I appreciate your advice on it.
[Lance] All right.
In Colorado's Leadville Mining District...
[Juan] I have a sprocket design.
We're going to cut it on this one-inch piece of steel.
...Juan sets to work to build a new idler
for the trommel drive chain.
What it's doing right now is
that chain, as it comes across, is getting caught.
Eventually it's going to get caught and double-up on itself
and break off.
So what we're going to do is we're going to put
an idler there so that way it actually pushes it down
and gets it out of the way.
So this is gonna be the tensioner arm.
It's real simple.
It's going to have a pivot here with two pillow blocks.
Over here, it has these flange bearings and it's gonna have
a sprocket here that rides on the chain.
It'll pull that and get all that excess slop out of there,
so that way it doesn't have a chance to double up.
Look at that. That is sweet.
Idler complete,
Juan heads to the plant for the install.
I got it.
[Sean] I'm very excited to have Freddy and Juan come up here
and help me with this, because that'll definitely
save us a lot of time. No more breakdowns.
[Juan] We're always behind schedule.
You know, we're trying to cram two weeks' worth of work
into basically a week.
It's just kind of what we do.
Well, that looks great.
Over in the cut, Sean stockpiles the high-grade
pay identified by Freddy and local Lance Baller.
[Sean] I'm pretty excited to see how it works now.
Because it's been a big struggle all season long.
See if these fixes really will help us.
Proof will definitely be in the pudding here when we do
our test run.
Three, four.
At the wash plant, Freddy and Dan
tune up the sluices.
Eight, nine, ten.
It's super important to keep these sluices leveled,
so if it's pitched to one side,
where's all your material gonna go?
[Dan] To that side.
So you're making a three-foot-wide sluice into
a one-foot-wide sluice, essentially what you're doing.
All their sluices were out of level,
and I want more pitch.
Let's see how leveled it is.
Pretty darn leveled.
- [Dan] I think we're close, yeah. - [Freddy] Yeah.
OK.
Let's see what we got for pitch now.
- Almost perfect. - [Dan] Yeah.
[Freddy] Yeah.
Every little thing we're doing here, so let's say just
leveling these boxes gets you another 3% of gold, right?
- [Dan] Right. - Let's say getting the pitches set, another 3% gold.
You start adding those things up, pretty soon,
you know, let's say you increase by 10, 20, 30%.
[Dan] That's big. That's really big.
They're all adjusted to the best we can adjust them.
[Dan] I enjoy working with Freddy.
He's a wealth of knowledge, to be honest with you.
He's shown us a lot of little tips and tricks along the way,
and we'll be sure and put those to good use in the future.
[Freddy] Let's check out the sand screws, Sean.
[Sean] Yeah-- oh, yeah.
Next, Freddy looks into the water system to prepare
for the new clay-rich pay.
[Freddy] Something's not right.
I just spotted a huge problem, guys.
The back of your sand screw's buried.
You can see the after effects downstream.
That sand should not be there.
Well, let's go shut it down.
Freddy has spotted a major issue with the sand screw.
[Freddy] You see this opening right here?
[Dan] Yes, sir.
[Freddy] OK, that's supposed to be closed off.
[Sean] Interesting.
[Freddy] All that water is going fast backwards through there,
and it's dragging sand with it.
And that's why you're buried downstream.
The sand screw separates fine tailings from sluice water,
spiraling solids upwards while recycling water
back into the system.
But with a plate missing, both solids and water are
carried backwards into the holding pond,
silting up the fresh water supply, which if run through
the plant will lose fine gold.
[Freddy] That little hole right there is the reason why
that's all buried back there.
[Sean] Wow, just that little hole made that much damage.
[Freddy] If this isn't fixed, the pond's going to fill up.
It's going to keep building up more material downstream,
and they won't be able to run.
So we need to block that off.
[Freddy] We need to block that off, yeah.
Just hours from the second test run at Willow Creek...
[Freddy] You got a tape measure handy?
[Dan] Yeah.
...Freddy and the crew work through a last-minute setback
with the sand screw.
[Freddy] 28 by 6, OK.
With it empty of water, you know, it's an easy spot.
So I'm sealing up the hole,
and that's going to help save their sluice pond.
Look pretty straight to you, Dan?
[Dan] Yeah.
- All right. - [Freddy] We got her.
[Dan] Yes, sir.
[Freddy] It's simple, but it's gonna make a huge difference.
Are you guys ready to do a test run?
Let's do it, yeah.
- Absolutely. - [Juan] Excellent.
[Freddy] Well, let's do one hour,
so it's apples to apples to the last one.
- [Sean] OK. - [Chrisie] Let's fire it up.
[Sean] Here comes the water.
First bucket!
During the first test run, you know, it only ran
about two seconds before a hose blew off,
so we're ahead of that game right now.
I'm watching the arm. It's doing really well.
It's actually pulling that excess chain out of the way,
so it's not getting stuck.
Yeah, dramatically better.
Looks like we can go quite a while
without having to dig this out,
because this is gonna keep pushing over.
Yep.
Beats the hell out of that conveyor, doesn't it?
[Sean] Yeah, man. Game changer.
[Juan] You know, having this dampener plate is actually helping that
material level out and feed evenly, so it's about as good
as it's gonna get.
- [Dan] Water's way better. - [Juan] Oh, yeah. A lot better.
[Dan] Way better coming down those sluices.
- [Freddy] That's working good. - [Juan] Yeah.
[Dan] Yeah, it looks pretty good. Looks better than it did.
- That's for sure - It does look good.
[Freddy] See, now it's forcing that material to go under that weir.
Before, it had such a velocity going through that opening that
it was just dragging sand.
Right now, you've got a little time left of the season.
Just run as much as you can.
Yeah, that's what we need to do.
- Just run, run, run. - Yeah.
If we get, like, a complete six-day week in...
- [Juan] Oh, yeah. - Oh, my gosh.
That's gonna be incredible.
I'm proving that I can do this,
with gold being so high as it is right now.
- Awesome! - Whoo-hoo!
I think I could make this a successful mine.
- What you got? - Eight more minutes.
- Looks good. - Yeah-- Juan.
[Juan] Good job, buddy.
[Freddy] Last bucket!
- Looks good, Freddy. - Yeah.
I see gold in here.
There's a bunch in this middle one, too, Juan.
[Juan] Yeah.
It's like, a lot more consistent than the last cleanup.
[Juan] Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, we can see it in all three boxes
instead of just the one.
You guys want to pull the mats and do a cleanup, and we'll get
ready for a gold weigh, huh?
- Yeah, let's do it. - Yeah.
Sounds good. All right, guys, let's pull it.
I'm not sure what's gonna happen
if this doesn't work out.
I'm not sure how long that we can survive.
How's it going, guys? Got it all done?
- [Sean] Yes, sir. - [Chrisie] Got it ready for you.
At the gold room, Chrisie and her crew gather
for the results of the one-hour test.
How does it look?
- Well... - That looks good.
Nice and clean.
You go ahead and pour it, Fred.
Let's see what we got.
[Juan] Let's see what you got.
To hit their season goal of 350 ounces in the remaining
40 days of the season, they need to be able to run
10 hours per day, and this test must produce at least
0.65 of an ounce.
[both] A half ounce.
[Juan] There you go.
Uh-huh. Three quarters of an ounce.
- One ounce. - [Chrisie] Yeah, yeah.
- [Juan] There we go. - [Chrisie] We're past it now.
- Oh, there it is. - There's 1.18 right there.
And I'm gonna say we got a quarter of an ounce left.
[Juan] Excellent.
[Freddy] Let's see what we got.
- 1.57. - [Juan] There you go.
- [Chrisie] All right. - [Juan] That's awesome.
- All right. - It's really good.
- You did it in an hour. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's $1,200 an hour more than the first run,
first hour run.
A potential of $50,000 a shift.
If Sean and Chrisie run every day, they could nearly double
their goal to a $2 million season.
- [Freddy] Right there. - [Chrisie] That's great.
That's really gonna change things.
[Freddy] The biggest thing is
now you can run without breaking down.
- Yes. - [Juan] Yeah.
Now, if you can stay on that material, you're making $4,500
an hour right now. That's awesome, right?
- Yes. - [Dan] Fantastic.
You need to do six and a half ounces a day
for the last 40 days of the season.
I think this is really going to turn our season around.
[Juan] It should, absolutely.
This morning, you see how much snow is on the mountains?
This time of year, I'd run seven days a week.
- All the hours you can run. - [Chrisie] Yeah.
[Freddy] Your motto for the rest of the season should be,
"Run, run, run." - [Dan] Right.
And when you think about stopping, keep running.
- [Chrisie] There you go. - Thank you so much.
Yes, thank you.
That was amazing working with you guys.
Again, thank you so much. Thank you, Freddy.
- Appreciate it, thank you. - Yeah, you're welcome.
- Thanks, Juan, I appreciate it. - Likewise.
Freddy, thank you very much.
[Juan] Here, you can have the pan.
- We'll keep the gold. - Oh, wait.
[laughing]
[Freddy] That pan's worth $4,500.
That's not a good trade.
[Juan laughs] Not a good trade.
[Chrisie] That's a better trade.
- [Juan] All right. - [Freddy] Take care, guys.
[Juan] All right. See you later.
- [Dan] Thank you, appreciate it. - [Chrisie] Safe travels.
[Freddy] I couldn't have been more pleased with that gold weigh.
You know, they may have 30 days left.
They may have 40.
But with the material they're running now,
well, they could do it.
[Chrisie] So I'm very grateful that Freddy and Juan came out here.
I got to make this happen for my family.
And we keep saying, "Run, run, run."
That's what we're going to be saying
for the rest of the season.
It changed everything, you know?
We're gonna smash that goal of 350 now, no problem.
And definitely get my debt paid, that 50 grand.
I'll be able to keep my passion of gold mining alive.
[Juan] Now they have a consistent plan.
Instead of just running one hour, they can run 10 hours.
I'm excited for them.
Honestly, I'm really proud of
what we did here. And it's a big win.
With the fixes that Freddy and Juan did, we did increase
our production for sure.
Everything at the wash plant did help capture,
and we're not losing anything.
This season was a little difficult with history of
the mine and history of, you know, my husband was
supposed to be up there.
We've held onto this for so long
that this is going to happen.
Unfortunately, we had a false weather freeze out,
and we weren't able to process anymore.
Our building wasn't insulated.
We got 247.7 ounces, a little short of our 350 goal.
We did get things paid, and Sean got his money paid
back to us, the loan back to us.
We got all the operation costs taken care of,
and everyone left with a little gold in their pocket.
So it was a good season.