[Hunter] We're down to the end here, man.
[narrator] It's the last week.
[Randy] We need to hit that goal and get out of here.
This town's about to freeze over.
[narrator] And it all comes down to the final push.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
[Sparky] Just have to burn that midnight oil.
[narrator] The Hoffman family needs
their highest payout of the season.
138 ounces of gold this week
to call their season a success.
I'm hoping and praying this is good.
[Todd] Everything is out of our hands right now,
and it's up to fate from here on out.
[narrator] But with the Black Pearl out of commission
and their pay dirt on the brink of freezing solid...
[Todd] We got about five hours of pay left.
[Todd] We need every bucket that we can scratch.
[narrator] Can Hunter get his old relic to run in time?
I'm praying to God it's the right parts we need,
otherwise the Black Pearl's done for the season.
[narrator] Or will their season stop dead in its tracks?
Oh, [bleep].
Right now the Black Pearl's still down,
and I'm having trouble finding the parts that I need
to get it fixed.
[Ron] Come straight out my way.
Oh...
Splines are tore right off the ceramic friction.
Pressure plate's cracked.
So you think there's no way around it?
We're down for a couple days?
Couple days. I need parts.
[Hunter] We're gonna have to fly them in,
and I don't know exactly how long it's gonna take.
Without the Black Pearl running,
we're not gonna hit 1,000 ounces,
and we need to be running.
-So... -[Todd] What's the verdict?
From what I'm hearing,
it's gonna be at least four days
before we can even get the parts.
-[Todd sighs] Oh. -Wow.
And you know how it is every time we fly in parts.
It's like, you know, they say four days,
-could turn into seven. -Then it's like
-it seems like six. -Or eight.
-Ouch. -And then we gotta install it.
To me it looks like we are not gonna make our 1,000.
So we definitely have to do something.
That's for sure.
So that puts us behind?
Yeah, I don't know. It's just...
It is what it is.
That puts us at least a minimum
of 100 ounces behind.
Everybody scavenged around town.
That part's not here.
No way, huh?
There's no way.
But, you know, I think I have a creative solution.
What I'm thinking is me, Cub and Sparky
run the Holy Roller at night,
and we just run that thing 24/7
to just make up for the yardage.
Otherwise I don't see any other way
how we're gonna get the gold.
[Todd] Running the plant at night,
that's where you seem to have the most problems.
You gotta really be on your game.
It... I... It makes nervous.
Well, the Pearl's not gonna go.
So you got a solution. I think it's a good one.
Yeah, I mean, running at night, it's just...
hard. I know.
If you guys are willing to, uh,
to go for it, we'd love to...
We need the gold, period.
Let's do it. I mean, let's run a night shift.
[Jack] You know, Hunter, it makes me feel good
that you're coming up with your own solutions.
That's kinda the only way I see
us making it, so...
It is.
It really is.
[Hunter] The way I'm looking at it,
I'm not willing for us to have another loss.
We need to win this season.
I wanna hit 1,000 ounces.
We all deserve it. We all need a win.
-Yeah. -So till the Pearl gets up and running,
me and my guys will run at night.
Keep the gold on track.
Cub and Sparky might not like it,
but this is what we need to do.
Well, you go talk to 'em about it.
Get them on the same page
and friggin' turn the lights on, rock and roll.
Okay. I'll go talk to the guys
and then I think we start tonight.
You know, right now there's not a lot of hope.
But, uh, finding that nugget...
to me that's a sign that we need to keep going.
And, uh, you know, we've come way too far
and worked way to hard to give up right now.
So I'm gonna talk to Cub and Sparky
and hopefully they're on board with me.
Because without them, I can't really do it.
Hey. Todd to Tater. Do you have a copy?
[radio beeps]
[Tater on radio] Yeah, bud. Go ahead.
Hey, how's, uh... how's that pay dirt looking?
What's it looking like up there?
[Tater] It's frozen.
How much, uh... how much of it are you finding?
Are you still thinking there's quite a bit left
or are we getting close?
I'd say we've got enough to run a few more days.
[narrator] The Hoffmans have already mined
more than half the pay dirt from the Lost Cut,
with only 43% remaining.
The team is up against colder weather
that threatens to freeze the ground
before it can be mined.
They have roughly seven days left
to reach 1,000 ounces.
[Todd] Talk about an uphill battle.
The Black Pearl is still down,
and it's really costing us.
We still need 138 more ounces.
Basically it's about 20 ounces a day.
But the Holy Roller's only averaging
about 12 ounces per day.
Hunter approached me and my father about
maybe running all night.
I have a few reservations.
It's super-dark out here.
We have a few lights, but...
usually if something bad's gonna happen,
it happens at night.
And our plant isn't exactly bulletproof.
We've had several hoses blow,
we've had some issues here and there as well.
But I think it's actually
pretty admirable of him.
But even with running at night,
there's no way we can do this with just the Holy Roller.
We can run up to 300 yards an hour with this machine.
But we're just gonna need more volume.
It's gonna take the Black Pearl to get it done.
Hunter's gotta get his plant running.
[Hunter] I gotta break the bad news to the guys,
but also I have an idea I wanna run by 'em.
They're probably not gonna like it.
-Yo. -[Sparky] What up, brother?
Okay. So...
It's gonna take at least a couple days
to get that part in.
[Sparky] Couple days?
Yeah, they gotta fly 'em...
[Sparky] Oh, my God.
...from the States, fly 'em up here.
You know how everything takes when they...
-That's a struggle. -...try to ship stuff up here.
[Hudson] And it's probably gonna be longer and everything.
I know.
So...
This is what I was thinking.
I know you guys aren't gonna like it.
But...
I was thinking that maybe
we run the Holy Roller at night
after they shut off.
[Hudson chuckles softly]
[Spark] Plant's already difficult to run
during the daytime.
Imagine running it at night.
It's dangerous.
That thing is a hot mess.
There's so many frickin' PSI gauges,
levers, you name it.
I hate that plant. Sorry.
[Hudson] We're already sleep-deprived,
and...
you know, that many hours when it's dark...
[Hunter] Hear me out, though.
We're not gonna be able to run anyway.
Okay? And if we do run,
it gets us closer to 1,000 ounces,
which helps everybody out. That's the way I look at it.
Obviously there's risks.
This plant's not super-simple,
and it's a lot harder to run it at night.
-Way sketchier. -But it'd just be us three.
And we would just run it,
get some more yardage on their box,
just keep running. If we do this, I think...
it'll benefit us in the long run.
So... But obviously I can't do it
unless you guys wanna do it.
If you guys are totally against it,
then I don't wanna do it, but...
it's kinda the only idea I had right now.
What do you think?
You're the leader, and, you know,
I respect that decision.
So if that's what you wanna do.
What do you think?
If it gets to where we need to get to,
I guess I'm in.
Let's do it for one night. If everything goes good,
you know, we'll do it a couple nights tops
until our parts show up.
That fair?
-Yeah. -Mmm-hmm.
Just have to burn that midnight oil.
Yeah.
I'm gonna swap out Framer and I'm gonna feed.
I'll have you get in the loader
and then I was gonna see if
you could fire up the light plants.
Do small tailings and just keep an eye on everything.
I do not wanna have any breakdowns.
If the Black Pearl is down,
I wanna be contributing to the team,
not hurting them, so...
Let's go nice and steady.
Keep an eye on everything. We'll be good.
All right, I'll go turn on the light plant.
[radio beeps]
Framer, I'm ready to swap you out, buddy.
All right, sounds good.
[Hunter] All right, man. Thank you.
-Appreciate it. -Good luck, you guys.
-Don't break my girl. -Okay.
[Framer laughs]
[slow cranking]
[engine roars]
[Sparky] All right, fellas, light plant's on.
Area is lit up for the night shift.
I got Cub in the loader.
Number one thing right now is
just keeping an eye on everything.
[Sparky] Night shift is a totally different animal.
Nighttime? You can't see that good.
A problem can turn into a huge disaster.
So I'm doing small tailings, inspecting this plant.
It's gonna be a good 10 hours.
[Hunter] You know, for the good of everybody,
we need to make sure we keep running pay
and we need to keep getting gold.
It's keeping us on track for 1,000 ounces.
Yes, we are in a competition.
This doesn't really help our team.
But it helps everybody out
if we're able to run this thing through the night.
Running in the dark makes everything harder.
It's colder, the pay is starting to freeze up a little bit,
so it's hard to kinda keep a good eye on everything.
It's high stress and high pressure,
but so is every other day this whole season.
Cub, how's everything looking on your end?
Everything's good.
It's a little tough to see, but I'm doing fine.
[Hunter speaking]
We'll just, uh, keep an even pace
and make sure we keep up with everything.
[Hudson on radio] Roger.
Is everything... Oh, [bleep].
We'll just keep an even pace
and make sure we keep up with everything.
[Hudson] Roger.
Is everything... Oh, [bleep].
Not good.
Sparky, what's wrong with that light plant?
[Sparky] I wasn't expecting it.
The plant literally just blew out.
[Hunter on radio] Think we can get it back on?
[Sparky speaking]
[Hunter] It scares me 'cause I can barely see.
[Sparky] I don't see any any shared lines.
We gotta get this back up running.
[Hunter] Sparky's taking a look at it right now.
Just trying to illuminate the plant the best we can
so we can keep an eye on everything.
So fingers crossed.
You're good.
[Hunter on radio] Hey, good work.
We just gotta keep... keep on our toes, honestly.
[narrator] After adjusting the generator's throttle,
Sparky has restored power to the lights
illuminating the Holy Roller.
[Hunter] Once the parts come in for the Black Pearl,
we're gonna jump back on our ship
and keep going. But for now...
we're gonna bite the bullet
for a couple nights.
We gotta keep the Holy Roller running
as much as possible.
[Todd] So, it looks like the boys shut down two hours ago.
From what I hear, they had a really good run.
Got a lot of hours in.
They went ahead and hit the rack.
If we can keep this thing going day and night,
it's good. All do our shifts and...
we keep scratching
and just keep shoving it through the box.
How much pay dirt do we have left?
[Andy] Maybe five days' worth of pay left.
We've hit a little frozen
but I think we can finish out the season.
Try to get us up.
Just take us over the hump, man.
Get us over 1,000 ounces.
-Sound good? -Yeah.
Let's do it.
So, the boys ran all night.
They wanted to go ahead and put in some hours.
I'm just proud of 'em.
This has been a very tough season.
I had some issues with Hunter.
We argued and fought.
[Hunter] What are you doing?
What's going on?
I said things to you for days,
and you completely disregard everything I said.
I don't even wanna [bleep] be a part of this.
You're gonna change the plans?
You gotta run it by us.
We were going to do it
how you guys are suggesting it now.
Then we were told specifically
-to do it another way. -Who did?
-Who told you? -You.
-And you. -No, I did not.
-Me and you walked it. -That is a bold-faced...
That is not the truth.
But he's changed his tune.
He's buckled down.
I can see the good leadership developing in him.
Looks like there's something wrong with the Holy Roller.
We'll just, uh, we'll figure out
what the problem is, hopefully get it fixed.
I'll help relieve the workload a little bit and, uh,
we'll just go at it until we get it done.
And he's become a pretty damn good miner.
I'm super-proud of him.
There we go.
Trommel's turning.
Yeah, we're all good. You can go ahead and bring it up.
[engine roars]
I wanna hit that 1,000 to make this season profitable,
but the Holy Roller's had its issues too,
so I don't wanna blow something up
and wreck something for the future.
We gotta be smart.
I gotta oil this.
I got different places to grease.
We're starting to wear out some of the folds, but...
We're back in business.
Hey, give me a second.
This pay is tough to dig up.
[Andy on radio]
This late in the season, we don't have
any ground that's thawed out.
We're picking and scraping every little pocket
of thawed ground that we can find.
It's definitely freezing up. I can feel it.
Hopefully this dirt's got the gold in it
that we need to get us to the end of the season.
Everything's changing color.
The birds are all heading south.
We need to get sluicing.
We just gotta get it dug out of here
and get it to the plant.
[narrator] Days after the Black Pearl's clutch failed
and shut down the plant...
-[Ron] You ready for this? -Yeah.
[Ron] Ta-da!
[narrator] ...a replacement has arrived.
-It's complete. We got lucky. -Wow.
I'm praying that, uh...
it's the right parts we need,
otherwise the Black Pearl's done for the season.
So we're gonna see if we can get this thing patched up
and try to run some dirt today.
[Ron] I'll take the heavy end.
And if you can grab the other end.
I'm just gonna get up.
-This end? -Yeah.
Under the gear here.
Yeah. Okay?
-Don't drop it on your hand. -No.
It's okay. And we'll go straight up here.
Okay. Let's go.
Careful, it's a little slick.
Just set it there.
All right.
We had a really tough time finding the parts.
We ended up buying a complete assembly,
ready to go. So by doing that,
it saved us a lot of work and a lot of time.
[Hudson] We worked way too hard on this plant
for it to stop right here.
You know, I've grown to love this thing.
So this... this means something to all of us.
So, um, we have to get it going again.
[Ron] So, we grease up this little pilot here
so it can't hang up on the way in.
I'm gonna wrestle this thing up.
And if you can...
grab a bar to help line up the pilot holes and the bolts.
Grab a couple of bolts, Cubby.
[Hudson] Sure.
[Ron] We just start with the top corners here...
[Hudson] You got it.
[narrator] In order to get the Black Pearl
operational again,
the new clutch must be aligned and threaded perfectly
with the existing flywheel.
[Ron] And try not to jam it into the thread.
[sighs]
[Hunter] Hand me another one, Cub.
[Ron] Okay, hang on.
I wanna...
-There. It's engaged now. -Yup, yup.
Phew! That's the hard part.
All right, so...
-Just snug these up. -Yeah.
So it pulls in nice and square.
There you go. So go ahead and release it.
There you go.
See? Now I can free-wheel and get my belts on.
If something binds up,
we want the clutch to slip a little bit,
rather than tear itself apart
-like it did last time. -Yeah.
[Hunter] You know, this thing's been sitting
alongside the ocean for seven years
not running at all, and before that
it had a lot of wear on it.
Literally all the steel that we put on here
besides the rings was, like, stuff that
we'd salvaged or scabbed off of something else,
so she finally got something new.
All right, those will all straighten out
-once we get rolling here. -Yeah.
Let's have a look at it from back here that it's still straight.
-[Hunter] What do you think? -I think we're good.
[Ron laughs]
It's the rest of your season right here.
Give it to her.
[engine roars]
Bring your clutch in nice and easy,
and then lock it in.
See if it turns.
It's the rest of your season right here.
Give it to her.
[engine roars]
We don't have any weird banging noises.
No friction. Nothing's rubbing.
Bring your clutch in nice and easy,
and then lock it in and see if it turns.
Let's try her?
[Ron] Just give her a little... little traction.
You'll see the belt starting to tighten up.
Lock it in.
Lock it in. There you go.
[narrator] After days of delays
waiting for a new clutch to arrive,
the Black Pearl is whole again.
[Hunter] That sound okay?
-Okay. -What do you think?
-You're back in business. -Ron, thank you.
-Yeah. You're welcome, guys. -Thank you so much.
Thanks for your patience.
You should be good to go. Let's get to 1,000.
-Hammer it. -Let's do it, Ron.
-Okay. -Thank you.
-You're welcome. -Cub, you wanna get on the pump?
-Yeah. -Get the 490 up here.
-And then we'll rip it. -Yeah.
Okay, let's go.
Me and Cub are exhausted.
But the Pearl's back up and running,
so we're gonna keep pressing on
and try to get some yardage through the plant today,
and try to get some more gold.
[Todd] The Black Pearl's up and running again
and that's perfect.
Everything Hunter's doing here,
he's learning something new.
And you gotta be tough if you're gonna make it.
So he's getting tough.
And I like seeing it.
[Hunter] Please, God,
help us not have any more breakdowns.
We need 10 ounces from each plant per day.
The problem is we only have
maybe three or four days of pay left,
and it's getting cold fast.
[Hunter] This is the last push here,
and every bucket counts.
So the gameplan is to try to get some more yardage on the plant.
We're running at full capacity.
I'm kinda banking on the fact that we can run
more yardage than the Holy Roller.
But we're running out of time,
so I'm pushing 300, 400 yards an hour.
This plant can handle it.
We're just gonna run it as hard as we can.
[wind whistling]
We got about 130 ounces left to go.
We're just moving dirt down here, running it.
Huge push all the way to the end.
Hunter and I are gonna run
everything we have out
in the ramp and everything we can touch,
wherever we're sitting on, the mount, everything.
Every bucket I put in here is a good feeling.
It's getting us closer and closer to our goal.
This is it right here.
[Todd] This is it. It's do or die.
[Andy] Take it as far as you can reach.
I think it'll work good.
This will actually give us a ton more pay,
'cause there's a lot of that red gravel in there, too.
[Tater speaking]
Yeah, it's fine.
Whatever I left, just take it all the way down.
[Tater] We're stripping this ground clean.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
Loving it. Loving it.
[Hunter] Regardless of what happens,
as a leader, I'm looking at this
as a learning experience for me.
There was times where if it was just me working on this,
I would have quit, honestly.
I'm just learning that to pull off
something really great,
you have to push past
the point of when you wanna give up.
[Todd] This is our last big push.
Time is running out.
We got about four or five hours of pay left.
Then we're gonna have to shut the plants off,
and hopefully this is enough.
Probably after this load, Tater, we'll be out of pay.
No [bleep].
Let's all haul one more load.
[Andy on radio]
Affirmative.
Okay.
[Todd] Keep pushing, Hunter.
We can slam a few more buckets through here.
[Hunter speaking]
[Todd] Last bucket right here.
[Hunter on radio] This is it, guys.
This is the last couple dropping in right now.
[Todd on radio] Shut her down.
You know, I really don't want to shut down,
but we don't have any more pay dirt left.
I wish we just could run one more day.
But that's it.
Everything is out of our hands right now,
and it's up to fate.
There's a lot of gold in this box,
so that's a good sign.
We're very hopeful.
[Todd] We got nothing left to run.
I hope it was enough.
We got the Black Pearl up and running,
but maybe it was too late.
We're only 138 ounces from 1,000.
[Tater speaking]
We really gotta hope that
we have that gold in that clean-up.
But I tell you what, man, we've learned a lot,
and, uh, if we can get to 1,000 ounces,
we can actually come out of this with everybody winning.
You know? And that's what we want.
[Hunter speaking]
You know, we're about to have our last weigh-in here.
And there's been countless things that I've done this season
that I've never done before.
[man] Here she is.
[Hunter] This thing is crazy.
[man] Yeah, it is.
You think this will do what you need?
[Hunter] Uh, yeah.
This is the plant I need.
[Andy] These guys might be a little bit out of their league.
We should call this thing the Black Pearl.
I think in some ways we went from boys to men this summer.
And I think we showed every dude here that
we can mine just as hard as them,
and personally I think we mine better than them.
I've never seen any of you guys
cut your entire washplant into a bunch of pieces,
repair the entire thing and reassemble it, so...
We don't want any spilling.
[Ron] Careful, careful.
[Hunter] You know, I'm a little bit nervous
that we're not gonna make it to 1,000,
but, uh, I'm praying that we do.
Here we are.
We're all wishing we'd had more time.
This is where all those accumulated hours
that you're down break down or whatever,
really come into effect.
Hopefully we'll make our goal of 138 ounces this week.
It's been a lot of pressure on the young guns.
They've been working their assess off,
and I'm proud of 'em.
I see that Hunter has paid attention
and he knows what he's doing.
With Hunter, he's stepped up
and taken hold of the reins with the younger guys,
and he's done a good job.
When I see this kind of gold,
it's kinda exciting.
For the yardage that they ran, it's gonna be a good clean-up.
[Jim] I've gotten excited,
thinking it's gonna be great.
It's nice to see gold, but...
is it as good as I think?
Hopefully.
[Jack] Looks pretty darn good to me.
I like seeing that gold come out like that.
I'm hoping and praying this is good.
[Jim] Let's see.
[Todd] Everything's frozen up, we're out of pay dirt.
This is our last weigh-in of the season
and to be honest with you, I'm actually pretty nervous.
138 ounces to a very huge goal,
and we may not hit it.
[Randy] We had one tough year this year.
But I'm not sure we got it.
[Andy] You never know until Jack and Thurber pour it.
But this is what we've worked for all season.
So, the weather's pushing us out.
We got a pay dirt issue pushing us out.
We've scratched everything up and down
the left limit, right limit.
Nothing's thawing.
I just... I don't know where any of the pay is.
Hopefully we hit 1,000 ounces
and we end this night on a high note.
Start packing our bags.
No matter what happens here, Tater, Randy,
and everybody, man, thank you for coming up.
I think we could change our families' lives here.
[Hunter] If we hit 1,000...
it's gonna feel really good.
And one thing I think we all agree is
we really earned it.
This is probably the toughest mining season I've ever had.
-Hang on, hang on! -Whoa!
[Hunter] But also at the same time,
this is the most I've ever learned
about mining and about myself.
Before this season, I didn't really look at mining
as, like, a serious career, I guess you would say.
[Sparky] Going pretty smooth right now.
[Hunter] But after what we were able to accomplish,
think that maybe it is our future.
I think that we've proven ourself.
Been waiting a long time for this moment right here.
You know, I think that this mining season changed me.
I think for the better.
I think I learned how to work even harder.
It's rolling.
I think I learned how to see a vision
and execute on it no matter what
kind of adversity that I'm facing.
Come here, give me a hug.
Get some gold, Grandpa.
It's something to be proud of.
You know what, dude?
I love you, man. I'm in your corner.
I know that you'll be successful
in whatever you do, okay?
Let's hope we hit it this time.
You know?
And come out of here on a big win.
Hopefully this is it right here.
I wanna go home a little heavier this time.
[door opens]
[Sparky] Hopefully we're knocking at the door of 1,000.
-[Jim] All right. -[Sparky] That's looking good.
What are we, 138?
138 to get to our goal.
[Todd] That's actually really big.
We've never got that much gold in one week
this whole season.
Who goes first?
-Let's do Holy Roller. -[Jack] Yeah.
[Todd] You go ahead, Dad.
[Jack] Yeah, there we go.
-Look at that. -[Andy] Five.
10.
15, 20.
I know we did good.
[Andy] Thirty-five, 40, 50.
-[Todd] Sixty-five. -[Jim] Sixty-five.
-Seventy. -Seventy.
Seventy-five.
Seventy-eight.
[Randy] That's a big clean-up.
[Tater] That's pretty good, huh?
We got 78 ounces from the Holy Roller,
and we couldn't have done that without Hunter and the boys
running at night.
How many more? We only need 60 ounces.
Black Pearl was down at the beginning of the week.
But they ran really, really hard
when they were up and going.
So did they get the 60 ounces that we need?
I don't know. We're gonna find out.
[Hunter] We're about to have our last weigh-in here.
And, uh, I don't know.
We faced a lot of issues here at the end.
The trommel's not spinning.
There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders from everybody
and, you know, I'm a little bit nervous that
we're not gonna make it to 1,000.
But I'm praying that we do.
Okay.
Let's do it.
[Todd] Happy birthday, Dad.
-Beard, beard, beard! -Watch that beard.
-All right. -[Todd] You did it.
Dad, you got anything to say? Seventy-seven years?
[Jack] Well, you know, for the younger people,
if you have something that you wanna do,
whatever it is, do it.
You'll never know if you don't.
You're going through life one time.
So that's what I'd recommend to do.
That's what I did.
Follow your dreams, you know?
My dad's 77 years old and he's got health issues.
You know, at some point, he's not gonna be here.
It's really cool just to have him
and my kids here with me.
I just love 'em. Yeah.
-Happy birthday. -[Jack] All right.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
[all] Seventy-seven years. No guts, no glory.
[Todd] There you go, Dad.
Okay.
Let's do it.
[narrator] 60 ounces short of their 1,000-ounce goal,
all they have left
is the last clean-out from the Black Pearl.
I think we'll be close.
-Ten. -Ten, and going well.
Twenty.
[Todd] Come on, baby.
Thirty.
[Jim chuckles] Feels good.
-[Hunter] Forty. -Come on, baby.
-Sixty.
-Sixty, boys. -Yeah!
[all cheering]
[Todd] Keep going.
[Sparky] We got it!
We're over 1,000.
[Jim] Seventy-five.
[Todd] You beat us.
-Eighty-one. -[Sparky] All right!
-Eighty-two. -[chuckling]
-No way. -[Tater] That's a win.
[chuckling] No way.
[Todd] So, we hit our goal.
Our guys are happy. They take a little bit of gold home.
I'm really super-proud of these guys.
We really needed this win.
You know, we mined maybe 700 more ounces
than the Black Pearl did,
but we could not have hit 1,000 ounces without 'em.
All the hard work that they put in
and teamwork is invaluable.
Proud of everybody.
-We did it, man. -Proud of you, man.
[Jack] We made the 1,000-ounce goal.
So I'm just proud of each and every person.
It just proves that you just gotta keep going.
You know, you never quit.
[narrator] For their final weigh-in,
the Holy Roller fetches 78 ounces
while the Black Pearl earns an additional 82 ounces.
This combined sum of 16 ounces
brings the Hoffmans' season total
to 1,022 ounces,
surpassing their season goal.
That's over $1.7 million, guys.
Of scratching thawed dirt.
We came up here and we did a heck of a job.
And yes, it was strained.
We had hard times, we had some fights, arguments.
Whatever, I don't care.
Nobody will ever be able to take this away from us
and what we did here, okay?
You will look back on a lot of this summer
with fond memories,
even if it's just from the crazy accomplishments
that we all did.
'Cause I worked harder this summer
than I ever have in my whole life.
You know, Hunter, you and I
may not always see eye-to-eye on everything,
but I'mma tell you right now,
we wouldn't have done it without the Black Pearl.
Hunter won this weigh-in
and he really stepped up this season.
And our relationship,
even though it's had some ups and downs...
I told you where to put your sluice over here.
Everybody saw you tell me to put it like this.
...I'm hoping that we both have learned a lot from this season.
We are all clear, Hunter.
[Hunter] Everything looks good.
And hopefully we have some really cool things to build on.
[Hunter] Me and my dad got closer this summer.
But it's never easy working with family.
You've been stepping on my toes the whole project.
No, I haven't.
[Hunter] But also think he knows my capability.
All right, guys, you ready to get it on?
Let's get it on!
[Hunter] I love my dad and I respect him.
[Todd] I'm thankful that you came.
[Hunter] There was a lot of times
where we could have all turned back or stopped.
You know?
If I learned anything, it was just to...
You know, you just have to keep...
you have to keep going.
You know? I've learned that from you.
It's ingrained in my mind now.
And I feel like you set the tone
for the work here.
So...
Yeah. I just wanna say thank you.
I want any bad blood to end right here
with us getting 1,000 ounces.
I'll tell you right now, I love you to death.
[sniffs]
-Thank you. -Come here, man.
[Todd sighs]
[sniffs]
This is the time I feel like Jim Thurber right now, jeez.
[sniffs]
Dad, why don't you close us in prayer, man?
Sure.
[Todd sniffs]
Get over here.
[Jack] Heavenly Father, we thank you for
a, uh, successful adventure.
[Tater] Being able to come up here with Todd and the guys,
it changed my outlook on a lot of things in life.
And, uh, I'm hoping to get to do it again with these guys.
We are grateful for everything that you've done for us.
Help us to share it with those you want us to.
[Andy] We hit our goal. The guys came together.
Hopefully they see the fight is worth the reward.
I feel really good right now.
It's in your name that we pray forever.
Amen.
[all] Amen.
[Todd] 1,000 ounces was my goal
because that's just, like, beginner stage.
That gets you to the table again.
So my guys will take a little bit of gold home
and they're all happy.
But I'll tell you what, we got a big future here.
I got the team, I got the equipment,
I got the cuts, I got the licence.
I'm ready to go.
Wrap up the gold and let's get the hell out of here.
1,000 ounces is just the starting point.
Watch what happens next year.
We're set up to win.