[Todd] We got a lot riding on this cut.
I just want this to be a really successful year for my dad.
[narrator] When the Hoffman family patriarch announces his final season,
Todd sets his most ambitious goal ever.
3,033 oz.
You really think this is it, huh?
Seventy-seven, gonna be seventy-eight.
It's gonna be what it's gonna be.
This is Jack's last season and we're trying to break our record.
[narrator] But as the water level rises in the Lost Cut,
it becomes clear why generations of gold miners have failed here.
It's like 5 foot of slop right there.
[narrator] Now it all comes down to an engineering longshot
for the Hoffman crew to have any hope
of reaching the pay dirt.
Oh!
We go from kicking ass
to getting our ass kicked real quick.
Hey, you got a sec, Dad?
[Jack] Yeah, sure.
So, down deep,
you really think this is it, huh? Or no?
You know, Todd, 77 going to be 78.
It's just getting too much, isn't it?
Yeah. I don't need to do it anymore.
I just know that any mining season we've ever had
-has been with you. -Sure.
And I find it weird to even think about mining
without you being here with us.
-So... -Time runs on.
Time just keeps going,
and it's gonna be what it's gonna be.
Well, we'll figure out some way
to make this your best season ever, Dad.
We're going to try to get as much gold as we can,
try to get to 3,000.
That's a big goal.
But we'll get you as much gold as we can in the cleanup room.
You guys keep working it through for us.
-Okay? -Yeah. We're gonna do it.
-All right. -All right.
See you later. Love you.
Love you, too.
[Hunter] The Black Pearl is back.
[laughs]
[Todd] Last week, we found out that the Lost Cut
is filling up with mud,
so we're going to build a road
so that all of our machines can access all the pay.
-Let's do it. -Okay.
[Todd] So we're firing up the Black Pearl
for the first time this season
to produce some gravel for the road.
[Hunter] All right, let's give her a go.
Ugh.
[Todd] Unfortunately, we can't run both plants.
The Holy Roller has holes in the splitter box
that we'll lose gold through and that needs to be fixed
before we run any more pay through the Holy Roller.
We did have a very good cleanup last week.
[Jack] 55.4.
I like it.
I'm happy with it, man.
A few nuggets in there.
I think it's a good start.
[Todd] So we've got a very big goal this season.
This week, we start running the Lost Cut,
and we're hoping for even better gold.
It feels really good to see the Black Pearl running again, honestly.
Me and Sparky spent a long time
putting this thing together, and it is our baby.
It's bigger than the Holy Roller.
The Black Pearl can run more yardage.
It's built for this material,
so it'll wash a little bit better.
[Framer] Everything looks good.
So far.
[Todd] You know what? I want to thank everybody.
We've got a pile of rock there.
Andy's gonna start on this road.
Does it look like we got enough rock there
to get going on that road, Andy?
Yeah, I think we can get started this morning.
At least building the road.
I don't know if we have enough rock yet,
but it should be able to hopefully
get the bulk of it done.
Okay. Tater's stripping.
We've got some sun,
so it's gonna get slimy out there.
As long as the temperatures and the melt
don't affect that rhythm,
it should go pretty good today.
All right. Anything you guys want to talk about?
[Andy] It's gonna be all-hands-on-deck today.
We're gonna have the plants running.
We're building the road.
We're stripping.
So everybody's gonna be very busy.
[Todd] Okay, let's go.
Everybody is a little, I would say,
a little stressed out this morning
just because we've got so many different things going on at once.
But I just told everybody, "Hey, the first day of the week.
So we'll get her going
and get things running smooth and it's all good."
Hey, Hudson, do you copy, Hudson?
Yes.
And then go back down here,
and then I'll tell you where to dump it.
Roger.
[narrator] Andy's plan is to scoop up sections
of muddy pay dirt...
Dump right there.
...just as Hudson drops gravel in its place.
Then Andy loads Hudson's truck with more muddy pay for the Black Pearl
to produce the next load of gravel.
It's a road-building rinse and repeat,
as long as the wash plant can keep up.
[Andy] The bottom's frozen.
So once I get rid of all this slime
and get the gravel on it,
it'll stay hard for the rest of the season,
um, will keep the machines out of the muck.
Right now, I'm getting loaded with pay dirt
from the Lost Cut.
So this is pretty exciting.
If this cut isn't any good,
then our season's probably over.
We're basically all-in on this one.
We have no other option right now,
so let's just hope it pans out.
[Todd] Let's start up at the heart of the matter.
Something's going on.
[Framer] All right. Well, I mean,
it's completely through the floor here.
-Okay. -See that's completely gone?
And then worse, all these side walls
are getting thin and it's gone through.
And, look, this is full of material now.
You can feel it in there, this whole thing.
[Todd] I need suggestions.
Because the material that we ran through the plant is so abrasive,
it's wore holes in the splitter box
and that's why we have leaks.
This is a big problem because that even just a small hole,
that fine gold's going to work its way outside the box
and that, you know what,
is going to lose us a lot of money.
So I brought Sparky, Framer and Hunter up
to assess the damage and figure out a solution.
It's completely destroyed.
We need to redo the whole floor.
I don't think we need to do that.
I think we just need to patch up the holes.
The hole splitter box is coming out of here.
So Sparky thinks it's good enough to fix the splitter box
by just welding new metal on the holes in the floor.
But I disagree.
The entire floor of the splitter box
is completely eaten away.
If we want this problem to go away for good,
we're gonna have to replace the whole floor.
This is the thing I'm talking about.
Every time here,
you guys want to shortcut it,
and you want to just not fix it right,
and then it's screwed, like that.
I'm done with that.
-I want it fixed right. -I get it. I get it.
We have the time. We're gonna do it.
I don't think we need to remove the bottom of this fricking thing.
Get it done right.
Check this out, Framer.
Me and this guy, we built that splitter over there
completely by ourselves, okay?
And this is only your second season.
Framer. I love him, but
he thinks that he knows everything.
And this guy has only been here for two seasons.
This is my fourth season.
[narrator] In order to repair all the holes in the splitter box,
Sparky is suggesting to keep the existing floor with the holes
and weld a layer of AR plating on top of it.
[Sparky] I think that will not only, one,
alleviate your problems of wear,
but, two, not take extensive time on this
because we've got to run.
This is some really good paydirt,
and we only have so much time here.
Now, if you put another plate right on top, weld it up,
let's do a little abrasive welding
and then it'll seal it all up in the middle,
the little flat bar,
and I think it'll extend our time.
I'm telling you, the--
We have to run the rest of the season.
-[Sparky] Oh, 100% -We're only doing this one time.
I'm not gonna do it again.
We're gonna take it off. We're gonna do it right.
And, that way, we don't have to worry about it breaking down.
[Framer] My whole goal this year
is to get stuff done right the first time,
no matter how long it takes.
That splitter box has to be perfect.
I know Sparky thinks that it doesn't matter, but it does.
He's 22 years old.
He doesn't know everything he thinks he does.
If this isn't done properly,
it's gonna wear through somewhere again,
and then we're gonna have to shut down.
[Hunter] The thing is is I think that there's a happy medium
of fixing it right, but also more efficiently.
We're not in agreement on pulling the whole damn thing out.
We'll take this out.
We'll set it here, but we'll weld it in place,
instead of cutting the whole bottom off.
All right, if that's what you want to do,
that's on you.
Um, we'll get it done
and we'll get it back in here for you.
[sighs] Uh, Sparky had one idea.
Framer had another.
Framer wants to take too much time to do it right.
We need to do it right in half the time.
We can do it. We have the right team.
These guys can do a lot more than they think
and a lot faster than they think.
So we're going to get it done in a couple of days here.
Let's start unhooking it.
Get the excavator and we'll fly it out of here.
Okay, let's do this.
You got me?
[Framer on comms] Yeah, I got it. Go ahead.
Swing your boom out right here in front of us
in the center here...
[Hunter] The guys are getting the floor part
all hooked up to the splitter here.
Okay, go ahead and, uh, bring it out and center
and I'll line you up in the middle.
[Hunter] And then we've got to just try to lift it out gently...
so we don't move the sluice boxes,
we don't damage anything.
All right, let's fly this thing.
There you go. Come on up.
[exhales] Man, if this thing falls, it's a huge problem.
This is the lifeline of how gold's actually gonna get distributed,
and if it fricks up,
that's on us.
[Framer] Careful.
[Framer] Careful, careful.
The most important thing when you're operating,
you're flying something,
is just go really slow
because you don't want to be the one to hurt anybody.
If we don't move this thing right and we drop it,
then the damage is gonna be way worse than the holes,
and we're gonna be out of commission.
[Framer] Center that up 'cause you're gonna weld right there.
Don't get underneath there, Spark,
if you can help it.
He's not.
He was out in front of it.
I don't want to kill my best friend.
[Framer] There you go.
-All right, well... All right. -All right, buddy.
[Sparky] Thanks, man.
[narrator] As the crew begins repairs on the splitter box,
Andy and Cub complete laying gravel for the first segment
of the new road through the Lost Cut.
[Andy on comms] Come on a little to your left.
Keep coming. A little to your right now.
To your right. Yup.
And keep goin'. Drop it right there.
[Andy] A quarter of the road is done.
Now we got to move to the next step.
We're going to lay the culvert down
to create a drainage system
to divert the water away from the cut.
Once this is done,
we're going to continue laying gravel to finish the road.
10-4. Coming right up.
[Sparky] We're installing what's called a culvert.
The culvert's gonna distribute this water
right underneath this path.
And so all that water is gonna drain
right into this slurry right here.
And this is where the pump's gonna pump it out
into the circuit right here.
[narrator] In order to lay the culvert,
Andy must first lay two sections of pipe
on a bed of gravel.
The pipes are positioned to drain water away from the paydirt
into a ditch that runs to the front of the Lost Cut.
[narrator] Then the team joins the two sections of pipe together
by wrapping filter fabric around the seam.
[narrator] Finally Andy buries the culvert in the roadway
by covering it with several feet of gravel.
Finishing this culvert is another crucial step
in saving this cut.
Hopefully, this was all worth it
and the Lost Cut pays out in the end.
We're gonna knock this out over here,
so let's get a couple grinders over here.
Let's help this guy out.
Just prep it.
Before we can patch the holes, we're using grinders to smooth out the surfaces.
This will make it way easier to weld new metal on top of the holes.
[Sparky] Run it a little higher up here, man,
and then we'll preheat it
and we'll start tacking it in and just work our way
to this other end of the splitter.
This is a little bit of a process,
but it's helpful to have you and Chambo to help me out.
So, you guys are catching on like a--
faster than a forest fire, brother.
You guys are doing pretty good.
-I like it. -Well, that's good.
[Sparky] This is a big task, and we needed extra guys.
I happened to choose Chambo,
and we got this young kid named Caleb.
They're hard grinders, really good kids,
and they're catching on to what I'm putting down.
This is gonna be more weared-out than this right here.
So let's see what we got here.
Oh, that's pretty damn close, dude. You got it.
You got it. You got it.
Yeah, you guys are killing it.
Now, let's work on this spot.
[Chambo] I've never really done anything like that before.
He hands me the gun,
throws me on there, and tells me to start cutting, so.
Keep moving.
Dude, what are you guys-- We don't have time.
There's definitely a little bit of pressure, you know.
I mean, if I cut something the wrong way or mess something up,
that could create a problem for us.
[Sparky yelling] What the [bleep] are you doing?
I know you're new, but [bleep].
Plugs back in in front of me,
this bitch [bleep] turns on on my leg.
[bleep] think! It's not safe.
That's not cool.
This thing can easily cut into my leg
and hit a major artery.
If I didn't have this guard on,
then this thing would get me right here.
I had unplugged the grinder while Sparky was grinding,
and he had it set back on his leg
and I plugged it back in,
which could be pretty dangerous.
Look, man, you actually really [bleep] pissed me off.
You really did.
That really could have been bad.
You got to think before you do. That's the number one thing.
I didn't know that was the cord.
It's all good.
Just tap my shoulder next time and we'll be good.
-All right. -It's all good.
We all make mistakes, and we're not perfect.
Okay? I love you, bro.
I truly do with all my heart.
[Chambo] The lesson I learned here was
always be paying attention to what you're doing
and make sure you check before you do something like that.
Let's get to it, man.
Keep killing it, okay?
Yes!
It looks really good.
Love it. I love it.
[Andy] Once this road is built,
we'll be able to access a lot more of this cut.
But there's still plenty more to do.
Tater is working on stripping the next section of the Lost Cut,
getting the pay ready to haul once this road is built.
We can't fall behind if we're going to get 3,033 oz.
[Tater] I've never done this sort of stripping,
and I have a couple hang-ups
on what I'm doing that's really slowing it down.
I'm feeling very apprehensive on it.
Stripping is a specific process.
What we're doing is getting rid of the top layer of the dirt
where there's no gold, so we can get at the gold
that's underneath in the pay layer.
Right now, I'm ripping on the Lost Cut.
The season relies on this cut.
If I can't get this stripped, we can't meet our gold.
There's a lot of weight on my shoulders.
I'm trying to get it right.
[indistinct radio chatter]
I don't want to let any one of the guys down
because everybody's working hard
trying to make this happen.
I don't want to be the weak link.
And, right now, I feel like I am.
So I'm gonna try and step up the game
and get this done as fast as I can.
I'm gonna be in big trouble.
Uh, this is our only ripper.
The cut's open, and we can't do anything with it.
Without a ripper, there's no more stripping,
and that'd be the end of the season.
[Andy speaking over comms]
[Tater] The ripper on my dozer broke,
which means I had to stop stripping the cut.
If I can't get this fixed quickly,
uh, there's no way we're gonna get this cut done,
and we'll never make the goal.
[narrator] The ripper is a long 2-ton bulldozer attachment
that is used to loosen impacted and frozen ground.
It's fitted with a replaceable tungsten steel alloy tip
called a tooth.
Well, guys, I don't know what I did, but...
I broke it.
I'm sorry.
-I mean... -We gotta rip.
So I'm gonna get on the phone.
I'm gonna call around.
I'm gonna see if we can find one out here.
But you break that one, and we are done stripping.
[Todd] If we can't strip new ground,
what's the point of fixing the Holy Roller
and what's the point of building that road?
All this hard work right now would be wasted.
Hopefully, if they can fix this
and keep her together,
you know, every day is another 20, 30, 40 oz,
and we need that gold.
I hate that our season is hanging
on some old dozer from the '80s.
But you know what?
That's just where we're at.
[Hunter] When Andy started working on the road for the Lost Cut,
luckily, we had a lot of gravel built up
from the Holy Roller.
Since the Holy Roller is down,
we've been running the Black Pearl
to just keep making gravel.
But at this point,
if we don't have both these plants running constantly,
we're not gonna have enough rock to build these roads.
The Black Pearl alone can't catch us back up.
Andy, I'm, uh-- I'm just waiting here for you.
Is that what you want?
[Andy on comms] Yeah. We're waiting on more gravel.
Copy.
Sparky, you copy?
[Sparky on comms] Yeah. Go ahead.
We've run out of gravel for the road.
What's the ETA for the Holy Roller up and running?
At least another day.
We're working as quickly as we can.
Right now, we can't do any more work on the road.
We just don't have any more gravel to finish.
You know, the Black Pearl can't keep up,
so we really need that Holy Roller up and runnin'.
If both plants are running,
we can get this thing finished up.
Then we'll finally be able to get our machines through the cut efficiently
and probably be able to triple the amount of pay
that we can get to the plant.
Hey, man, how's it going?
Not great.
Broke the dozer again.
You did?
Broke the ripper.
It's just one thing after another.
That's what it is.
That's all it is.
Mining is a bunch of breakdowns.
In the past, I've had this exact same thing.
I would just encourage you, don't lose hope, you know.
-You know, it-- -You know how hard it is sometimes.
-Oh, God, yeah. -It's just...
-get a little overwhelmed. -I know.
I understand that.
Well, listen, you've been here a long time.
You're part of the puzzle.
I appreciate you, and I appreciate what you do.
And, without you, we wouldn't be doing it.
Thank you, Jack. I appreciate that.
Well, just keep it going, man.
It's good to be on this team with you.
We appreciate you, buddy.
I'm just here just to help you guys.
You do more than that.
-Well-- -You're an inspiration...
-Well... -...to the rest of us.
It's been a real pleasure.
-Well, thank you. -Keep her up.
Thanks, Jack.
[Framer] I got to figure out what I'm gonna do there.
Oh, that's perfect, dude.
-Yeah? -Yeah, we just slap that piece right in there.
You're already ready, dude.
I can start welding this side.
We're gonna seal this splitter box, make 'er waterproof,
'cause there's leaks everywhere.
The more and more I keep digging into this box,
the more and more leaks we're finding.
I'm gonna weld all the way around it.
We're going to keep going from one section to the next section
till everything looks good.
You know, there's a lot of wear holes in that box.
There's nuggets that are possibly stuck in there.
Yeah, let's crack it open, see what's in there, huh?.
[Sparky] All right.
So in this splinter,
right in the back where this little hole is,
it's like inviting little nuggets to go in there and party.
So we're gonna rip that thing open
and see what we got in there.
Wait. You guys are getting paid?
Try hitting that down right there.
That and-- yeah, that-- Yeah.
See, if you can fix that thing, and--
Yeah. There you go.
There you go. There you go.
There you go.
Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!
What the frick?
Yeah, you can see some fine gold in here.
Who knows how much is in here?
This thing is really packed.
-Packed all the way to the top, isn't it? -Dude.
[Sparky] Packed, dude.
So we've got Thurber on the way.
He's gonna take it back to the gold room.
We're gonna see how much gold that we actually kept in that box.
Steamy hot just for you.
Where did all that come?
This pocket right here.
And we're eliminating that problem, right?
Yeah. That little, tiny hole, brother,
one inch, just slurped everything in there.
-Wow. -Yeah.
Well, I'll go up and pan it and see what we got.
Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah.
-Thank you, Thurber. -[Hunter] Thanks, Thurber.
I believe that fine gold,
everything that were captured in the, uh, sluice box,
same thing's gonna be in here.
I'm gonna pan it real quick.
Hopefully, it was just silt that went in there.
But...
Well, you can see gold...
right there, quite a bit of it.
I'm curious now to how much there is.
All right, Jimbo, what do we got?
Well, it's good news
that that hole is going to be gone
because...
[Sparky laughing] What?
-See, I'm telling you, I only did about a quarter... -No way!
...of what you gave me.
-But I just wanted to show you that. That's... -Weird. No way.
I mean, it's right there.
-Wow! -It's at the bottom, it's gonna go in there.
Dude, I knew it. I just fricking knew it.
Like, how much gold is like in there, dude?
-Like, in that pocket? -Well, this here's three quarters of an ounce.
I did a quarter of what was in the bucket.
-So is it 2 oz? -Oh, geez.
That's 4,000 bucks in that little, tiny hole.
-So... -Luckily we're eliminating it.
[Thurber] Yeah.
This gold that we found in the splitter box
shows the gold that we've been losing,
but it's gonna be added to the gold count
for the end of the season.
It's always a good time to see gold,
but not where they found it.
Fortunately, the improvements are going to be intense.
Our next weigh is gonna be...
I'm not gonna guarantee it, but I bet it's good.
How soon before we're up and running?
We'll be sluicin' soon.
But we're not gonna let none of that get caught in the hole.
-Yeah, all right. -So we're repairing that.
-Good job. Yeah. -Thank you, my brother.
[Sparky] Be careful, Chambo.
You don't want your hand caught under this.
Just keep your hand on the top.
This box is gonna last forever.
There's a massive amount of AR plating inside of this thing.
It's now bulletproof,
the world's first bulletproof splitter on the planet.
So, and then we got it setting down,
we need to clamp it down.
I get the silicon tight on it.
[Todd] The splitter box,
we had to basically take that,
completely rebuild it with bulletproof AR 500
in all the bottoms and the sides.
The guys attacked that really good.
Everybody was just all-hands-on-deck.
And I think we saved a lot of time.
And you know what? Time is money on this type of situation.
So now we're gonna go ahead and do the fire-up,
and then get running again.
Okay, guys, fire it up.
Let's get going.
Let's run some dirt.
All right, Caleb. Go ahead and crank it up to 1,370.
Copy that.
[Andy] I'm really hoping this fire-up goes well.
If it does, we'll be able to have both plants
producing gravel and be back on track
to finishing up this road to the Lost Cut.
[Jim] It looks good.
[Tater] It looks like the splitter design right here are working.
I can't tell down there.
But, I mean, it's not leaking anywhere,
so it feels really good to be up and running again.
Everything we throw in there is really good.
How late you want to run?
Midnight?
Okay.
I'm not shutting down no more.
[Todd] Now that everything's tightened up,
we can get a really good accurate count
on how much gold per 100 yards is in that cut.
On this next weigh-in,
we'll really know just how good this Lost Cut is.
[narrator] With the splitter box repaired
and the Holy Roller up and running,
Tater, Ron and Framer turn their attention to fixing the ripper.
[Tater] I might need a punch, too.
With the ripper shank being broken,
it's really frustrating 'cause any hours we lose ripping
is time away from opened-up ground that we really need.
That looks like a chisel.
Hi.
Replacing the ripper shank is a little bit awkward.
The first step is you pull the pin on the top of the ripper.
Here you go.
You know what? I'll just let it fall out.
Maybe I'll back over it for now.
And then we'll just go from there.
[Tater] And then you lift the ripper up.
You let the old one just kind of fall.
[Ron on comms]
[Tater] Now that we have the old shank removed,
we have to secure the new shank in position.
Thankfully, Todd was able to find a new piece in town,
but, uh, it wasn't cheap.
Let's make sure we put it in the right direction.
[Ron speaking indistinctly]
[Tater] Careful. There you go.
You're out.
Okay. There you go.
Good. Good.
Ho!
Straight in, Micah.
Okay, hold it. Pick up.
Okay. Do you feel good?
[Framer speaking]
Okay.
No. Up a hair.
Okay.
Okay, do your thing.
[Tater] As far as lining up the ripper shank,
it can be difficult because the ripper is as tall
as the ripper's body will lift.
Okay, let 'er down, Rob.
So lining it up in there can be kind of a pain in the butt
'cause you kind of got to lean it back
a little bit when you do it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa. Whoa.
Back up.
-It's light. Oh, yeah. -You all right?
-Yeah? -Oh, yeah.
All right.
[Tater] Nice work, fellas.
Don't break this one.
[Tater] We got it fixed.
We're gonna get it back in the cut and get back to work.
Hopefully, we haven't lost too much time.
I'm gonna get one more load of rock right here.
Once I get this pretty clean, I think we should be good.
Yeah, it looks pretty good.
[Andy] We got our road done.
We got it right through the middle of the cut.
We sealed it.
The guys can just drive right through on gravel.
It keeps the machines in good shape.
It makes it a lot easier to get into the cut.
So it just makes life better.
[narrator] With the road now complete,
the crew can finally access more pay dirt
from the Lost Cut
and truck it over to the Holy Roller
and Black Pearl to be washed.
[Hunter] Right now, we've got both plants up and running again.
The Black Pearl is looking good.
The Holy Roller is running nice.
So we're gonna kind of just put our foot on the gas
and try to run as many yards as we can
and start putting some real numbers together.
This is Jack's last season
and we're trying to break our record.
We're gonna need to run as much as we can.
And as of right now, everything's looking good.
So we're running the dirt through the Lost Cut.
We're just really hoping that this dirt is actually worth it.
The fixes that we just made on the Holy Roller
should make everything a little bit more efficient.
Me and the guys, we really want to get a big payday for Jack.
Man, Jack's retirement is like another spark in me, Dude.
Jack's been there and he's like the mentor for everybody,
and he's like-- he's everybody's grandpa.
He's not just their grandpa, he's my grandpa.
I love that guy.
So it's like motivation's changed.
Everyone's integrity's changed.
Everybody's kind of getting their [bleep] together
and their head out their [bleep]
and saying, "Hey, man, we gotta do this.
We gotta do this for Jack."
[Todd] What we want is a win here.
We've got a lot riding on this first cleanup.
If we have a bad weigh-in right off the bat,
then that's gonna show
that that cut really doesn't have the gold we think it has,
and, uh...
I don't know.
It might set the stage for a very, very bad season.
I just want this to be a really successful...
year for my dad.
Yeah, just like that, Caleb.
My name is Caleb.
I'm here doing whatever work needs to get done.
You can hit it harder than-- Ow.
[Caleb] Todd just mentioned, do I want to go run a rock truck?
So, I kind of agreed to it, but I wasn't sure
he was gonna actually invite me up here.
[Framer] He's hitting fingers.
[Caleb] Finally, I got the text.
"Hey, you're going up to Alaska to go help on a gold mine."
So, the last thing I know,
I'm heading on a plane and arrive here.
See the level of the ground.
[Caleb] Yeah.
What we're going to do is try to keep it right about there.
He has a work ethic that I've already been watching for a couple of years.
We're very lucky to get him.
Just roll the end this way.
It's a good learning experience, I think...
Like that?
[Dakota] You might just let it flop towards you,
-but you can do that to. -I didn't want it to be too easy.
...and definitely a time to grow up.
That was pretty easy, huh?
Efficiency at its finest.
All right!
Hurry up, Thurber!
He does better when he's mad.
[narrator] With the Holy Roller splitter box finally fixed,
Todd and his crew pull the mats,
hoping to finally see if the Lost Cut
has as much gold as they've been hoping for.
It's our first mat-pull out of the Lost Cut.
Todd gave us two days to get this plant
up and running and everything going.
So we ended up getting it done
and now we're pulling mats and it's a good day.
There's quite a bit of gold in there.
[Dakota] That is awesome.
Not only is there gold in it, it's super-fine gold,
which shows your plant's working good.
I mean, it's just a solid line.
Not just a line of gold, but stacked.
It's super-fine.
That's just what's on top.
So there will be a lot more down in there.
Is a box every perfect? No. But it's frickin' working.
So it looks really good. Really good.
I don't want to sound like my dad here, but this one looks good.
[Jack] Yeah, if it keeps going like this, we're in good shape.
Oh.
-How's it looking? -I think it looks good.
[Hunter] When we shut the plant down last night,
the box looked really good.
But I try to not make any predictions
or get too excited.
Sometimes it looks really good and it's not.
But I'm gonna help Jim and Jack out
getting the gold all cleaned up there.
[Jim] Hey!
-All right, turn the water back on. -What?
Turn the water back on.
All right. Go, go, go! Keep goin'.
Get the big ones back here.
[Hunter] You want it on?
I mean, you can already tell that this is gonna be a good cleanup.
The box looked really good.
There's definitely gold in it.
And I think that this is kind of what we've been looking for.
As long as we can keep this up,
we're gonna start really stacking up the numbers.
I'm gonna say 69.
Ooh, that's... that's got a good number sound to it.
[Hunter] I love being in the gold room.
That's kind of where I started out when I was younger,
before I was able to really run heavy equipment legally.
And so, with it being Jack's last season,
you know, someone's gonna have to do the cleanups with Jim.
if he's not there.
Still going?
Yeah, we're still right there.
-It looks good. -Yeah, it does.
What do you think it's gonna be?
I don't want to say a number.
But I'll tell you, if this is 10% and that's 90,
it's gonna be a fantastic cleanup.
-So. -Yeah.
[Hunter] I mean, we won't know till it's weighed up.
But so far, the Lost Cut is looking really good.
[Jack] All right, man. See you later.
[Hunter] Later.
Dude, cool cleanup.
I know this is gonna be big.
The gold that we saw in the box was amazing.
Dude, a lot of things happen this week.
Dude, the dozer went down,
we had to work on the splitter box.
We all came together.
Yeah, we got armor plate, AR 500 plate in the box.
Like, basically, we've made this splitter into an armored tank.
So you're telling me we got a bullet proof splitter box?
Hey, man, if we're gonna go through all this pain,
we might as well get a reward for it.
You and I both know we would have lost a lot of gold
if that thing kept leaking.
So good job.
I think we're gonna have a big cleanup here, guys.
I think so, too.
What do you think, Andy?
I don't know. The box...
I've never seen the box on the Holy Roller look that good before.
So I see Jack's got the big jar,
so that's a good sign.
So I guess we'll see.
Right here, guys,
we're about to see what the Lost Cut is made of,
what the possibilities are at this mine.
So, okay, shake it out.
Okay, guys, this is what it's all about.
[narrator] This first weigh-in of Lost Cut pay for the season
will let the team know if the cut is good enough
to reach their goal of 3,033 oz.
-[Jim] Wow. -[Jack chuckling]
[Todd] Dude, is it that heavy?
It is that heavy!
-[Jack] Oh, my. -Oh, my gosh.
[Jim] Oh, my gosh.
[Jack] 20, 50, 60, 70.
Holy crap.
[Jack] 80, 90...
100...
-[Todd] Yeah, baby. -112...
-120... -Are you kidding me?
124, 128,
133...
137...
-[Jim] 0.3! -0.3.
-Whoo! -Yes, sir.
-That's awesome. -Wow.
-Hey! -[Todd] That's pretty good.
This is our biggest cleanup we've ever had.
-[Andy] Wow. -That's 200 and maybe $25,000 we did.
I feel like we're lottery winners right now.
Dude, it's our turn.
We put a lot of years into this.
[narrator] As of now, the mine has reached 192.7 oz of gold,
worth a little over $366,000.
They need 2,840 more ounces,
worth close to $5.4 million,
if they want to hit their goal of 3,033 oz.
[Todd] That's a pile of gold right there, guys.
Wow.
If this Lost Cut holds,
we're going to be heading to that 3,033.
That's pretty amazing.
Hey, this year, we're not playing checkers.
We're playing chess.
-Amen. -[Andy] Finally.
That's what I want to hear, boys.
Yeah!
-About time! -Whoo!