[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator] For the few willing to risk it all to mine
in the extremes of Alaska...
Oh, for [bleep] sakes.
[narrator] There's only one thing worse
than not striking gold.
[groans]
I don't know what I'm gonna do yet.
[narrator] It's striking gold.
[man] Nice. It's going up a little bit. Wow.
[narrator] And leaving it in the ground.
[Todd] What's going on?
[narrator] But as government inspectors
descend on Mammoth Valley...
[woman] You cannot open anymore of that cut.
[Todd] I have millions of dollars
invested in this project.
[narrator] Mine boss Todd Hoffman
has no choice but to break a promise.
We may not get as much gold
to take and split with everybody.
[Tater speaking]
It's a hard pill to swallow.
[narrator] And when the team pushes back...
[Andy] Chambo, come here.
We're gonna talk.
Just get in the car.
[narrator] The Hoffmans must restore faith...
I feel bad for my dad, my grandpa, you.
We gotta fight our way through it.
Quitters never win and winners never quit.
[narrator] Or lose the only crew
that can help them salvage the millions they staked.
[Sparky] Ugh, it's really frustrating.
Why go through the pain
if you don't get a reward for it?
[Andy] Todd and I had a big responsibility to these guys,
but this could turn into a complete [bleep] show.
[dramatic music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Dakota] All right, Caleb. Go ahead
and, uh, turn the pump one on idle.
Let it sit and warm up for a minute.
[machine whirring]
[man] Everybody clear.
Clear the Holy Roller.
[suspenseful music playing]
[machine whirring]
Let it, uh, warm up for a minute, Caleb.
And then, we'll come up to a regular speed.
[Hunter] Everybody clear. I'm firing the Black Pearl.
[machine engine start]
[engine roaring]
[Hunter] I'm just warming up the engine on the Black Pearl
and then we're gonna get this baby spinning, too.
[engine roaring loudly]
[machine whirring]
[Hunter] Right now, we have both plants
up and running again.
And so I'm hoping that
I'll be able to start to build momentum
and try to get towards 2,000.
[wind howling]
[Todd] What's going on?
The inspectors are back on the mine.
Looks like it's judgment day.
You know, inspections are routine,
but if you find something in non-compliance,
which usually they always do,
you can get shut down real quick.
You know, the backside of that overburden,
we had a lot of rain
and they're not gonna like that.
[narrator] Last week...
How are we guys doing?
[narrator] State environmental inspectors
made two back-to-back visits
to the Mammoth Valley mine site.
[Sterling speaking]
[narrator] After a landslide in the lost cut,
came uncomfortably close to a protected watershed.
If that goes in the creek, then we're screwed.
If that mud goes in the creek, it's over.
[narrator] The Hoffman crew braces for the worst.
[Todd] I'm very, very nervous
and we've been having such a good season.
I just hope this doesn't throw
a wrench in our plans.
But, this spectacular season
that I was hoping to have for my father.
Because of this kind of stuff, it's probably gonna slip away.
So where do we stand?
[woman] All right. Well, your overburdened pile
came dangerously close to contaminating the creek.
I hate to break it to you,
but you cannot open any more of that cut.
[Todd] I have millions of dollars
invested in this project.
-[woman] I am not asking. -[Todd] But the--
[woman] Any dirt you wanna run through your plants
must come from pre-disturbed ground.
You cannot open up any more virgin ground
or create any more overburden this year.
[Todd sighs] Okay.
Okay. I understand.
[woman] We found several other infractions
on your mine.
In order to be in compliance
with Alaska State Code,
you need to fix these infractions
or we will be forced to shut down
your mining operation entirely.
[Todd sighs]
I hear you.
And I know you have a job to do,
but I'm gonna tell you right now.
It's gonna... It affects us, all right?
I'll attack this the best I can, okay?
[woman] We understand. Appreciate it.
[Todd] Thank you.
We're not shut down,
but there's a laundry list of things
they want us to fix.
The big thing is that
I cannot open any new ground.
That is like a...
It feels like a knockout punch.
I don't know what I'm gonna do yet.
I know what I'm probably not gonna do, and I...
That's probably hit 3,000 ounces.
But you know what?
You can just look out here as far as eye can see.
You see any other mines out here?
No.
Maybe, uh, we're figuring out why.
[sighs]
[Todd] Hey.
-Hey, Todd. -Yeah?
We need to chat a little bit.
This inspection, the laundry list of things
that I gotta do, I'm going over it in my head
and it's like...
It's not pretty. [sighs]
So are we shut down right now?
Well, they didn't say that we're shut down,
but we can't run both plants
because of all the stuff we have to do.
I basically have to take all my resources
and put them towards all these different changes
that they want to see.
-Todd-- -Here's the... Here's the...
Here's the bad part.
We can't do the other half of our cut.
They're not letting us open any new ground.
We can't disturb any tundra. We can't strip anything.
So you're telling me the permits that we have
are null and void? We can't mine--
We cannot extend that cut.
It's about half the size that we wanted.
[Jack] Yeah.
[Todd] So the lost cut was gonna provide
3,033 ounces,
and now it's gonna be way less than half that.
We can't open up that ground
and we can't put any more overburden up on the side
or anywhere else.
We can only run pre-disturbed areas
and then finish the cut that we've already opened up.
So it's kind of a big blow.
Not just me, I'm worried about,
you know, being able to pay all these guys.
[Jack] Yeah.
Well, we got a lot of responsibilities.
We have guys that have...
bought into our dream.
Yeah.
I wanted this to be Jack's farewell.
-We kicked some ass. -[Todd] Mmm-hmm.
[Jack] I know you guys think it's,
you know, it's a big deal for me to go out on a...
What you call a win.
A win to me is to be able to give these guys gold.
That's a win.
Are we gonna do it?
Maybe.
Does it look like it right now?
No, it doesn't.
But, you have these guys to take care of.
That's your responsibility.
You know, we gotta fight our way through it.
Let the chips fall where they will.
It's not over.
Quitters never win and winners never quit.
[Todd] I'm not saying that 3,033 ounce,
that goal is out of reach,
but it doesn't look good.
The question is, will the team
even be able to dig us out of the hole?
So they might as well know what's going on.
[Andy clears throat]
All right.
Hey, guys, everybody meet over here by, uh,
by the little dome.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Jack coughs] -[Jim speaking]
[Hunter] So the inspector's just pulled out of the mine
and my dad's calling everybody on the radio up top.
So that's, you know, probably not a good sign.
So we're gonna figure out how bad it is right now.
[soft dramatic music playing]
[Tater] It can't be very good
if he's calling a meeting with everybody.
They spent a lot of time on the mine.
They looked over every inch.
So, there's so many rules and regulations.
Hopefully, it isn't too bad
and it's something we can take care of really fast,
but we don't know until we have a meeting.
[Todd] Everybody here?
Well, as you guys know, we got inspected
and, uh, some of the stuff,
like the mini landslide that we had on the back,
they didn't like that.
Mother Nature did a number on us,
but we're the ones that are gonna have to fix it.
You know, it just is what it is.
But we're definitely not gonna mine here next year
if we don't do these things
and if we don't get into full compliance.
We really wanna make sure
that everything gets done right
because these agencies will shut us down.
But, time is money and we gotta do it quick.
We're not gonna have enough manpower guys
to run both plants.
So Hunter, you're gonna have to shut down the Black Pearl.
It's already been hard.
It's gonna get a lot harder.
And they will not let us open any more ground. Period.
[sighs]
[Todd] What that does, that comes out of our...
Bottom line, it comes out of our gold.
We may not get as much gold
to take and split with everybody.
This could be the end of our company,
I gotta be honest with you.
[sobbing] Sorry.
[Tater speaking]
Yes, I'm upset. [sobbing]
[Hunter] It was like a gut punch.
[Sterling] And there's a real possibility
that we are going home empty-handed.
And my grandpa's retiring,
and that perfect send off, um, just went up in flames.
I definitely don't wanna just give up and leave.
The question is, do we have it in us
to fight through this?
It's kind of up to you guys
if we wanna pull this thing off.
Obviously, the inspection didn't go
the way we'd want it to.
And, uh, that really sucks
because this is these guys' livelihoods
and, you know, everybody's trying to make
a future out here and make a living.
So, it's just getting to the point
where it seems like there's no light
at the end of the tunnel.
You know, we've been through hell and back.
We're gonna kick its ass.
We're gonna go home with gold.
Give me the list
and we'll start knocking it off.
We'll just do it.
Andy, what do we gotta do?
So we got the laydown yard.
We need to haul material in, we need to build it up.
We gotta start building some berms.
We gotta pull back the creek.
I'll take an excavator and go up and do that.
We need you down in the cut
with the last little bit of pay out of there.
We need to finish the ditches
because we've gotta get that prepped
in order to get all that overburden
flipped back down into the cut.
Get some mud out of there.
Thurber, dude, they got culverts.
They need to be linked and checked,
and you can start checking those.
We'll just start knocking things off one by one.
We're asking these guys to stay
and help us out of a jam they didn't create.
You know, that's a lot to ask.
So hopefully, the guys will stay with me
and, uh, we don't lose them.
All right. Love you guys. Let's get to work.
It's a big risk up here.
Not only just for me, but for these guys too.
And I love these guys.
I mean, I literally love these guys.
But, if we don't finish all the things
on the inspection list, we're toast.
[eerie music playing]
[wind howling]
Good morning.
Morning.
[narrator] Facing a mountain of work
to comply with the inspectors,
the Hoffmans have no choice
but to shut down the Black Pearl.
Shut it down.
[narrator] For now, a small crew
will keep the Holy Roller sluicing
until Todd can restore the mine
to full-scale operation.
[Hunter] So sadly, because of the inspections
we had recently,
we're gonna have to Black Pearl
kind of on standby.
I definitely have an attachment to this plant.
I know me and Sparky both do.
We put in an insane amount of work
to get this thing up and running.
This plant helped me prove to myself that, you know,
I can build a wash plant like this and I can mine,
and that me and Sparky, and the rest of the guys
have the skills to go out and do on their own.
So, you know,
maybe one day I can purchase the Black Pearl
and go, uh, go mining on my own.
[slow dramatic music playing]
[wind blowing]
So...
we're not gonna hit our goal.
We're gonna have a loss of what
where we wanted to be.
The lost cut will be about half the size
of what we planned for.
A couple million dollars short,
which is... [laughs]
Oh, my God.
I mean, the killer is that, the gold's sitting...
It's sitting right there.
[Andy] We can't just go fix the problem.
We gotta fix the problem and sluice.
And we can't at this point open any more ground.
So, if we can get the work done,
hopefully Hunter can, uh, maybe find
some other gravel that we can access,
but, as of right now,
what we get out of this cut
is what we get for the season.
Ultimately, it's my responsibility.
I don't know how I didn't quite see
-or knew what came. -[Todd] Your set... Listen.
Listen, your setbacks are legal.
I just looked at the permit.
We are legal to put overburden
on the Tundra.
Now, weather is...
You know, it's an act of God in my opinion.
You can say all those things,
but the bottom line is is that, when the gold
is not in the box at the end of the day,
it's these guys' livelihood as well.
-Yeah. -And that ain't...
In my book, that's not cool.
-No. Well, you know what? -And, uh--
Everybody takes a risk when they come up here
and I love these guys, too.
But this ain't for sure thing.
We just got dealt some bad cards
and that's just the way it is.
We're gonna just push our way through
and who knows, we might come out of this thing
to fight another day.
Yeah.
Let's go out there
and let's figure it out, you know?
-Okay. -Let's keep fighting.
This is where we're at,
so I'm not gonna sit here and cry about it.
I'm gonna try to fight our way through.
If we get shut down,
then I'll just deal with that, you know?
Because I believe this is the place
that my father all these years
has dreamed about.
The gold is spectacular
and it's not in my DNA to quit.
[dramatic music playing]
Yeah. We wanna give her a little bit of material.
[Sparky] Honestly, man, I really don't wanna
get out of here without a gold bonus.
You know, the gold's good,
but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense
'cause we haven't really done a lot of mining here.
We're just putting out fires left and right.
Like dude, back home, we got mouths to feed,
why should we be here?
[Tater] Be a shame to leave early.
Todd and Andy, they're good guys.
You know, they'd give up anything for you,
but at the end of the day,
if we can't get it all fixed and get back to running
and actually make something of it,
I'm gonna have to go.
I don't think I can afford personally to be here
if we're not gonna make any money this season.
-Like I got bills to pay. -[Tater] I...
I... Yeah, no, I agree.
Possibly not getting the gold bonus.
It's a hard pill to swallow.
I mean, we all got bills to pay.
-Mmm-hmm. -You can't... [chuckles]
You can't pay 'em on hopes and dreams.
[bleep] It's not looking good right now.
I gotta take care of my kids.
I mean, ultimately,
that's, you know, one of them tough decisions.
[Framer] Yeah, well, get back to work.
Yeah.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[intense music playing]
[Framer] So Andy gave us our to-do list this morning.
We have a bunch of things on our checklist
that we need to take care of.
And, uh, first and foremost,
today is gonna be our water.
Obviously, everybody's down right now.
To me, it's just another day of getting out there,
getting the work done
so that you can get back to sluicing.
And it's gonna cost Todd a lot of money
and it's gonna cost us a lot of time,
but we're gonna try our best.
Well, boys, good way to start a morning
as you set up waddles in the cut,
and try not to get stuck.
These mud boots are like a size bigger
and might fall off my foot.
[sighs]
[Sparky speaking]
Came down here with some waddles this morning.
We still got a few spots
that are kind of leaking off the slide on the back side.
So, we're just trying to get everything kind of dried up
as much as we can and direct it in the right way.
That channel right there has gotta get pushed
towards those rows of bushes down there.
If we don't get this done in the right way
that these agencies want,
we're done for the season then.
Let's pack it up, fix it, and go home.
[wind blowing]
I'm just glad I wore my waterproof boots today.
[panting]
I mean, some of the stuff is just straight silt
that's been sliding for days.
[Chambo panting]
You can sink out of sight in some spots,
so, there's no easy way of going about it.
[Chambo] The bugs just make it even better, too.
Freaking mosquitos everywhere.
[Dakota] Everyone's kind of down a little bit right now,
but we just got to push through.
It's a, uh, long list, so we gotta get to it.
[groans]
I'm like doing unintentional mountain climbers right now.
[Dakota] We got, like, an hour to finish all this,
so the faster you move, the less you get yelled at.
[distance engine whirring]
[Tater speaking]
Tater, go ahead.
We need to put rock on the end
of this culvert as well, correct?
Yeah.
Yeah, 10-4.
[Andy] Todd may have a big responsibility for these guys.
But the thing is here, logistically,
you have such a limited window
to fix things and to... And the sluice in the mine.
I just hope that the team is in, uh, good spirits.
Oh, for [bleep] sakes.
[Andy] They have every right to be pissed.
And it's on me. I mean, there's...
I get mad a lot of guys for doing a lot of dumb things
and help them get out of it,
but I made the biggest mistake.
This is on me.
Nobody else's fault.
It's Jack's last season and I lost the crew
because of mistakes that I made.
This could turn into a complete [bleep] show.
[dramatic music playing]
[ATV engine turns on]
We had our meeting this morning.
I got my first list of things to do.
I'm gonna get right on it
and doing the work that needs to be done
so we can go back to mining.
So first thing I gotta do is document size,
length, and where the culverts are.
They wanna know everything
about everything on the mining.
[narrator] The Hoffmans used culverts
to reroute flowing water under their road system.
Government agencies required detailed documentation
of these culverts.
To ensure they don't interfere
with too many birds, fish,
and other wildlife they call this area a home.
[Jim] Starting at the top, that'll be the Dog Creek,
number one culvert.
It's 60 foot, I'm gonna see how...
The diameter of it and document that.
If I knew that, I would get soaking wet.
You know, when you're here at a mine,
you know, you're kind of stuck with a lot of stuff.
And I think we're being targeted
'cause they know we can do it and we're gonna do it.
There's certain agencies that know
that if we're not here,
this one will never ever get done.
8-foot culvert,
number one 60 feet long,
8 feet tall.
So that's what they wanna know.
It's overwhelming when you look at the pages
of things to do but just one thing at a time,
take your time, do it right.
If we don't get it done, and that's what we'll be,
we'll be done.
[man] Hey, Andy.
He's pretty busy right now.
I know the guys are down.
They have a very tough decision to make.
But we still are running the Holy Roller.
We've already ran 2,500 yards this week
and we're gonna keep it running to the end
and we still got some pretty kick-butt pay left
in that cut.
You know, a solid weigh-in this week
could just put 'em over the hump,
and hopefully, they'll stick around.
[dramatic music playing]
[Chambo exhales sharply]
On days like this...
you start to question yourself,
this is one of the hardest things I've ever done.
I mean, we're barely getting any sleep,
and then they make me come out here
and shovel all day.
Some of this stuff's like concrete.
[ATV engine revving]
[Framer] That's gonna take longer than I thought, huh?
It might.
[Framer] All right. Well, keep up the good work.
So you got a ways to go.
I'll come check on you in a little bit
and bring you some more water.
Yeah.
[Framer] Hopefully, we can get this all done
before the weather gets here and shuts us down permanently.
But there is no way we're gonna make our goal at this point.
We're just hoping we can break even
and keep them happy so we can keep mining.
-Are you good? -Yeah.
[Framer] All right.
[ATV engine revving]
It doesn't matter what they have me do it
or how they have me do it, or why they have me do it,
16 hours a day, we work 16 to 18 hours a day,
every day get nothing for helping them find gold.
I don't care if we get any gold, it's their gold.
[country music playing]
Oh, backpedal, backpedal.
I feel like I'm getting stuck.
[Sparky] Dakota, are you gonna double up there, too?
This side is pretty sloped, pretty good.
It's just that low spot I was worried about.
[Sparky] Cool.
[Dakota] And Sparky is sinking out of sight.
Damn it. I'm literally sinking.
[Sterling] Here, I'm coming, buddy.
One plant down,
this work is backbreaking and pointless.
We're gonna run out of pay.
-Here you go. -[Sparky] God.
-I'm stuck. -[Sterling] Here you go.
-Dude, I'm stuck, stuck. -Yeah.
[Sparky] All I have right now is my work ethic
and my attitude.
I want my uncle to be proud of me.
I want Grandpa to be proud of me.
I'm trying to roll with the punches, but it's hard.
[Sparky] Oh, God.
No, no.
[sighs]
Oh, don't get up.
All right.
We're crawling out of this one.
Baby steps.
Okay.
-Thanks, bro. -[Sterling] Yeah.
[exhales sharply]
It really sucks being a fat kid.
You're not a fat kid.
Stop talking negative self-talk.
Hey, what's next, big fella?
[Dakota] That's it.
We got all the waddles in there
as best as we could.
Let's go and start trekking.
We're all fighting really hard this season.
We put in some much effort
and it's just been setback after setback.
[Sparky] Oh, great.
-Let's just do that then. -Let's just do that.
And do it so this doesn't break.
-I can't guarantee that. -What are we doing?
-What's up? -Got it done.
You got it all done
whatever Micah told you to do?
Yeah.
Well, then you need to get a shovel
and you need to go down there.
I'll pull a little drain ditch there, that'd be great.
You got a shovel?
[Chambo] So I'm out here in the mud digging ditches,
breaking my back for pretty much Andy's mistake and...
There's a shovel right there.
I'm just not gonna take it [bleep].
I'm just... I'm over it.
[Andy] Chambo.
Hey, dude.
Come here.
So you... If you got a problem,
you don't just [bleep] walk off the job.
Come here.
Chambo.
You need to turn around right now.
You guys need to stop filming.
You're... You guys are making this into a bigger deal
than what it is, so stop.
This is not that big of a deal.
I got better things to do than babysitting.
[man] Chambo, sit over.
[Andy] Hey, just hop in.
I'm not gonna tell you twice.
There's no cameras. Just get in the car.
[Chambo speaking]
[Andy] Listen to me.
If you don't wanna make this worse,
[bleep] get in the car.
[Chambo] Dude.
Get in the car.
[Chambo speaking]
-Come here. Look at me. -[Chambo speaking]
-Look at me. Look at me. -[Chambo speaking]
No, just get in the car.
Chambo, just come here.
We're gonna talk, all right?
It's not gonna be a big deal.
-[Chambo speaking] -Just get back in the car.
[Chambo speaking]
Dude, you don't wanna go there.
Go [bleep] off on the top of that berm either.
Get off of it.
[Andy speaking]
[tense music playing]
[wind howling]
[Andy] Yesterday, we have a little incident with Chambo.
Chambo, just come here.
We're gonna talk, all right? It's not gonna be a big deal.
-[Chambo speaking] -Just get in the car.
[Chambo speaking]
Dude, you don't wanna go there.
He's one of the, uh, new guys on the crew.
He's never done anything like this before.
But he's, uh, he's never been a part of a crew.
And it's a lot of long days
and he gets a little frustrated
that he, kind of, just spouts off a little bit
and he's just disrespectful.
I'm not gonna get mad at him,
but right now it's all in his shoulder,
so let's see what happens.
[wind howling]
[Chambo] I am packing up my room
because it's my time to leave.
Um, I thought it was just a better decisions
out of respect for Todd
that I don't want anything to happen,
so I just decided I was gonna go ahead and go home.
You know, it's a struggle out here.
It's hard work, everyone's tired.
And if I'm not making the money
I was expecting to make, why would I stay?
I never planned on leaving before the season was done
but I just decided I think that's what's best.
-What's up, buddy? -[Chambo] What's going on?
So it looks like you're actually pulling up stakes,
is that true?
Yeah. I think I just decided that with everything
that's, kind of, been going on,
it might be my time to go.
-Okay. -Okay.
[Todd] There's been some negativity
and, uh, I definitely don't want that
to escalate...
-Yeah. -Yeah.
because when tempers fly out here
in the middle of nowhere,
it's never good.
-I know it hasn't been easy... -Yeah.
you've had to do some things that have,
-you know, you never thought you'd have to do. -Yeah.
If we let you down in any way, we're sorry.
I understand everyone's feeling
the pressure right now.
We're working really hard
getting all these things fixed,
you know, possibly with no gold
and, you know, hopefully nobody else decides to bail out
or we're not gonna get it done.
[Chambo] Hey, give me a hug, dude.
[Andy] All right, buddy.
All right. Grab your stuff, man. Let's go.
[Chambo] All right.
You know, Chambo went through some difficulties.
I mean, it was tough.
But the one thing that I can say for him
is... That I give him a lot of respect for
is that he didn't just leave.
He stuck his hand out like a man
and said it's time to go,
so I can respect that.
[Jim] Okay. There's the corner one.
[Tater] And then right next to it,
there's a two-footer plastic.
[Jim] Two-foot plastic. Oh.
[Tater] Yeah, they're both buried.
[Jim] What do I write?
Um, that's gonna be
covert number three.
-Yeah. See, one's here-- -So it's in between two
and between four and five?
Yeah. There's one here, it's buried.
And there's one here that's buried...
-Okay. -so we have the two.
-But they're-- -So both of those
are in between four and five?
[Tater] Yes.
[Jim] We only do culvert work
-when it's flooding. -During the floods, buddy.
Not the week before when there's no water flow.
That'd be way too easy. [laughs]
After being here for as long as we have,
as much as we've made it through,
it would be really disheartening
to have to go home not even anywhere near our goal
and short of the end of the season.
So that's just gonna change
what the gold loader says quite a bit.
[Jim] And then that's quartz?
And is there any more culverts or there aren't any?
That's all the ones I know.
Okay.
You never know around here, man.
Okay.
You know, I've been mining
for many years.
We're used to the issues that come up.
For the new guys to do all these extra work,
I'm sure it's taxing on them.
I hope they keep smiling
and enjoy mining like we all do,
but it's still tough.
That is it.
So I've made a little map, a little diagram
of where our culverts are
and I will make a nicer,
computerized map of everything,
submit it.
And this is number one of many things to do.
[ATV engine revving]
[tense music playing]
[metal clanking]
Dude, what are we doing here?
I don't know.
We're not really calling the shots,
so it is what it is, but we're just gonna...
We're in a tight spot
because of these government agencies and...
We're walking out empty-handed.
I mean, we were set up nice, you know.
I thought that we were actually gonna get
3,000 ounces or more.
If we're coming here for 3,000 ounces
and we only get 1,500 out of this cut,
we're losing out on $2 million.
It's really frustrating, dude.
It really is.
We're working this hard
and not getting anything out of it.
But it's important that everybody gets a gold bonus
because why go through the pain
if you don't get a reward for it?
[grunts]
[Sparky] We've been fighting fires this whole season.
It's like we're messing with ponds,
we're messing with dirty water, roads.
The frickin' big brother stepping all over us.
You know, it's like, is this even worth it?
[Hunter] I mean, dude.
You guys are working over a hundred hours a week
to get a gold bonus
and now we're just trying to get out of here
with, you know, the clothes on our back,
so I feel bad for my dad, my grandpa, you,
everybody else.
And, um,
it's not fair
but it is what it is, you know.
The beginning of the season was going really good.
Uh, we got in here.
You know, obviously we have a really good crew of guys.
The weather was good
and things were in our favor, you know.
Our first couple runs
were some of the best cleanups we've ever had.
It almost seemed too good to be true
and it looks like it was.
It just feels like we're getting kicked
in the shins every day.
It's just part of the game. It's part of mining.
And so, as bad as it hurts,
uh, we're gonna have to just keep persevering through it.
This is a position we're in
and this is the hand we're dealt
and we're gonna have to try to figure out a way out,
you know, our back's against the wall right now, so...
-[Sparky] All right. -I don't know.
It's hard to not give up.
[Todd] He's a good-looking little guy, I mean...
[Andy speaking]
[Todd] I mean, where do you find guys like that?
Tater? I mean, come on.
He broke the mold when they made that guy.
He really did.
If there is a Marlboro man
for little, short cigars,
he'd be your guy.
He's so damn cute and huggable,
and he does such a good job.
You can't get mad at him.
I mean, even when you're mad at him,
you just can't. It's hard to get mad at him.
I can't wait to come up
that sluice box and see you.
Let me see your hands.
Put your little sausages inside there
and come out with gold stuck on 'em.
[Tater speaking]
[Todd] I love it.
[laughing]
[wind howling]
[country music playing]
[crickets chirping]
[birds chirping]
-[Dakota] Thanks for the ride. -[man] Oh, yeah.
[Dakota] We're gonna get everything ready
and get this box cleaned out
and pull the mats and see how it goes.
We all wanna get to the goal,
make it a good season for Jack
and everything like that,
but this is what it is at this point,
and we're gonna just do the best we can.
Hopefully, we can keep going
and finish this thing out strong.
Is there a hammer still down here, Caleb?
[Caleb] You mean this hammer?
[Sterling] We started off really hot
and this last week
has been so disappointing for us.
Everybody here is out on a limb.
You know, we left our homes, our families.
And we're just trying to break even now
and up to the sluice
and what that Holy Roller pulled in.
But I don't have high hopes.
[man 1] Dude, this [bleep] roll is so bad.
[man 2] Okay.
[Caleb] God, Steve, you brought it over.
-Go over there. -[Steve] That wasn't me.
-So somebody... -[Steve] I swear.
[Sterling speaking]
-No, I'm not. -You're smelling somebody's...
-[bleep] -Dude.
[Todd] To say that this summer
is one of the hardest summers of my life
is an understatement.
[man] There she goes.
Another one down.
[Todd] We went from kicking ass
to getting our ass kicked real quick.
Hopefully, God can give us a little grace here.
I wanna show the guys
that their efforts can pay off in gold.
I just hope it's a good payday.
I really need it to be.
[tense music playing]
[Todd] Tough week.
Basically this mine is crippled
until we get a bunch of things fixed.
And it kills me to even see that.
You know what I mean?
I don't wanna jump to any decisions.
I just wanna say, I mean, this is just where we're at...
you know.
I don't think there's a chance that we're gonna make
3,033 ounces anymore.
I gotta come up with a new number, a new goal,
but, you know, well, I need to take some time
and really think about what that is.
We got one guy that's left, okay?
If you guys wanna go, I'd understand.
Okay?
In spite of all the inspectors, and drama,
and everything that's going on,
how did the main plan do?
Not bad, not bad.
Only if you do.
[man] You're gonna drop it.
[Jim] No, I'm not going to.
-[man] Nice, right? -[Jack] Some nuggets in there.
[Jim] Oh, nuggets.
[Jack] 38, 45...
50, 60,
73,
74.3.
[man] Nice.
It's going up a little bit.
-Wow. -[Jack] Yeah.
-[man] Jesus. -[Jim] Total where we at,
we are at 625.1.
-Climbing the ladder. -[man] Yeah. Uh-huh.
We'll take it, you know. We'll take it.
[narrator] The Hoffman's have managed to get
624.8 ounces of gold,
worth $1.2 million so far this season.
They still need 2,408 ounces
in order to reach their season goal.
Well, we're heading right up on Box Canyon.
But, guys, you know and I know,
we're gonna be running out of pay in a minute.
I'm gonna try to get every speck of gold
out of that cut that I possibly can.
All we can do at this point is our best,
fix a bunch of stuff they want us to fix, finish strong.
If we don't do that, we won't have a future period.
We still got some pay to run
and there's definitely gold there,
but I'm trying to be realistic too.
Our goals that we had for this season
are probably not gonna be met.
There's a lot of reasons why we're doing this,
you know, for Jack, and for the young guys.
If we can get the work done,
hopefully, maybe we can have a home here and a future here.
The hardest part about this
is we cannot open up any new ground.
We can't strip. We can't disturb any tundra.
What we got open right now is what we got.
We had a really good start,
and so we gotta just try to make the most of it.
Either way, if it's Jack's last season, maybe it's...
Could be all of our last season.
Our back's against the walls,
so we gotta just find a way out of this.
We got a decent land this week
but I can tell the team's exhausted
and everybody's looking pretty beat down.
We'll see what happens
but I think we all have too much invested
for us to give up now.
-All right. -Good job, guys.
-Tough week, but good job. -[Jack] Yeah.