Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan (2021) s05e05 Episode Script
All the Pretty Gold
1
[Rob] Last season,
we found an old-timers tunnel
in the mountain,
mining an old river channel.
It was really good gold.
This year, we expected
to fully get
in that same channel,
continue on, good gold.
It's not there.
The channel's not there.
It just dried up overnight.
[Connie] We've scraped,
we sacrificed
If we don't find gold
this season,
we're done.
[Rob] We've got issues
with the plant
that I don't know how to fix.
Rocks plug it up.
I can't do anything about it.
I don't have savings.
Everything that
could have been savings
has gone into this.
We are staking
our future on this.
There isn't a fallback plan.
This is it.
[Connie] We need
Freddy and Juan.
[narrator] Freddy Dodge
I'd rather have gold
in the bank
than gold in the mountain.
[narrator]
and Juan Ibarra
Not bad
for built in the field.
[narrator] want
to make you rich.
It turns your dream out here
into a reality.
[all laughing]
[narrator] In the past
five years,
the value of gold has doubled.
[Freddy] There's
a $3,000 nugget right there.
[narrator]
But rookie miners
-[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
-[narrator] find it
more elusive than ever.
If we don't recover more gold,
then we could lose everything.
[narrator]
But there is hope
Miracles, they do happen.
[narrator]
to turn desperation
into fortune,
Freddy and Juan
have one week
What you just did was genius.
[narrator] to deliver
a golden payday.
They have a future,
and they know
what they need to do.
[cell phone ringing]
-[Freddy] Juano.
-[Juan] Hey, Fred.
How you doing, buddy?
[Fred] Oh, doing all right.
I'm just outside
of Virginia City
where we're gonna meet.
Where are you at, bud?
I'm actually making a detour.
I'm feeling
a little nauseous, dizzy.
Something's not right.
-Oh, no kidding, huh?
-Yeah, man.
-I gotta go get a shot.
-Well, I'll be thinking
about you, buddy.
-Okay.
-Love you, buddy.
- Love you too, bud.
- alk to you in a bit. Bye.
One thing about Juan is
he's one tough son of a gun.
And for him not to
not to make it,
there's something haywire.
But when we say we're coming,
no matter what,
we keep our promise.
[narrator] Freddy is en route
to the Opie Mine,
where a husband and wife team
work their 13-acre claim,
a stone's throw
from the legendary
Alder Gulch,
one of the most significant
placer mining districts
in the U.S.
In 1863,
this area produced
Montana's largest gold strike
of over a million ounces
of gold.
But when the easy pickings
were mined out,
prospectors tunneled
into the hillside above
in search of gold-rich
ancient river channels.
How's it going, guys?
-[Rob] Hey, Freddy.
-[Connie] Good. Welcome.
-Rob and Connie, I assume.
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Good to see you.
-Oh, it's really good
to see you.
-Good to see you.
-Good to see you.
[all laughing]
Well, hopefully, uh,
hopefully, we can help you
out here.
I know you were expecting
Juan and myself,
but Juan's not feeling well
right now.
But I hope
he gets feeling better.
-[Rob] Yeah, I hope so.
-[Freddy] And he can make it.
-So, this is your plant, huh?
-Yeah.
[Rob] Yeah. It's, uh--
Boy, I didn't know much
when I got it.
My plant does need help.
I'm losing
a fair amount of gold.
Various places.
I don't know how to solve it.
We'll watch it running.
-[Rob] Okay.
-[Freddy] So, do you have
any gold from here?
[Rob] Oh, yeah.
This is kind of
the normal gold.
-[Freddy] Okay.
-But we get quite
a few pickers, too.
-[Freddy] Mm-hmm.
-And some bigger nuggets.
[Freddy] That's pretty gold.
-Yeah, we think so.
-[Connie laughs]
-It makes a nice wedding ring.
-[Freddy] Nice.
How long
have you been mining here?
Been actually mining
four years.
Once we knew
we were gonna gold mine,
everything
was gonna go towards that.
Saving what we can,
slowly getting
what little equipment
we could.
-Piece by piece.
-[Rob] Yeah.
-[Connie] On auction is--
-[Rob] Working towards
-to where we could
actually mine.
-Right.
[narrator] For the past
ten years,
construction worker Rob
has dreamt of being a miner.
Most of my career
was building log homes.
But there is no pension.
2008, you know,
the economy just crashed.
My last job ended
and nothing else.
It got desperate pretty quick.
Shortly after that, I saw
the first gold rush show.
And, man,
that really spoke to me
big time.
Going to look for gold,
taking charge
of your own future,
that was the direction.
That's what I wanted to do.
And that's what all my efforts
were gonna go towards.
Everything we have
is invested in this.
I'm 70 years old now.
And
the mining is something
that I can definitely see
I can do another ten years.
And Connie's with me on that.
That is the dream, for sure.
How much gold
did you do last year?
We did 15 ounces last year.
-We were in a channel.
-Mm-hmm.
And we were following
the old-timers' drift tunnel.
-Mm-hmm.
-They knew where the gold was,
and so we followed it.
[narrator] The Opie's claim
is dotted with signs
of mining tunnels
known as drifts.
Old-timers
dug into the hillside,
following ancient rivers,
chasing gold-rich pay
deep underground.
Things are a little different
this year.
So far this season,
we got two and a half ounces,
I believe.
[stuttering] It's
really dismal.
Yeah.
Sounds like we need to look
at your ground, too, huh?
Boy, I'd appreciate it.
What's your goal this year?
[Rob] Well, I need 25 ounces.
That's our goal.
[narrator] With eight weeks
before winter
could shut them down,
they need another
22.5 ounces to hit their goal.
That'll pay wages anyway.
-Right.
-And pay your
pay your bills off.
Yeah. That's how
I approach this.
I never was looking
to get rich.
I am still working
over the winter
in construction,
'cause I have to.
But my goal was
if I could replace
my construction wage,
-that would be retirement
to us.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-You know, working retirement.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[Rob] But I just--
I really need the help,
'cause I don't know
what else to try.
-[Freddy] Let's do a test run.
-[Rob] Sounds good.
[Freddy] Rob and Connie,
you can tell
they love each other,
you can tell
that they're a team.
Their dream
is to stay gold mining
and not have to go back
to their other jobs.
These guys need to get gold
in their pockets,
so for the time being,
they're running
what they've got.
Really excited to see
what Freddy comes up with.
First bucket.
Stay, Connie.
[narrator] Pay
from the Opie's existing cut
is loaded into a feed hopper,
where material
travels up a conveyor
and into
an 11-nozzle spray deck.
From there, the pay funnels
into a 13-foot-long trommel,
where the gold-rich material
is washed down
into the sluices.
We like to be
very independent,
but, um, asking for help,
actually, it feels
really good.
We can see
some of these rocks, right?
They're still carrying
quite a bit of dirt.
[narrator] Freddy inspects
the tailings
from the spray deck.
[Freddy] So, you know,
if there's gold in the ground,
it's in this material, right?
That tells me
they're gonna be losing gold.
You can see, like, this rock
that's even
going through the trommel.
Like, that material
that's stuck to that rock
may have gold in it.
It's gonna have some.
We want this material
right here
that's on my fingers
going down the sluice box,
not out the chainage conveyor.
[narrator] Gold is being lost
in both the fine
and the coarse tailings.
[Freddy] So,
here's another problem.
There's rocks getting stuck
in there.
[narrator] Freddy identifies
a pinch point
in Rob and Connie's operation.
You see? Connie there,
have to do manual labor.
We need to fix that situation
for sure.
[Freddy] This material
sticks to that belt.
You can see
some of it on there.
[narrator] Fine material
sticks
to the feed conveyor belt.
This material then spills
onto the ground
around the plant.
So, if dirt can stick to it,
gold can stick to it.
29, 30
31, 32.
I'm gonna say
there's at least 40 colors
in the pan.
This is something
that will definitely
have to be fixed
in some fashion.
[Rob] Having Freddy here,
this is
an amazing opportunity.
These guys have put
this plant together
without ever mining before.
They've done
a pretty good job.
But it's still losing gold.
Last bucket!
[narrator] After four hours,
Freddy calls time on the test.
-[Freddy] Let's have a look
at the sluice, guys.
-[Rob] All righty.
[Freddy] I don't
see anything, guys,
but that doesn't
mean anything, right?
[Rob] Uh, yeah.
[Freddy] There's only one way
to find out,
and that's do a cleanup,
I guess, huh?
[Rob] Yeah, sounds good.
-Take care, guys.
-Take care.
-All right, see you
in the morning.
-Bye.
[Rob] Looking forward
to hear what Freddy says.
I hate to say, you know,
it's our last hope,
but the reality of it is,
it is.
Good morning, guys.
-Good morning, Freddy.
-[Connie] Good morning.
[narrator]
At the Opie homestead
in Montana
[Freddy] You got
your gold ready?
-We got her.
-[Freddy] Nice.
[narrator] with Juan
out of action,
Freddy weighs the results
from the four-hour test.
I got a scale here.
You ready, guys?
-[Rob] Yeah.
-[Connie] We're ready.
[Freddy] Let's weigh it up.
[narrator] To hit
their season goal
of 25 ounces,
this result must deliver
at least
a quarter of an ounce.
0.17, so not even
a quarter of an ounce.
-So
-Yeah.
[Freddy] You know, that's
300-- about $360 worth
of gold.
-So, 90 bucks an hour.
-[Rob] Yeah.
-No.
-[Freddy] So,
that's not enough
-for the equipment
you're running out there.
-No.
[Freddy] No.
But that's why I'm here,
is to try
to help you guys, right?
[Rob] Yeah, absolutely.
[Freddy] But I just gotta get
some stuff through my head
on what we need to do
to your plant and, uh,
you know,
looking at your ground.
-We'll help you.
-So, yep,
I know you guys will.
-[Connie] Okay.
-So, I'll leave you guys
to it,
and, uh, I'll be back
with you later
-and get some stuff
figured out.
-Yeah, look forward to it.
Well, it's, of course,
not what I hoped.
So much less than last year.
We're way behind this year.
-[Connie]
It's been devastating.
-[Rob] Yeah.
It's gotta improve.
In order to make it,
in order to continue
everything that we have
planned for,
is in the balance, literally.
We've just gotta
make it happen,
somehow or other.
Rob told me
he was on a channel
that the old-timers mined.
So, he was getting
pretty good gold
out of what they didn't get.
But then the channel ran out.
One of the big things
I'm gonna have to do here,
as well as working
on the plant
and getting it tuned up,
is, uh,
do some prospecting around
and try to find that channel
he was on before.
I know they're losing gold.
And I know
I can remedy most of that.
We look at that feeder.
Right now, the opening
where that material
is dropping onto the conveyor,
it's, uh, causing issues.
What I wanna do
is open it up more
to the maximum amount
possible.
The screen itself,
I want it
to get where it's washing
the rocks better.
I wanna hang light rubber
down off of those spray bars
to slow that material down
going down the screen
and hold it there
for a second.
So, those spray bars
can really hit it hard.
They're definitely losing gold
on that conveyor.
I did a pan off the ground
on it.
And got 40, 50 colors
in the pan.
A lot of them.
So, what I wanna do
on the end of that conveyor,
I wanna put a wiper there
with spring-loaded
that pushes up
against the belt,
so when it comes around,
it knocks that dirt off
and it goes into the plant,
not onto the ground.
[narrator] To reduce
manual labor
and increase production,
Freddy will adapt the hopper
and enlarge the feed hole
to allow more pay
onto the belt.
Fine material
sticks to the conveyor,
which spills gold
onto the ground.
Freddy will install
a spring-loaded wiper
onto the end of the frame.
This will scrub the belt
and keep the fine pay
in circulation.
Coarse tailings
leave the spray deck
coated in fine material.
Freddy will attach
rubber strips
to the spray bars
to slow the rock flow,
allowing them to be washed
for longer.
Finally, Freddy
will add baffles
to the inside of the trommel.
The flicking motion
will give each rock
the chance to be cleaned
before the pay
is then sent down the sluices.
[Freddy] How's it going, guys?
-[Rob] Hey, Freddy.
-Hey, Freddy.
We got a plan, maybe?
-Yeah, I got sort of a plan.
-[Rob laughs]
-See if you guys
are up for it.
-Hey! Good seeing you.
I know from panning
that you're losing gold
on the feed conveyor.
I took a pan out from under it
where the dirt's falling
off the belt.
-Oh, right.
-And I had 40, 50 colors.
There was a lot of gold.
You're losing gold
on your other conveyors, too,
on the rocks
that are coming off that,
-'cause the rocks
aren't really clean, right?
-[Connie] Right.
So, what I wanna do
is put a wiper, a belt wiper,
on your feed conveyor,
so that gold's going down
your sluice box
-and not on the ground.
-All right.
[Freddy] On your screen,
what I want to do
is hang rubber
off those spray bars,
-like fingers of rubber,
like a solid piece across.
-[Rob] Okay.
That'll slow those rocks down
so they get
that longer shower.
In your trommel,
a lot of those rocks
have material
stuck to 'em as well.
So, if there's material
stuck to them,
there's gonna be gold
stuck to 'em.
So, if we put lifting bars
in there,
-it's gonna flip it over,
flip it over
-Yeah.
-flip it over, right?
-Yeah.
-I also want
to eliminate your job, right?
-Mm-hmm.
You sitting there
with a bar or a hoe,
happen to clean that
feeder out
-where the rocks
jam up in there, right?
-Yeah.
So, what I wanna do
is open that up.
And I figure, it's gonna be
about $1,500 in material.
And then,
I'd like to see two ounces
of gold when you get it.
-[Rob] Mm-hmm.
-You don't have to do it now,
for for the labor.
That just kind of
covers expenses
-is what it does.
-Right.
I'm hoping to at least double
what you're doing now.
I also wanna find
that channel that you know
you had decent gold in.
-[Connie] That sounds good.
-Yeah.
-It's gonna be a really
important thing, okay?
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Deal?
-[Rob] Deal.
Thank you, Freddy.
Deal.
[Rob] Freddy's hopeful.
And so, that gives me hope.
I'm looking forward
to it big time.
Right now, Rob,
we'll start
on the trommel itself.
[narrator] Freddy's first job,
to modify the Opie's trommel.
We need
to take that chute off,
so we can get inside of there
and work
on those baffles inside.
[Rob] You bet.
Rob and Connie,
you're helping me start
on these fixes here.
Since Juan's not here,
just keep plugging along.
[machinery whirring]
What we're gonna do here
is put lifting bars in here.
So, this is gonna roll
those rocks
where they're washing
each other.
'Cause they're
rolling on top, kind of, like,
you use two hands
to wash your hands, right?
That's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna make
these rocks cleaner.
We all need to remove
this little hopper here
so that we can get inside
the end of the trommel.
So, what I'm gonna do
is tap these and then
we'll put bolts in 'em.
-You got her?
-[Rob] There we go.
The work's underway.
That's the exciting part.
We're on our way.
I just need to turn it.
Okay, there we go.
It's too tight
to get in this trommel
to weld lifting bars in.
So, we're bolting them in
from the outside
with some self-tapping screws.
So, sometimes
these self-tappers,
they'll break off
going through steel.
So, basically, what I'm doing
is putting some lubricant
on there
and just, uh,
just cooking spray.
But I do have this
in the lunchbox.
-It just keeps them
from snapping off.
-[spraying]
-Thank you.
-Mm-hmm.
-[Freddy] Fairly close?
-[Rob] Yeah.
There we go.
So, lifting bars are in.
[Rob] I knew
some of the problems
we were having,
but I didn't know
how to fix it.
Now, I think we've got
a really good direction.
Working good.
Connie, go ahead
and shut it off.
-On to the next project, huh?
-[Connie] Yep.
[horn honking]
[narrator] Coming up
[Freddy] Juano.
[Freddy] Holy cow,
there's a sight
for sore eyes.
Yeah, I was actually
a little nervous
that I was having a stroke.
What are we gonna do, Connie?
-[Connie] Yep.
-[Freddy] There's rubber.
[narrator] On the Opie Mine,
in Montana,
Freddy's next job is to slow
the rocks on the spray deck.
We're gonna
cut some pieces of it
to go behind your spray bars
up there.
-Yeah, I'm looking for that.
-So, if you wanna cut this
for me
[narrator] The spray nozzles
are not washing
the rocks properly.
Freddy will hang
rubber-dampening strips
so the coarse tailings
will be sprayed for longer.
[Freddy] So, I need
a piece, 28" long,
and we're gonna cut
two pieces.
And then we're gonna
split the bottom.
So what this is going to do,
it's going to slow
those rocks down
so they get washed better.
Thank you, Connie.
Thank you for the help.
[Connie] Over the last
three years, actually,
we've dealt with this problem.
Rob has changed out
the type of shaker,
the power of the shaker,
the angle of the shaker,
so many attempts.
He's come to a place now
of asking for help,
which I'm very proud of.
[folk music playing]
[Connie] Rob and I met
a bit later in life.
One of my very first dates,
Rob took me gold mining.
Gold mining initially
was new to me,
but it grew on me.
We're going for it,
and we hope to have success
long into our years.
We started out this season.
All of a sudden,
we're not finding the gold.
Rob said he wanted to quit,
and it just
it just broke my heart.
[inhales and exhales]
We have to make this work.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] You want
to hold it up
about right there.
[Connie] Right there
on both sides?
[Freddy] We can just do
one side at a time.
[Freddy] Perfect.
[Connie] I'm proud of this.
This is going to clean
the rocks a lot better.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] Cutting material here
for that conveyor belt.
[narrator] With the dampeners
complete,
Freddy turns his attention
to building a new wiper
for the conveyor.
[truck honks]
[Freddy chuckles] Juano.
Holy cow, there's
a sight for sore eyes.
How are you doing, buddy?
[Freddy] Good. How are you?
-Pretty good.
-You feeling all right?
Oh, doing better.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Doing better?
I ended up having
a really bad ear infection
that went viral,
and it caused Bell's palsy.
-Yeah.
-Right now, I have no
no control
of any of the muscles
on the side of my face,
on the right-hand side.
When I called you
the other day, I was
actually a little nervous
that I was having a stroke.
-What else do you think?
-Yeah. [chuckles]
-I'd never heard
of Bell's palsy before.
-Yeah. Yeah. Me either.
Well, thank God
it wasn't a stroke.
-All right, brother.
-Yeah.
[Freddy chuckles]
It's so good to see you.
-[Juan] Hey,
thank you. [chuckles]
-[chuckles]
Really, it's bad Botox
is what it is.
-[Freddy] Mmm.
-I tried to save a few bucks.
-It wasn't worth it.
-[Freddy laughs]
I should have spent
the money. [laughing]
I went to your guy.
He messed me up.
Well, let's park the truck.
And you want
to take me up there
-and show me around?
-Yeah.
All right. Sounds good.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[truck beeping]
It's a heck of a relief
to know it wasn't a stroke.
It's good to see Juano.
That's for darn sure.
It's a little difficult
right now
just because of all the issues
I have going on with my face.
So it's hard to talk.
But nonetheless,
I'm happy to be here,
happy to be able to help.
And hopefully, we can
get this rescue done.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] And there they are.
Got a surprise for you.
-[Connie] You do?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-Juan.
-[Connie] Juan's here!
Oh, my goodness.
-[Juan] How you doing, Rob?
Juan. Nice to meet you.
-Oh, good to meet you.
-Juan, so glad to meet you.
-[Juan] Hello, Connie.
Nice to meet you as well.
-I'm a little late, but
-[Connie] You're here.
-[Rob] Well, I really
appreciate it.
-[Connie] And that's good.
Well, it's great
meeting you guys.
What do you want me
to jump on?
I can jump
on whatever you want.
Well, let's go up
and measure for the wiper
-and if you want
to burn that out.
-Yeah. All right.
[narrator] With time
running out on the rescue,
Juan takes on Freddy's plans
for the conveyor belt wiper.
-[Freddy] We have
angle iron here, right?
-[Juan] Mm-hmm.
For that way
you've got a pivot point,
and then have
the spring up top.
[Juan] Okay.
Sounds like a plan.
Let's do it.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[narrator] While Juan tackles
the wiper,
Freddy turns his attention
to the ground.
What we need to do here
is find out if that channel
that he was getting
the good gold out of
still exists.
There's no guarantees on that.
There's no guarantees in gold.
Well, you can see
that drift right there.
[narrator] In the Opie's cut,
Freddy inspects a drift tunnel
near the spot
Rob lost his river channel.
There's a reason
the old timers drifted there
and stopped.
Because they had
gold out here,
I'm guessing,
good enough gold
to keep working it,
keep working it,
keep working it,
and they're like, "Well,
let's see how it does
going deeper into the hill."
And as they got
deeper into the hill,
they started running
out of gold, most likely,
so they stopped.
[tense music playing]
-[soft cracking]
-[narrator] Streams carry gold
from veins in the hillside
down the valley.
Over thousands of years,
they are buried underground
by movements in the earth.
Using hand tools
and wooden carts,
prospectors dig drift tunnels
to find and chase
these gold-rich channels.
As the old-timers
tunnel underground,
they dig test drifts
in the hope they'll find
other
ancient channel deposits.
[Freddy] So I'm trying
to piece this puzzle together
to try to get a full picture
out of it.
[Rob] Sure.
[Freddy] This is no good.
[tense music playing]
There's no rhyme
or reason to it, right?
It's giving us a picture,
but a bad picture.
It's saying,
"I haven't been reworked
in nature's sluice box."
[narrator] The material
in Rob's cut has not been
concentrated by flowing water,
and there's no sign
of his missing river channel.
[Freddy] I've seen a lot
of deposits, right?
But this one,
this one's really tricky
to read.
[tense music playing]
So, putting
this puzzle together.
[narrator] On the Opie claim
in Montana,
Freddy is on the hunt
for a lost channel of gold.
When a stream cuts through,
there's not just one channel,
'cause that creek moves
over time.
Yeah.
We know it's not right here,
but that doesn't mean
it's not 20 feet that way.
-Right.
-Another channel,
that they missed.
[Rob] Yeah.
[Freddy] Let's have
a look down here.
[narrator] With no sign
of Rob's channel,
Freddy turns his attention
to a lower section of bedrock.
[Freddy] See how
this all smoothed off
-down the face?
-Oh, yeah.
[Freddy] That tells me
water and material is
pushing rocks, sand,
-everything down, right?
-Yeah.
You know, this may
be another channel.
[Rob] That would be huge.
There's only one way
to find out.
Let's get in the excavator
and start digging.
Oh, I'd love to find
that channel again.
I'm hopeful. Here, we'll see.
Pretty interesting rock.
[Rob] Yeah, I agree!
[Freddy] That looks good.
Those big boulders, Rob,
are a really good find.
[Rob] That looks really good.
Yeah.
[narrator] Large boulders
often collect on the bedrock
of river channels.
Acting like riffles
in a sluice box,
they trap gold in place.
Oh, boy, that's exciting.
Last year when I was
on that channel
that had the really good gold
in the bottom,
that's the kind of stuff
I was seeing.
And I didn't see that
this year up to this point.
[Freddy] We found a channel.
At least I think
it's a channel.
Yeah.
[Freddy]
But this excites me more
than finding
that old channel
that they mined,
'cause this is virgin ground.
-They missed this.
-Great. Yeah?
From that hole
in the wall over there,
they went right over
the top of it,
which is a good thing for you.
Let's run this stuff,
and
we'll go from there.
[Rob] Okay.
[narrator] The discovery
of an unmined river channel
has the potential
for a huge payday
and could get Rob
and Connie back on the gold.
[Rob] I skipped right over it
'cause the bedrock is
higher on both sides of it.
So Freddy identifying is,
yeah, that is a channel there.
Yeah, this is really
a good thing.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
It's going to be
a simple wiper.
[narrator] At the cut trailer,
Juan's wiper takes shape.
[Juan] These are the brackets
that are going to mount
onto the conveyor,
and we'll just have
a couple springs
that pull up on it,
and that way
it'll actually put
constant pressure
on that belt.
It can scrape
all that material
that has gold off,
and that way we can sluice it.
So these are
the side arms for the wiper.
They're gonna pivot
on a five-eighths pin.
That way you can
adjust it where you need it.
If you need to pull it out,
you can pull the pins out
and remove it.
What I did,
I cut the rubber out.
I made these holes slotted
so that way we can adjust it
where we need to have it.
And that way, as it wears out,
we can adjust it up
a little bit
and be able to make
better contact with the belt.
[tense music playing]
[Freddy] Let me show you
what I'm thinking on here.
[narrator] New pay secured,
Freddy and Rob turn
their attention
to the feed hopper.
I'd cut the front out first,
thinking we'd go up
four inches
at this angle here.
Then I just cut
the edge here
-Yeah.
-with the grinder
quarter inch in,
quarter inch in,
and cut that out.
[narrator] Freddy's plan,
to relieve the pinch point
and prevent blockages.
[Connie] Okay, you got this.
-I do? Okay.
-Yes.
[kisses and giggles]
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Well, that line
didn't go too bad.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, I thought I was gonna have
to really work those corners.
Oh, nice. Okay.
That should solve
my rock problem.
See, what'd happen is
I'd get a rock down here
and another one would
kind of just sit right on it
back in there,
and then they get jammed,
and then they'd pin in
really hard.
Bad enough,
we'd get a shutdown
just to get them undone,
'cause then the material
behind it would pack up,
and [blows raspberry]
Big problem.
[Freddy] Got her done, huh?
-[Juan] Yeah.
-Well, it looks good, Juan.
[Juan] It's simple.
It'll work, though.
Yeah, let me start
my welder up here
and get my hood.
[narrator]
Juan's conveyor wiper
is ready to be
welded in place.
I'd weld it, but I can't
see real well, so
-[Freddy chuckling] Yeah. No.
-[Juan chuckles]
[Freddy] I understand, buddy.
[Rob] Having Juan show up,
feeling not 100%
wow, that shows his heart.
[Connie] He puts
everything into it regardless.
He's totally professional
and just a sweetheart.
[Freddy] We'll get an idea
roughly where we're at, huh?
[Juan straining] Right there
is about where it should be.
[intense music playing]
Just tack that right there.
You want to give me
your hood and I'll do it?
[Freddy strains]
I think I can get it on.
Did I get it?
-Yeah, you got her.
-Okay.
That looks good, Fred.
-Looks good. That's
the last of the fixes.
-Yeah.
Well, let's clean up our tools
and head out, huh?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
Tomorrow's a big day.
-Yep.
[Freddy] That channel I found,
that's pretty exciting.
[Juan] Sounds good.
-[Connie] It's going
to be hot. You're welcome.
-[Rob] Thank you.
[narrator] In Montana,
miners Rob and Connie
share their camp comforts.
[Rob] When
we first started
coming up here
just in the very beginning,
we would come up
and we'd camp out
in just a little pup tent,
so to speak, on the ground.
It was nice, but, you know,
-we're not
young chickens anymore
-It was--
[Rob]so we took
our living situation
to the next level.
Rob would get
some materials on sale,
or he would make them himself
out of iron
or scraps of wood
that he had left over,
and then I had
a kitchen all of a sudden.
He really wanted
to eat real food, I guess.
If I was going to eat good,
I better give her
a good kitchen
that she's going
to like, be in.
[Connie] Yeah.
[Rob] She's frugal.
I'm frugal, make what I can.
And we just turned it
into a home away from home.
And now it's just something
we really look forward to.
This is the life
we want to live.
We want to be out here
camping and enjoying nature.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Let's do a test run, huh?
-Let's do it.
-Yeah.
[narrator] On the Opie mine
in Montana
Head on down, I'm going
to start the water pump.
[narrator] the moment
of truth for Rob and Connie
has arrived.
[Rob] Having found
the channel,
I'm really, really excited.
If all these fixes work out,
it gives us the direction
we were hoping for
for the next 10 years.
But until I see it done,
I won't know
exactly where we're at.
[Freddy] First bucket, Juan.
Yeah. See how it does.
-[Freddy] That channel
I found
-[Juan] Yeah.
let's hope it's as good
as I think it could be.
Okay, yeah.
[narrator] The Opies are
running pay
from the newly discovered
Virgin River Channel.
[Freddy] It's working perfect.
That wiper's sure
working good, Juan.
Yeah.
[narrator] Juan's wiper is
scrubbing fine material
off the conveyor belt
and into the spray deck.
[Freddy] It's getting
a lot better, Juan!
[Juan] Yeah.
See they pile up
in the next one?
-Yeah.
-Perfect.
[narrator] And the new dampers
on the spray deck
mean more material is being
washed off
the coarse tailings.
[Freddy] Every one
of these rocks before had
a thin layer of dirt on them.
Yeah, it looks
pretty clean now.
Yeah, have a look at that.
-[Juan] That's real clean.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator]
Freddy's new baffles
in the Opie's trommel
means more fine material is
washed into the sluice box.
-[Freddy] Hey, Connie!
-[Connie] Yeah.
[Freddy] Are you feeding it
faster than before?
-Speed her up.
-Okay, got it.
-It'll handle it.
-Okay.
[Freddy] Right now,
at the pace
we're running the plat,
it's over double
what they were running before.
[narrator] Halfway
through the test run,
and the Opie crew are running
nearly 20 yards an hour
through their plant.
We haven't had
one blockage in the feeder.
You had to get off
and do anything?
[Rob] Wow. That is amazing.
I'm stoked.
This is tear-jerker material.
It's amazing.
Nothing is getting
jammed up at all.
[Freddy] I'm proud
of what we've done here.
You know, seeing
the amount of material going
through this plant now
is pretty exciting.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Hey, Connie, last bucket!
Woo. [chuckles]
That was amazing!
[chuckles]
The plant ran really well,
so let's keep
our fingers crossed
and go look
in the sluice, huh?
Have a look at this, guys.
-[Connie] No way.
-[Freddie] How much
is buried in there?
-Juano.
-[Rob] No way.
-[Freddy] Hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, look at that.
-[Connie laughing]
-[Freddy] Look at that nugget.
-[Rob] There we go.
We've never seen that before.
[Connie] Oh, look.
[Freddy] There's
another nugget.
-[Freddy] Juano.
-[Juan] Little nugget
in there?
[Connie] Oh, it's pretty.
-[chuckles]
-[Rob] Good grief.
[Freddy] I'm excited, guys.
And I'm more excited
[chuckling] than you are.
[Rob and Connie laughing]
[Freddy] Well,
clean it up, guys.
[Juan] Yeah, we'll head out.
We'll see you guys
in the morning.
[Connie laughing]
This is amazing.
This is so good.
[Rob] I'm
I'm kind of in shock.
What does that mean?
Well, we'll find out.
This is incredible.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy]
Let's see what it did.
-Well, hello.
Ooh, that looks good.
-[Rob] Hey, Juan.
-Ooh, that looks good.
-[Connie chuckles]
[Juan] That's exciting.
[narrator] In order
to hit their goal
of 25 ounces in eight weeks,
this test needs to produce
at least a quarter
of an ounce.
-Well, let's weigh it up, huh?
-[Juan] Let's do it.
[Freddy] We did.17
in the first test.
[clinking]
Well, we just went
over your first weigh.
-There it is right there.
-The first test.
-I'm like, "How much is
left in there to go?"
-Holy moly.
[Rob] Look it. That's crazy.
-[Juan] Half an ounce.
-[Rob] No way.
That's half an ounce.
-Half an ounce right there.
-[Freddy] A little over
half an ounce, yep.
Put the rest in.
[Connie] Do it, do it.
[Juan] Three-quarters
of an ounce.
Over three-quarters
of an ounce.
-Wow.
-[Freddy] 1.221.
That's awesome.
-Yeah, that's pretty good.
-Yeah.
Proud of that.
[narrator] Over four times
what they need
to reach their goal.
Ounces, not grains.
-[all laughing]
-Ounces.
[Freddy] Now there's
$2,900 worth of gold
in that pan.
[Freddy laughing]
[Rob] Guys,
[chuckling] I don't know.
This is incredible.
I never dreamed
that was possible.
[Freddy] It's been
an absolute pleasure
working with you guys.
-Straight back at you.
-Yeah.
-Freddy
-Yeah.
-Juan.
-Good working with you.
-[Connie chuckles]
-[Rob] Thank you.
Hey, you're welcome.
Thank you so much.
[Rob] I'm blown away.
It's so far beyond
what I hoped,
you know, even when I was
hoping really big.
I'm so excited to get in there
and start digging
some more of this channel up.
We did this. We dug it.
It's on our ground.
We processed it.
It's real.
It's amazing.
It is truly our future.
And a lot of dreams
and a lot of hard work
have come to fruition.
Thanks for not
letting me quit.
Without you, I would have.
You realize that, right?
-I do.
-Thank you.
A 700% increase, that's more
than I could have hoped for.
That's more than I could
have dreamed for.
They had very little light
at the end of the tunnel
when I got here.
Now they got a bright light
at the end of the tunnel,
and they just got to keep
following it upstream.
And their future could
be set now.
I couldn't be happier.
-Hi, Freddy and Juan.
-Hey, guys.
We wanted
to give you an update
on what's been happening
since you left.
The fixes have been
working really well.
All those fixes together
have contributed to gold
in the sluice box,
which we actually can see now.
-I don't believe this.
-[Connie chuckling]
[Rob] Look
[chuckling] at those nuggets
in this nose mat.
[Connie chuckling]
[Rob] It is beyond
what we expected
and what we hoped for.
[Connie] Freddy and Juan,
we really want to thank you.
[Rob] 'Cause of the tools
you guys have given us
to succeed,
we are totally confident
going forward,
and we're excited.
We're going to take the step,
and we're going
to become full-time miners.
Construction will be something
that I can leave behind,
and we are
so grateful for that.
-Thank you again, guys.
-Thank you.
[Rob] Last season,
we found an old-timers tunnel
in the mountain,
mining an old river channel.
It was really good gold.
This year, we expected
to fully get
in that same channel,
continue on, good gold.
It's not there.
The channel's not there.
It just dried up overnight.
[Connie] We've scraped,
we sacrificed
If we don't find gold
this season,
we're done.
[Rob] We've got issues
with the plant
that I don't know how to fix.
Rocks plug it up.
I can't do anything about it.
I don't have savings.
Everything that
could have been savings
has gone into this.
We are staking
our future on this.
There isn't a fallback plan.
This is it.
[Connie] We need
Freddy and Juan.
[narrator] Freddy Dodge
I'd rather have gold
in the bank
than gold in the mountain.
[narrator]
and Juan Ibarra
Not bad
for built in the field.
[narrator] want
to make you rich.
It turns your dream out here
into a reality.
[all laughing]
[narrator] In the past
five years,
the value of gold has doubled.
[Freddy] There's
a $3,000 nugget right there.
[narrator]
But rookie miners
-[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
-[narrator] find it
more elusive than ever.
If we don't recover more gold,
then we could lose everything.
[narrator]
But there is hope
Miracles, they do happen.
[narrator]
to turn desperation
into fortune,
Freddy and Juan
have one week
What you just did was genius.
[narrator] to deliver
a golden payday.
They have a future,
and they know
what they need to do.
[cell phone ringing]
-[Freddy] Juano.
-[Juan] Hey, Fred.
How you doing, buddy?
[Fred] Oh, doing all right.
I'm just outside
of Virginia City
where we're gonna meet.
Where are you at, bud?
I'm actually making a detour.
I'm feeling
a little nauseous, dizzy.
Something's not right.
-Oh, no kidding, huh?
-Yeah, man.
-I gotta go get a shot.
-Well, I'll be thinking
about you, buddy.
-Okay.
-Love you, buddy.
- Love you too, bud.
- alk to you in a bit. Bye.
One thing about Juan is
he's one tough son of a gun.
And for him not to
not to make it,
there's something haywire.
But when we say we're coming,
no matter what,
we keep our promise.
[narrator] Freddy is en route
to the Opie Mine,
where a husband and wife team
work their 13-acre claim,
a stone's throw
from the legendary
Alder Gulch,
one of the most significant
placer mining districts
in the U.S.
In 1863,
this area produced
Montana's largest gold strike
of over a million ounces
of gold.
But when the easy pickings
were mined out,
prospectors tunneled
into the hillside above
in search of gold-rich
ancient river channels.
How's it going, guys?
-[Rob] Hey, Freddy.
-[Connie] Good. Welcome.
-Rob and Connie, I assume.
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Good to see you.
-Oh, it's really good
to see you.
-Good to see you.
-Good to see you.
[all laughing]
Well, hopefully, uh,
hopefully, we can help you
out here.
I know you were expecting
Juan and myself,
but Juan's not feeling well
right now.
But I hope
he gets feeling better.
-[Rob] Yeah, I hope so.
-[Freddy] And he can make it.
-So, this is your plant, huh?
-Yeah.
[Rob] Yeah. It's, uh--
Boy, I didn't know much
when I got it.
My plant does need help.
I'm losing
a fair amount of gold.
Various places.
I don't know how to solve it.
We'll watch it running.
-[Rob] Okay.
-[Freddy] So, do you have
any gold from here?
[Rob] Oh, yeah.
This is kind of
the normal gold.
-[Freddy] Okay.
-But we get quite
a few pickers, too.
-[Freddy] Mm-hmm.
-And some bigger nuggets.
[Freddy] That's pretty gold.
-Yeah, we think so.
-[Connie laughs]
-It makes a nice wedding ring.
-[Freddy] Nice.
How long
have you been mining here?
Been actually mining
four years.
Once we knew
we were gonna gold mine,
everything
was gonna go towards that.
Saving what we can,
slowly getting
what little equipment
we could.
-Piece by piece.
-[Rob] Yeah.
-[Connie] On auction is--
-[Rob] Working towards
-to where we could
actually mine.
-Right.
[narrator] For the past
ten years,
construction worker Rob
has dreamt of being a miner.
Most of my career
was building log homes.
But there is no pension.
2008, you know,
the economy just crashed.
My last job ended
and nothing else.
It got desperate pretty quick.
Shortly after that, I saw
the first gold rush show.
And, man,
that really spoke to me
big time.
Going to look for gold,
taking charge
of your own future,
that was the direction.
That's what I wanted to do.
And that's what all my efforts
were gonna go towards.
Everything we have
is invested in this.
I'm 70 years old now.
And
the mining is something
that I can definitely see
I can do another ten years.
And Connie's with me on that.
That is the dream, for sure.
How much gold
did you do last year?
We did 15 ounces last year.
-We were in a channel.
-Mm-hmm.
And we were following
the old-timers' drift tunnel.
-Mm-hmm.
-They knew where the gold was,
and so we followed it.
[narrator] The Opie's claim
is dotted with signs
of mining tunnels
known as drifts.
Old-timers
dug into the hillside,
following ancient rivers,
chasing gold-rich pay
deep underground.
Things are a little different
this year.
So far this season,
we got two and a half ounces,
I believe.
[stuttering] It's
really dismal.
Yeah.
Sounds like we need to look
at your ground, too, huh?
Boy, I'd appreciate it.
What's your goal this year?
[Rob] Well, I need 25 ounces.
That's our goal.
[narrator] With eight weeks
before winter
could shut them down,
they need another
22.5 ounces to hit their goal.
That'll pay wages anyway.
-Right.
-And pay your
pay your bills off.
Yeah. That's how
I approach this.
I never was looking
to get rich.
I am still working
over the winter
in construction,
'cause I have to.
But my goal was
if I could replace
my construction wage,
-that would be retirement
to us.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-You know, working retirement.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[Rob] But I just--
I really need the help,
'cause I don't know
what else to try.
-[Freddy] Let's do a test run.
-[Rob] Sounds good.
[Freddy] Rob and Connie,
you can tell
they love each other,
you can tell
that they're a team.
Their dream
is to stay gold mining
and not have to go back
to their other jobs.
These guys need to get gold
in their pockets,
so for the time being,
they're running
what they've got.
Really excited to see
what Freddy comes up with.
First bucket.
Stay, Connie.
[narrator] Pay
from the Opie's existing cut
is loaded into a feed hopper,
where material
travels up a conveyor
and into
an 11-nozzle spray deck.
From there, the pay funnels
into a 13-foot-long trommel,
where the gold-rich material
is washed down
into the sluices.
We like to be
very independent,
but, um, asking for help,
actually, it feels
really good.
We can see
some of these rocks, right?
They're still carrying
quite a bit of dirt.
[narrator] Freddy inspects
the tailings
from the spray deck.
[Freddy] So, you know,
if there's gold in the ground,
it's in this material, right?
That tells me
they're gonna be losing gold.
You can see, like, this rock
that's even
going through the trommel.
Like, that material
that's stuck to that rock
may have gold in it.
It's gonna have some.
We want this material
right here
that's on my fingers
going down the sluice box,
not out the chainage conveyor.
[narrator] Gold is being lost
in both the fine
and the coarse tailings.
[Freddy] So,
here's another problem.
There's rocks getting stuck
in there.
[narrator] Freddy identifies
a pinch point
in Rob and Connie's operation.
You see? Connie there,
have to do manual labor.
We need to fix that situation
for sure.
[Freddy] This material
sticks to that belt.
You can see
some of it on there.
[narrator] Fine material
sticks
to the feed conveyor belt.
This material then spills
onto the ground
around the plant.
So, if dirt can stick to it,
gold can stick to it.
29, 30
31, 32.
I'm gonna say
there's at least 40 colors
in the pan.
This is something
that will definitely
have to be fixed
in some fashion.
[Rob] Having Freddy here,
this is
an amazing opportunity.
These guys have put
this plant together
without ever mining before.
They've done
a pretty good job.
But it's still losing gold.
Last bucket!
[narrator] After four hours,
Freddy calls time on the test.
-[Freddy] Let's have a look
at the sluice, guys.
-[Rob] All righty.
[Freddy] I don't
see anything, guys,
but that doesn't
mean anything, right?
[Rob] Uh, yeah.
[Freddy] There's only one way
to find out,
and that's do a cleanup,
I guess, huh?
[Rob] Yeah, sounds good.
-Take care, guys.
-Take care.
-All right, see you
in the morning.
-Bye.
[Rob] Looking forward
to hear what Freddy says.
I hate to say, you know,
it's our last hope,
but the reality of it is,
it is.
Good morning, guys.
-Good morning, Freddy.
-[Connie] Good morning.
[narrator]
At the Opie homestead
in Montana
[Freddy] You got
your gold ready?
-We got her.
-[Freddy] Nice.
[narrator] with Juan
out of action,
Freddy weighs the results
from the four-hour test.
I got a scale here.
You ready, guys?
-[Rob] Yeah.
-[Connie] We're ready.
[Freddy] Let's weigh it up.
[narrator] To hit
their season goal
of 25 ounces,
this result must deliver
at least
a quarter of an ounce.
0.17, so not even
a quarter of an ounce.
-So
-Yeah.
[Freddy] You know, that's
300-- about $360 worth
of gold.
-So, 90 bucks an hour.
-[Rob] Yeah.
-No.
-[Freddy] So,
that's not enough
-for the equipment
you're running out there.
-No.
[Freddy] No.
But that's why I'm here,
is to try
to help you guys, right?
[Rob] Yeah, absolutely.
[Freddy] But I just gotta get
some stuff through my head
on what we need to do
to your plant and, uh,
you know,
looking at your ground.
-We'll help you.
-So, yep,
I know you guys will.
-[Connie] Okay.
-So, I'll leave you guys
to it,
and, uh, I'll be back
with you later
-and get some stuff
figured out.
-Yeah, look forward to it.
Well, it's, of course,
not what I hoped.
So much less than last year.
We're way behind this year.
-[Connie]
It's been devastating.
-[Rob] Yeah.
It's gotta improve.
In order to make it,
in order to continue
everything that we have
planned for,
is in the balance, literally.
We've just gotta
make it happen,
somehow or other.
Rob told me
he was on a channel
that the old-timers mined.
So, he was getting
pretty good gold
out of what they didn't get.
But then the channel ran out.
One of the big things
I'm gonna have to do here,
as well as working
on the plant
and getting it tuned up,
is, uh,
do some prospecting around
and try to find that channel
he was on before.
I know they're losing gold.
And I know
I can remedy most of that.
We look at that feeder.
Right now, the opening
where that material
is dropping onto the conveyor,
it's, uh, causing issues.
What I wanna do
is open it up more
to the maximum amount
possible.
The screen itself,
I want it
to get where it's washing
the rocks better.
I wanna hang light rubber
down off of those spray bars
to slow that material down
going down the screen
and hold it there
for a second.
So, those spray bars
can really hit it hard.
They're definitely losing gold
on that conveyor.
I did a pan off the ground
on it.
And got 40, 50 colors
in the pan.
A lot of them.
So, what I wanna do
on the end of that conveyor,
I wanna put a wiper there
with spring-loaded
that pushes up
against the belt,
so when it comes around,
it knocks that dirt off
and it goes into the plant,
not onto the ground.
[narrator] To reduce
manual labor
and increase production,
Freddy will adapt the hopper
and enlarge the feed hole
to allow more pay
onto the belt.
Fine material
sticks to the conveyor,
which spills gold
onto the ground.
Freddy will install
a spring-loaded wiper
onto the end of the frame.
This will scrub the belt
and keep the fine pay
in circulation.
Coarse tailings
leave the spray deck
coated in fine material.
Freddy will attach
rubber strips
to the spray bars
to slow the rock flow,
allowing them to be washed
for longer.
Finally, Freddy
will add baffles
to the inside of the trommel.
The flicking motion
will give each rock
the chance to be cleaned
before the pay
is then sent down the sluices.
[Freddy] How's it going, guys?
-[Rob] Hey, Freddy.
-Hey, Freddy.
We got a plan, maybe?
-Yeah, I got sort of a plan.
-[Rob laughs]
-See if you guys
are up for it.
-Hey! Good seeing you.
I know from panning
that you're losing gold
on the feed conveyor.
I took a pan out from under it
where the dirt's falling
off the belt.
-Oh, right.
-And I had 40, 50 colors.
There was a lot of gold.
You're losing gold
on your other conveyors, too,
on the rocks
that are coming off that,
-'cause the rocks
aren't really clean, right?
-[Connie] Right.
So, what I wanna do
is put a wiper, a belt wiper,
on your feed conveyor,
so that gold's going down
your sluice box
-and not on the ground.
-All right.
[Freddy] On your screen,
what I want to do
is hang rubber
off those spray bars,
-like fingers of rubber,
like a solid piece across.
-[Rob] Okay.
That'll slow those rocks down
so they get
that longer shower.
In your trommel,
a lot of those rocks
have material
stuck to 'em as well.
So, if there's material
stuck to them,
there's gonna be gold
stuck to 'em.
So, if we put lifting bars
in there,
-it's gonna flip it over,
flip it over
-Yeah.
-flip it over, right?
-Yeah.
-I also want
to eliminate your job, right?
-Mm-hmm.
You sitting there
with a bar or a hoe,
happen to clean that
feeder out
-where the rocks
jam up in there, right?
-Yeah.
So, what I wanna do
is open that up.
And I figure, it's gonna be
about $1,500 in material.
And then,
I'd like to see two ounces
of gold when you get it.
-[Rob] Mm-hmm.
-You don't have to do it now,
for for the labor.
That just kind of
covers expenses
-is what it does.
-Right.
I'm hoping to at least double
what you're doing now.
I also wanna find
that channel that you know
you had decent gold in.
-[Connie] That sounds good.
-Yeah.
-It's gonna be a really
important thing, okay?
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Deal?
-[Rob] Deal.
Thank you, Freddy.
Deal.
[Rob] Freddy's hopeful.
And so, that gives me hope.
I'm looking forward
to it big time.
Right now, Rob,
we'll start
on the trommel itself.
[narrator] Freddy's first job,
to modify the Opie's trommel.
We need
to take that chute off,
so we can get inside of there
and work
on those baffles inside.
[Rob] You bet.
Rob and Connie,
you're helping me start
on these fixes here.
Since Juan's not here,
just keep plugging along.
[machinery whirring]
What we're gonna do here
is put lifting bars in here.
So, this is gonna roll
those rocks
where they're washing
each other.
'Cause they're
rolling on top, kind of, like,
you use two hands
to wash your hands, right?
That's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna make
these rocks cleaner.
We all need to remove
this little hopper here
so that we can get inside
the end of the trommel.
So, what I'm gonna do
is tap these and then
we'll put bolts in 'em.
-You got her?
-[Rob] There we go.
The work's underway.
That's the exciting part.
We're on our way.
I just need to turn it.
Okay, there we go.
It's too tight
to get in this trommel
to weld lifting bars in.
So, we're bolting them in
from the outside
with some self-tapping screws.
So, sometimes
these self-tappers,
they'll break off
going through steel.
So, basically, what I'm doing
is putting some lubricant
on there
and just, uh,
just cooking spray.
But I do have this
in the lunchbox.
-It just keeps them
from snapping off.
-[spraying]
-Thank you.
-Mm-hmm.
-[Freddy] Fairly close?
-[Rob] Yeah.
There we go.
So, lifting bars are in.
[Rob] I knew
some of the problems
we were having,
but I didn't know
how to fix it.
Now, I think we've got
a really good direction.
Working good.
Connie, go ahead
and shut it off.
-On to the next project, huh?
-[Connie] Yep.
[horn honking]
[narrator] Coming up
[Freddy] Juano.
[Freddy] Holy cow,
there's a sight
for sore eyes.
Yeah, I was actually
a little nervous
that I was having a stroke.
What are we gonna do, Connie?
-[Connie] Yep.
-[Freddy] There's rubber.
[narrator] On the Opie Mine,
in Montana,
Freddy's next job is to slow
the rocks on the spray deck.
We're gonna
cut some pieces of it
to go behind your spray bars
up there.
-Yeah, I'm looking for that.
-So, if you wanna cut this
for me
[narrator] The spray nozzles
are not washing
the rocks properly.
Freddy will hang
rubber-dampening strips
so the coarse tailings
will be sprayed for longer.
[Freddy] So, I need
a piece, 28" long,
and we're gonna cut
two pieces.
And then we're gonna
split the bottom.
So what this is going to do,
it's going to slow
those rocks down
so they get washed better.
Thank you, Connie.
Thank you for the help.
[Connie] Over the last
three years, actually,
we've dealt with this problem.
Rob has changed out
the type of shaker,
the power of the shaker,
the angle of the shaker,
so many attempts.
He's come to a place now
of asking for help,
which I'm very proud of.
[folk music playing]
[Connie] Rob and I met
a bit later in life.
One of my very first dates,
Rob took me gold mining.
Gold mining initially
was new to me,
but it grew on me.
We're going for it,
and we hope to have success
long into our years.
We started out this season.
All of a sudden,
we're not finding the gold.
Rob said he wanted to quit,
and it just
it just broke my heart.
[inhales and exhales]
We have to make this work.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] You want
to hold it up
about right there.
[Connie] Right there
on both sides?
[Freddy] We can just do
one side at a time.
[Freddy] Perfect.
[Connie] I'm proud of this.
This is going to clean
the rocks a lot better.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] Cutting material here
for that conveyor belt.
[narrator] With the dampeners
complete,
Freddy turns his attention
to building a new wiper
for the conveyor.
[truck honks]
[Freddy chuckles] Juano.
Holy cow, there's
a sight for sore eyes.
How are you doing, buddy?
[Freddy] Good. How are you?
-Pretty good.
-You feeling all right?
Oh, doing better.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Doing better?
I ended up having
a really bad ear infection
that went viral,
and it caused Bell's palsy.
-Yeah.
-Right now, I have no
no control
of any of the muscles
on the side of my face,
on the right-hand side.
When I called you
the other day, I was
actually a little nervous
that I was having a stroke.
-What else do you think?
-Yeah. [chuckles]
-I'd never heard
of Bell's palsy before.
-Yeah. Yeah. Me either.
Well, thank God
it wasn't a stroke.
-All right, brother.
-Yeah.
[Freddy chuckles]
It's so good to see you.
-[Juan] Hey,
thank you. [chuckles]
-[chuckles]
Really, it's bad Botox
is what it is.
-[Freddy] Mmm.
-I tried to save a few bucks.
-It wasn't worth it.
-[Freddy laughs]
I should have spent
the money. [laughing]
I went to your guy.
He messed me up.
Well, let's park the truck.
And you want
to take me up there
-and show me around?
-Yeah.
All right. Sounds good.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[truck beeping]
It's a heck of a relief
to know it wasn't a stroke.
It's good to see Juano.
That's for darn sure.
It's a little difficult
right now
just because of all the issues
I have going on with my face.
So it's hard to talk.
But nonetheless,
I'm happy to be here,
happy to be able to help.
And hopefully, we can
get this rescue done.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy] And there they are.
Got a surprise for you.
-[Connie] You do?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-Juan.
-[Connie] Juan's here!
Oh, my goodness.
-[Juan] How you doing, Rob?
Juan. Nice to meet you.
-Oh, good to meet you.
-Juan, so glad to meet you.
-[Juan] Hello, Connie.
Nice to meet you as well.
-I'm a little late, but
-[Connie] You're here.
-[Rob] Well, I really
appreciate it.
-[Connie] And that's good.
Well, it's great
meeting you guys.
What do you want me
to jump on?
I can jump
on whatever you want.
Well, let's go up
and measure for the wiper
-and if you want
to burn that out.
-Yeah. All right.
[narrator] With time
running out on the rescue,
Juan takes on Freddy's plans
for the conveyor belt wiper.
-[Freddy] We have
angle iron here, right?
-[Juan] Mm-hmm.
For that way
you've got a pivot point,
and then have
the spring up top.
[Juan] Okay.
Sounds like a plan.
Let's do it.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[narrator] While Juan tackles
the wiper,
Freddy turns his attention
to the ground.
What we need to do here
is find out if that channel
that he was getting
the good gold out of
still exists.
There's no guarantees on that.
There's no guarantees in gold.
Well, you can see
that drift right there.
[narrator] In the Opie's cut,
Freddy inspects a drift tunnel
near the spot
Rob lost his river channel.
There's a reason
the old timers drifted there
and stopped.
Because they had
gold out here,
I'm guessing,
good enough gold
to keep working it,
keep working it,
keep working it,
and they're like, "Well,
let's see how it does
going deeper into the hill."
And as they got
deeper into the hill,
they started running
out of gold, most likely,
so they stopped.
[tense music playing]
-[soft cracking]
-[narrator] Streams carry gold
from veins in the hillside
down the valley.
Over thousands of years,
they are buried underground
by movements in the earth.
Using hand tools
and wooden carts,
prospectors dig drift tunnels
to find and chase
these gold-rich channels.
As the old-timers
tunnel underground,
they dig test drifts
in the hope they'll find
other
ancient channel deposits.
[Freddy] So I'm trying
to piece this puzzle together
to try to get a full picture
out of it.
[Rob] Sure.
[Freddy] This is no good.
[tense music playing]
There's no rhyme
or reason to it, right?
It's giving us a picture,
but a bad picture.
It's saying,
"I haven't been reworked
in nature's sluice box."
[narrator] The material
in Rob's cut has not been
concentrated by flowing water,
and there's no sign
of his missing river channel.
[Freddy] I've seen a lot
of deposits, right?
But this one,
this one's really tricky
to read.
[tense music playing]
So, putting
this puzzle together.
[narrator] On the Opie claim
in Montana,
Freddy is on the hunt
for a lost channel of gold.
When a stream cuts through,
there's not just one channel,
'cause that creek moves
over time.
Yeah.
We know it's not right here,
but that doesn't mean
it's not 20 feet that way.
-Right.
-Another channel,
that they missed.
[Rob] Yeah.
[Freddy] Let's have
a look down here.
[narrator] With no sign
of Rob's channel,
Freddy turns his attention
to a lower section of bedrock.
[Freddy] See how
this all smoothed off
-down the face?
-Oh, yeah.
[Freddy] That tells me
water and material is
pushing rocks, sand,
-everything down, right?
-Yeah.
You know, this may
be another channel.
[Rob] That would be huge.
There's only one way
to find out.
Let's get in the excavator
and start digging.
Oh, I'd love to find
that channel again.
I'm hopeful. Here, we'll see.
Pretty interesting rock.
[Rob] Yeah, I agree!
[Freddy] That looks good.
Those big boulders, Rob,
are a really good find.
[Rob] That looks really good.
Yeah.
[narrator] Large boulders
often collect on the bedrock
of river channels.
Acting like riffles
in a sluice box,
they trap gold in place.
Oh, boy, that's exciting.
Last year when I was
on that channel
that had the really good gold
in the bottom,
that's the kind of stuff
I was seeing.
And I didn't see that
this year up to this point.
[Freddy] We found a channel.
At least I think
it's a channel.
Yeah.
[Freddy]
But this excites me more
than finding
that old channel
that they mined,
'cause this is virgin ground.
-They missed this.
-Great. Yeah?
From that hole
in the wall over there,
they went right over
the top of it,
which is a good thing for you.
Let's run this stuff,
and
we'll go from there.
[Rob] Okay.
[narrator] The discovery
of an unmined river channel
has the potential
for a huge payday
and could get Rob
and Connie back on the gold.
[Rob] I skipped right over it
'cause the bedrock is
higher on both sides of it.
So Freddy identifying is,
yeah, that is a channel there.
Yeah, this is really
a good thing.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
It's going to be
a simple wiper.
[narrator] At the cut trailer,
Juan's wiper takes shape.
[Juan] These are the brackets
that are going to mount
onto the conveyor,
and we'll just have
a couple springs
that pull up on it,
and that way
it'll actually put
constant pressure
on that belt.
It can scrape
all that material
that has gold off,
and that way we can sluice it.
So these are
the side arms for the wiper.
They're gonna pivot
on a five-eighths pin.
That way you can
adjust it where you need it.
If you need to pull it out,
you can pull the pins out
and remove it.
What I did,
I cut the rubber out.
I made these holes slotted
so that way we can adjust it
where we need to have it.
And that way, as it wears out,
we can adjust it up
a little bit
and be able to make
better contact with the belt.
[tense music playing]
[Freddy] Let me show you
what I'm thinking on here.
[narrator] New pay secured,
Freddy and Rob turn
their attention
to the feed hopper.
I'd cut the front out first,
thinking we'd go up
four inches
at this angle here.
Then I just cut
the edge here
-Yeah.
-with the grinder
quarter inch in,
quarter inch in,
and cut that out.
[narrator] Freddy's plan,
to relieve the pinch point
and prevent blockages.
[Connie] Okay, you got this.
-I do? Okay.
-Yes.
[kisses and giggles]
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Well, that line
didn't go too bad.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, I thought I was gonna have
to really work those corners.
Oh, nice. Okay.
That should solve
my rock problem.
See, what'd happen is
I'd get a rock down here
and another one would
kind of just sit right on it
back in there,
and then they get jammed,
and then they'd pin in
really hard.
Bad enough,
we'd get a shutdown
just to get them undone,
'cause then the material
behind it would pack up,
and [blows raspberry]
Big problem.
[Freddy] Got her done, huh?
-[Juan] Yeah.
-Well, it looks good, Juan.
[Juan] It's simple.
It'll work, though.
Yeah, let me start
my welder up here
and get my hood.
[narrator]
Juan's conveyor wiper
is ready to be
welded in place.
I'd weld it, but I can't
see real well, so
-[Freddy chuckling] Yeah. No.
-[Juan chuckles]
[Freddy] I understand, buddy.
[Rob] Having Juan show up,
feeling not 100%
wow, that shows his heart.
[Connie] He puts
everything into it regardless.
He's totally professional
and just a sweetheart.
[Freddy] We'll get an idea
roughly where we're at, huh?
[Juan straining] Right there
is about where it should be.
[intense music playing]
Just tack that right there.
You want to give me
your hood and I'll do it?
[Freddy strains]
I think I can get it on.
Did I get it?
-Yeah, you got her.
-Okay.
That looks good, Fred.
-Looks good. That's
the last of the fixes.
-Yeah.
Well, let's clean up our tools
and head out, huh?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
Tomorrow's a big day.
-Yep.
[Freddy] That channel I found,
that's pretty exciting.
[Juan] Sounds good.
-[Connie] It's going
to be hot. You're welcome.
-[Rob] Thank you.
[narrator] In Montana,
miners Rob and Connie
share their camp comforts.
[Rob] When
we first started
coming up here
just in the very beginning,
we would come up
and we'd camp out
in just a little pup tent,
so to speak, on the ground.
It was nice, but, you know,
-we're not
young chickens anymore
-It was--
[Rob]so we took
our living situation
to the next level.
Rob would get
some materials on sale,
or he would make them himself
out of iron
or scraps of wood
that he had left over,
and then I had
a kitchen all of a sudden.
He really wanted
to eat real food, I guess.
If I was going to eat good,
I better give her
a good kitchen
that she's going
to like, be in.
[Connie] Yeah.
[Rob] She's frugal.
I'm frugal, make what I can.
And we just turned it
into a home away from home.
And now it's just something
we really look forward to.
This is the life
we want to live.
We want to be out here
camping and enjoying nature.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Let's do a test run, huh?
-Let's do it.
-Yeah.
[narrator] On the Opie mine
in Montana
Head on down, I'm going
to start the water pump.
[narrator] the moment
of truth for Rob and Connie
has arrived.
[Rob] Having found
the channel,
I'm really, really excited.
If all these fixes work out,
it gives us the direction
we were hoping for
for the next 10 years.
But until I see it done,
I won't know
exactly where we're at.
[Freddy] First bucket, Juan.
Yeah. See how it does.
-[Freddy] That channel
I found
-[Juan] Yeah.
let's hope it's as good
as I think it could be.
Okay, yeah.
[narrator] The Opies are
running pay
from the newly discovered
Virgin River Channel.
[Freddy] It's working perfect.
That wiper's sure
working good, Juan.
Yeah.
[narrator] Juan's wiper is
scrubbing fine material
off the conveyor belt
and into the spray deck.
[Freddy] It's getting
a lot better, Juan!
[Juan] Yeah.
See they pile up
in the next one?
-Yeah.
-Perfect.
[narrator] And the new dampers
on the spray deck
mean more material is being
washed off
the coarse tailings.
[Freddy] Every one
of these rocks before had
a thin layer of dirt on them.
Yeah, it looks
pretty clean now.
Yeah, have a look at that.
-[Juan] That's real clean.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[narrator]
Freddy's new baffles
in the Opie's trommel
means more fine material is
washed into the sluice box.
-[Freddy] Hey, Connie!
-[Connie] Yeah.
[Freddy] Are you feeding it
faster than before?
-Speed her up.
-Okay, got it.
-It'll handle it.
-Okay.
[Freddy] Right now,
at the pace
we're running the plat,
it's over double
what they were running before.
[narrator] Halfway
through the test run,
and the Opie crew are running
nearly 20 yards an hour
through their plant.
We haven't had
one blockage in the feeder.
You had to get off
and do anything?
[Rob] Wow. That is amazing.
I'm stoked.
This is tear-jerker material.
It's amazing.
Nothing is getting
jammed up at all.
[Freddy] I'm proud
of what we've done here.
You know, seeing
the amount of material going
through this plant now
is pretty exciting.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
Hey, Connie, last bucket!
Woo. [chuckles]
That was amazing!
[chuckles]
The plant ran really well,
so let's keep
our fingers crossed
and go look
in the sluice, huh?
Have a look at this, guys.
-[Connie] No way.
-[Freddie] How much
is buried in there?
-Juano.
-[Rob] No way.
-[Freddy] Hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, look at that.
-[Connie laughing]
-[Freddy] Look at that nugget.
-[Rob] There we go.
We've never seen that before.
[Connie] Oh, look.
[Freddy] There's
another nugget.
-[Freddy] Juano.
-[Juan] Little nugget
in there?
[Connie] Oh, it's pretty.
-[chuckles]
-[Rob] Good grief.
[Freddy] I'm excited, guys.
And I'm more excited
[chuckling] than you are.
[Rob and Connie laughing]
[Freddy] Well,
clean it up, guys.
[Juan] Yeah, we'll head out.
We'll see you guys
in the morning.
[Connie laughing]
This is amazing.
This is so good.
[Rob] I'm
I'm kind of in shock.
What does that mean?
Well, we'll find out.
This is incredible.
[Western
instrumental music playing]
[Freddy]
Let's see what it did.
-Well, hello.
Ooh, that looks good.
-[Rob] Hey, Juan.
-Ooh, that looks good.
-[Connie chuckles]
[Juan] That's exciting.
[narrator] In order
to hit their goal
of 25 ounces in eight weeks,
this test needs to produce
at least a quarter
of an ounce.
-Well, let's weigh it up, huh?
-[Juan] Let's do it.
[Freddy] We did.17
in the first test.
[clinking]
Well, we just went
over your first weigh.
-There it is right there.
-The first test.
-I'm like, "How much is
left in there to go?"
-Holy moly.
[Rob] Look it. That's crazy.
-[Juan] Half an ounce.
-[Rob] No way.
That's half an ounce.
-Half an ounce right there.
-[Freddy] A little over
half an ounce, yep.
Put the rest in.
[Connie] Do it, do it.
[Juan] Three-quarters
of an ounce.
Over three-quarters
of an ounce.
-Wow.
-[Freddy] 1.221.
That's awesome.
-Yeah, that's pretty good.
-Yeah.
Proud of that.
[narrator] Over four times
what they need
to reach their goal.
Ounces, not grains.
-[all laughing]
-Ounces.
[Freddy] Now there's
$2,900 worth of gold
in that pan.
[Freddy laughing]
[Rob] Guys,
[chuckling] I don't know.
This is incredible.
I never dreamed
that was possible.
[Freddy] It's been
an absolute pleasure
working with you guys.
-Straight back at you.
-Yeah.
-Freddy
-Yeah.
-Juan.
-Good working with you.
-[Connie chuckles]
-[Rob] Thank you.
Hey, you're welcome.
Thank you so much.
[Rob] I'm blown away.
It's so far beyond
what I hoped,
you know, even when I was
hoping really big.
I'm so excited to get in there
and start digging
some more of this channel up.
We did this. We dug it.
It's on our ground.
We processed it.
It's real.
It's amazing.
It is truly our future.
And a lot of dreams
and a lot of hard work
have come to fruition.
Thanks for not
letting me quit.
Without you, I would have.
You realize that, right?
-I do.
-Thank you.
A 700% increase, that's more
than I could have hoped for.
That's more than I could
have dreamed for.
They had very little light
at the end of the tunnel
when I got here.
Now they got a bright light
at the end of the tunnel,
and they just got to keep
following it upstream.
And their future could
be set now.
I couldn't be happier.
-Hi, Freddy and Juan.
-Hey, guys.
We wanted
to give you an update
on what's been happening
since you left.
The fixes have been
working really well.
All those fixes together
have contributed to gold
in the sluice box,
which we actually can see now.
-I don't believe this.
-[Connie chuckling]
[Rob] Look
[chuckling] at those nuggets
in this nose mat.
[Connie chuckling]
[Rob] It is beyond
what we expected
and what we hoped for.
[Connie] Freddy and Juan,
we really want to thank you.
[Rob] 'Cause of the tools
you guys have given us
to succeed,
we are totally confident
going forward,
and we're excited.
We're going to take the step,
and we're going
to become full-time miners.
Construction will be something
that I can leave behind,
and we are
so grateful for that.
-Thank you again, guys.
-Thank you.