Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan (2021) s05e06 Episode Script
Tricks of the Mine
1
[dramatic music playing]
I love gold. Always have.
It's the most recycled element
on Earth.
What we've got here
is 10 ounces of really fine
placer gold.
Right now,
we're just gonna melt it down
and then make it into a bar
before it's sent off
to the refiner.
Gold is addictive.
More miners than ever
jump in headfirst,
no experience, no knowledge.
But what people
need to remember
is there's a lot of pitfalls
to look out for along the way.
Well, let's hope we've got
a beautiful bar here.
-[horn honking]
-There's Juan-O.
-How's it going, Juan?
-What's going on, buddy?
Melting a little gold?
Here's what I was doing, Juan.
Ooh, let me see that guy.
That's a good-looking
bar, Fred.
[Freddy]
Even ugly gold's pretty.
Yes. Still doesn't matter,
yeah. Gold's gold.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Beautiful either way.
[Freddy] Gold has always been
a motivator to make people
do extreme things.
It's made a lot of people
a lot of money.
And it's taken a lot of money
away from a lot of people.
[dramatic music playing]
-How's it going?
-Freddy. Corey.
[narrator] Ever year
expert miner Freddy Dodge
You pan this one.
See what we find.
[narrator]
and master fabricator
Juan Ibarra
I'm gonna spin it!
[narrator] heed
the distress calls of miners
struggling to find gold.
Oh! Hey!
[narrator] And the numbers
of them are growing
[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Shut it down!
[narrator] as the price
of gold soars to new highs.
It's better than anything
we could've hoped for.
[narrator] Fever filled
fortune seekers
take bigger risks
-[man 1] We got it, guys.
-[narrator] and face
much less reward.
Nobody's getting a paycheck
unless we see some gold.
[narrator] On this episode
of Mine Rescue
-Don't dig
where they tell you to dig.
-Been there done that.
-Yeah. Been there done that.
-We both have.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reveal the pitfalls
of gold-addicted miners.
I know there's big,
big gold in here. I know it.
Whether it's hot,
whether it's cold,
gold defines
where you're gonna
mine for gold.
[narrator] How to overcome
the traps of the trade.
There's so much
that needs to be done here.
Holy cow, just the amount
of labor that's going into it.
[narrator] And uncover
a golden payday.
-[all cheering]
-[woman] Shut the front door!
[upbeat music playing]
Right now, Fred, you know,
gold's at an all-time high.
Yeah, it's way up there.
-[Juan] Yeah, it is. Yeah.
-2,300 bucks, plus, an ounce.
You know, that's gonna
drive a lot of people
to go out and try to do
a little more mining.
[narrator] Gold is one
of the most valuable
commodities on Earth.
In the last 30 years
it's value has risen
over 400%.
And experts predict
that gold could reach as high
as $3,000 per ounce
in the next five years.
This means
more amateur miners than ever
will flood gold regions
looking to strike it
rich quick.
But most will fail
if they don't heed
the hazards.
There's a lot of pitfalls
when you get into
the mining industry.
People may think
that gold mining,
it's a get rich quick scheme,
it's not.
You gotta be able to work hard
to make it profitable
for yourself.
Well, what do you think
one of the biggest
pitfalls is, Juan?
-Really, the biggest pitfall,
Fred, is gonna be location.
-Agreed.
The actual mine,
what you're mining,
the material you have there.
'Cause if there's
not enough gold in the ground
you're going broke fast.
[narrator] Fundamental
to any miner's success
is the ground they mine.
The material he's running
is super sticky.
[narrator] And with over
50 years of combined
gold mining experience,
Freddy and Juan
have seen it all.
[Freddy]
That clay layer there,
if gold mining
doesn't work out for you
you could start
a pottery store.
[narrator]
From ancient river gravels
This whole pit
right here in my eyes,
is played out.
[narrator]
to hard rock deposits
Hey, guys. Don't take
any of the film crew
any farther than that.
[narrator] making sure
there's enough gold
on your claim
can make or break
an operation.
Location, location, location.
It's a tough one.
The pitfall is,
people go to a new mine site,
they see one
or two flakes in the pan,
and they get excited.
And they think
it's gonna carry through
the whole area.
They keep thinking
that they're gonna
strike it rich,
and that point never comes.
One of the situations
we ran into last year
were Ryan and Nolan Merritt.
You know, they had
all the intentions
but, unfortunately,
on their property
they didn't have enough gold.
[narrator] At the Mammoth Mine
in Oregon,
Freddy and Juan
answered a call
from father and son miners,
Ryan and Nolan Merritt.
What I do know about gold
is it's in the ground.
But I'm having
a hard time getting it out.
If we can't
make something happen
this year then it's--
Probably be the last season
we mine.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] To identify
Ryan's problem,
Freddy and Juan
test the pay from the cut.
Oh, God. Juan's got
a gold pan in his hand.
That makes me nervous.
-[Freddy] Let's see
what you get in this pan.
-[Juan] Not a speck.
[Freddy] Nothing.
This creek's
completely mined out.
-This is all tailings.
-Every bit of it's tailings.
[narrator] Tailings
are waste rocks
previously mined.
I always wanted to buy a mine
and ended up
up here with the realtor,
and they said
this is for sale
and there's rumors that
there's really good gold,
so we jumped on it.
-Pretty consistent ground.
-Pretty consistent garbage.
Well, I've seen claims
for sale of "selling because
of health reasons."
Yeah. The lack of gold's
got your blood pressure high,
probably is the health reason
there.
Well, you hope people
have the best of intentions,
but sometimes they're just
trying to drop it on you
and get their investment back.
-Yep. In gold mining
there's been more scams
-Oh, yeah.
than maybe
any other industry.
And we've seen 'em
with our own eyes
over the years.
One big deal is, uh,
you need to do some testing
on your own.
Let's say you wanna
buy this piece of property,
the owner's
got all this paperwork
from years past, right.
From 1800s, yeah.
Don't trust what they've
got wrote down unless
you really know the people.
Trust what your own eyes
tell you.
As far as testing that ground.
Get in there
and do some sampling.
[dramatic music playing]
-I think you shut 'em down.
-[Freddy] Shut 'em down.
Yeah, he's just burning fuel.
I think the old-timers hit it,
hydrauliced it,
and it was probably mined
in the 1930s and then probably
in the '80s.
[narrator] Only halfway
through the test, Freddy
and Juan call time on the run.
Everything here is tailings.
It's not virgin. It's been run
multiple times.
This whole 13 acres,
as far as placer goes--
-Dead?
-It's dead.
In Ryan's defense, you know,
unless you're
really experienced at it,
you've seen it a lot,
sometimes it's hard
to differentiate
what's tailings
and what could
actually be pay.
And unfortunately,
he thought it was pay.
-It was pay
a hundred years ago.
-[Juan chuckles] Yeah.
[Freddy] Nolan!
[narrator] In a bid
to give Nolan a masterclass
in prospecting,
Freddy takes him
to the edge of the claim.
[Freddy] You guys thought
it was virgin ground.
-[Nolan] Up here. Right.
-Right.
So, if it was virgin material
you'd have layers of material,
right, that have rhyme
and reason to 'em.
And reading the vegetation.
-Yep.
-There's more clues
in that too.
-[both] How old the trees are.
-[Juan] Yep.
[Freddy] They'll let ya know
when that hole was dug.
Looking at the tree growth,
everything we're walking on,
everything you see here's
been ran.
Well, how can you tell
by the tree growth
that it's been mined?
[Freddy] Because all the trees
in the valley here,
where the placer gold was,
they're all younger trees.
-You know, 30 or 40 years old.
-Right.
You got old growth
up on the hill where they
didn't mine the gold, right.
[Nolan] Right.
-It's always a fear
for both of us, right.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
That whole area
had been gutted out.
There's still
some good gold here
you just gotta search for it.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] To keep
the Merritts' gold mining
dream alive,
Freddy goes in search
of minable ground.
[Freddy] The old-timers
hit this.
[narrator]
But coming up dead
-You see
all the tailings here.
-Right.
[narrator] Freddy has
a radical solution.
-[Freddy] How's it going?
-Good. How you doing?
-[Freddy] Doing all right.
-Jim.
Jim, how you doing today?
[narrator] Downstream
from the Merritts' claim,
he finds a famer
who has some land
he'd like to lease
for a royalty.
[Freddy] So how deep's
the bedrock under here, Jim?
It's about, probably,
another 4-foot farther down.
[Freddy] Okay.
So most of this up here
probably won't contain
much gold.
Now, we get farther down.
You see how we got
tight material, right?
Yeah. Compact.
So, this is a whole
different ballgame compared
to what you got.
This is all virgin.
Yeah. After looking at this--
-[Freddy] Completely
different.
-Completely different.
-Yep.
-Mine's man-made.
And I'm seeing it now.
That, if there's
good gold here,
it's a second chance.
Proofs in the pan, right?
You guys were able to go out
and find a different
piece of property
that was a little
bit better for him.
That it was gonna
be profitable.
-Had gold left in it
that hadn't been mined.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Well, I see
a piece of gold there.
Look at that.
And a couple of 'em
are decent sized too.
[Ryan]
What's that mean, Freddy?
-That means [bleep] mine it.
-[Ryan] All right.
[Freddy] Live
and learn, right?
We got 'em, at least
headed in a direction
where they have a chance
to succeed now.
[narrator] Ryan and Nolan
run a 2-hour test
with the new ground.
-[Juan] Packed, packed,
packed, packed.
-[Freddy] Nice.
-[Nolan] That's a nice flake.
-[Juan] Nice, little flake.
I think we found
the silver lining, you know,
at the end of the tunnel.
In our case, the gold lining.
You know, it just
shows that the Merritts,
they didn't have
the experience.
-That they needed to read
the ground that they were on.
-Yeah.
Well, the simplest way
to not go broke gold mining
is a gold pan
and a lot of testing.
Yep. If you're gonna mine,
make sure you test.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Test, test, test.
And keep track
of that material, so you know
it's a ton or a yard.
-[Juan] Where it came from.
Everything else. Flag it.
-Exactly.
You wanna make sure
that the ground's
gonna be able
-to sustain that operation.
-That's exactly right.
-So do your own testing.
-Trust your own eyes.
And don't dig
where they tell you to dig.
-Been there, done that.
-[chuckles] Yeah. Been there.
-[both laughing]
-We both have!
"Oh, yeah.
We'll dig right there."
[narrator] Coming up
[man] [bleep] evil.
[bleep] evil.
He didn't want his son
to mess up.
[Trever] How many
[bleep] times have I ran
all the way
from the Klondikes?
You gotta give him enough rope
to be able to go out
and try things himself.
[Trever] Back and forth,
back and forth.
He may hang himself,
but you gotta
give him the rope.
[Trever] For you!
[upbeat music playing]
Smart dog.
[narrator] With mining season
ramping up
He's a good dog.
He's only 10 months old.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reveal the traps of the trade
and how to avoid them,
with some extra encouragement
from Doc the dog.
[Juan] Pretty amazing.
Just the other day
it was snowing.
-Now look at the weather.
-[Freddy chuckles] Yeah.
-[Juan] Just
beautiful weather.
-It is.
And it's supposed
to maybe snow tonight
and tomorrow night.
-[Juan] Really?
-Yeah.
It's just like mining.
-You don't know
what the weather's gonna be.
-[Freddy] Nope.
-It changes on us
all the time.
-[Freddy] Yep.
Fetch it out!
Gold defines
where you're gonna mine,
the weather's gonna
have a large input on that.
[narrator] Some of the best
gold deposits left
on the planet
are in the most
inhospitable places.
We got an awful lot of rain
that's coming down
with this storm.
[narrator] Tricky access
[Juan] Come on.
[narrator]
extreme temperature
or unpredictable weather.
I'd rather it be snowing
than raining.
This is one
of the wettest springs
that I ever remember
and we're already
a month behind schedule
in mining.
[narrator] To know the impact
the environment has
on the mining season
[Freddy] The weather sucks.
It's hard to weld in the rain.
[narrator]
or its destructive power
over a claim
[man] We need to go,
we need to go.
[narrator] is everyday life
for a miner.
-[man] You all right, man?
-[Freddy] Yeah. I'm not
feeling really good.
I'm dizzy and I have
a bad headache.
[man 1] That's the first sign
of heat exhaustion
out here, man.
It's [bleep] hot.
You know, some of the pitfalls
that you can't navigate, Fred,
are, uh, one of them
being weather.
[scoffs]
Planning your operation
is gonna have a large input
on your mining season.
You know, we'd seen it
in Arizona where, you know,
you have to truck water in.
-It gets too hot,
you evaporate all your water.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] Or if in July,
that's way too damn hot
to run,
maybe you wait
for the months
where it's a little cooler.
And in colder climates,
with placer mining,
99% of everything you do
is with water.
So when it starts to go
below freezing, you know,
first of October--
-[Juan] You're done.
-Yep.
Then maybe
you gotta figure out
what your season looks like.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Maybe try to plan
your season accordingly.
One that really stands out
that we had an issue
with the weather
was the Nybergs.
-Yeah. Healy, Alaska.
-[Juan] Yeah.
-Man, that mountain beat us.
-It did.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Three years ago,
three generations of Nybergs
were battling the thawed out
mountains of Denali,
Central Alaska
in the hopes of a huge payday.
Guys, how's it going?
-Freddy.
-Paul.
Well, this is my dad, Beetle.
[Beetle] Weather's
our biggest time constraint.
[Paul] It's a battle
against the clock
and the elements.
[narrator] This remote area
of Alaska is frozen solid
for 6 months.
As it thaws,
the family strip topsoil,
known as overburden,
to reach a pay layer below.
[Paul] The overburden's, uh,
either frozen or mud.
It takes so long to strip it,
season usually ends up
being weeks long.
Well, in the Nyberg situation,
their pay was extremely
sloppy, Freddy.
-[Freddy] Oh! The sloppiest
I've ever seen.
-[Juan] Yeah.
When you have mountains,
you have difficult weather.
You know, it makes it
harder to mine.
I wanna go up on the hill
and see into that hopper
a little bit.
You almost always
never wanna run wet pay.
Well, you know,
every time you grab
a bucket full
you're agitating
that material,
and that gold is sinking
further and further down.
When you're digging it too,
gold's falling out
'cause gold's heavy, right.
Gold always wants to try
to get back to the center
of the Earth,
it thinks that's its home.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
are no strangers to wet pay.
Sounds like a little thing,
so your dirt's
got water in it.
Well, it's a huge thing.
[narrator] They solved
this problem
in British Columbia
by letting it dry in the sun.
[Freddy] Sometimes
it's the little things.
If we can keep
the material dry, it's gonna
make a huge difference here.
[narrator] Or drying
damp pay in Arizona
with a heated trommel.
[Juan] Holy crap! That's hot.
[Freddy] Frickin' hot, boy!
[narrator] But a fix like that
would be in vain in Alaska's
unpredictable climate.
You wanna pile it up,
let it dry if it's wet, right.
But in that situation
there was no choice.
They had to run it that way.
[dramatic music playing]
They're getting
all that material
brought down here
and they're losing good
pay material out the side
of that hopper.
Sure slopping a lot
of material on the ground.
-Like feeding a milkshake.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Poor PJ's in there, you know,
in 6-foot of muck,
putting it in the hopper.
And the hopper
was just way too tiny
for what they were doing.
They weren't lying
about this weather
changing quick. Man.
[Freddy yelling] Hey, PJ.
Last bucket.
-Talk about a mudhole, huh?
[chuckling] Holy cow.
-Yep.
[narrator]
In the boggy pay dirt
Whoo.
[narrator] the Nybergs
run 65-yards an hour less
than they need
to turn a profit.
[Juan] The environment
they were working in
was extreme.
Between the storms
that were coming in
and the hard access,
uh, it was really
a tough situation.
[Freddy] Well,
let's see your gold.
Here we go.
Exactly half an ounce,.50.
Think we need
a lot more than that.
There's room
for improvement, I'm sure.
[Juan] As far as
the repairs to the plant,
we wanna redo that hopper,
put some real grizzles on it.
Make it a little wider
and a little longer.
[Freddy] We're gonna
be a little limited
on the time
it takes us to get in here,
and if it keeps raining
like this
we got a problem.
[Paul] Winter's coming, y'all.
We got a lot of dirt to move
in a short amount of time
and hopefully they can
help us get it through
with better recovery.
[narrator] To increase
the yardage of the sloppy pay
to the plant,
a new 4-foot steel hopper
will need to be fabricated.
We can go ahead
and start cutting.
[narrator] But with
the plasma cutting trailer
unable to ascend the mountain,
Juan and PJ
will build the bigger hopper
in the boneyard below.
[dramatic music playing]
Day three of the build,
and in true Alaskan style
the weather goes from bad
to worse.
We got, uh
[chuckles softly]
snow today.
Just gonna add
that much more work
to everything
we already got going on.
It was a snowstorm
in the middle of summer
that popped up--
-Snow and rain.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Snow and rain, and just
totally screwed up our passage
to the mine site.
-And there was no way we could
get our trucks in there.
-Nope.
[narrator] But the bad
weather conditions
cause more problems
than just soggy pay.
[Freddy] We're not
crossing the creek,
we're driving in the creek.
-[banging]
-[Freddy] Whoa.
[chuckles] Whoa.
-A little sideways.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-It's a horrible road.
-When it's wet, yep.
If Mother Nature says, "Hey.
I'm gonna dump snow
on your tomorrow,"
we can't control that.
Just gotta live with it.
[narrator]
Mountain road scaled
[Paul] Made it.
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan set to work
installing the bigger hopper
to process the sloppy pay
Am I good over there, Juan?
[narrator]
hoping to increase
production by 100%.
Just keep our fingers crossed
that there's lots of gold
in this next 4-hour run.
[PJ] First bucket ready.
I love this new hopper
that Juan built me.
It's catching
all the big rocks
that aren't supposed
to go through there,
and I'm not spilling any.
[Juan speaking]
[Paul] Hey, PJ.
How many buckets?
Hundred twenty-five buckets
in 45 minutes.
Hundred and six yards an hour.
That's awesome.
It was a really
tough situation.
But considering all,
I'm really happy
with what we were able to do.
You know,
and from what I remember,
it was
a pretty decent increase.
[Freddy] How's it look?
-Looks better.
-[Freddy] Well,
let's weight it up.
It was a half-ounce last time.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Juan] There ya go.
-1.07.
[narrator]
Over a 100% increase
on the first test.
Worth roughly $1,800.
[Paul] That's great.
That's great.
-[Juan] There wasn't much
we could do to their pay.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I think a lot of it
had to do with,
now we're able
to put that much more material
through the plant.
That's exactly right.
[Juan] You know, I can see
how you guys have a really
short season out here.
So, now it's
It's not time to play around,
it's game time.
Oh, yeah. We gotta wash
as much as we can,
as fast as we can.
If you're looking
at mine site, you know,
obviously you're gonna
wanna try to find something
with the best weather,
but you can't let that
be your business plan
because you need to go
where the gold is.
Whether it's hot,
whether it's cold,
gold defines
on where you're gonna
mine your gold.
[both laughing]
[dramatic music playing]
I wanna show you something
pretty cool, Juan.
-Hunting blind
on a scissor assembly.
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Perfect.
It's one of a kind.
-That thing's awesome, Fred.
Very cool.
[Freddy] Instead of taking
days to set up a blind,
it takes you minutes.
This is a perfect example
of efficiency, Freddy.
Either in hunting
or in mining,
try to keep it simple,
try to keep it efficient.
Yep. Unfortunately,
we've been around wash plants
over the years
that really weren't planned
very well.
[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
[narrator] From screen decks
and trommels
My electric motor's
kind of worn out.
[narrator]
to bowls and the sluice
[Freddy] These are
worthless ripples.
[narrator]
the equipment miners use
Spray bar broke off
11 seconds in.
[narrator]
and how they use it
All right, miss kitty.
Gold work, hoo.
[narrator] can make
or break an operation.
[Freddy] Don't start
the conveyor,
it's bound up.
An easy pitfall to fall into,
Freddy, is buying
too much equipment.
-Overthinking a plant.
-Yeah.
-Well, we've seen that.
-A lot of times.
If you see a plant
that has sluices, then jigs,
and then spirals,
and then this, and that,
and the other,
usually it wasn't 'cause
they were losing
that much gold
but they think they are.
Yeah. But sometimes
simplicity is actually
the key.
-Remember in California?
-The Gretzners.
That hard rock mine.
-They fall into that pitfall
of plan your plant.
-Yep.
[narrator] Two years ago,
Freddy and Juan venture to
the Mojave Desert, California
in a bid to rescue
a failing hard rock
mining operation.
When it comes to liberating
gold from hard rock,
do you have to be crazy
enough to go and get it? Yes.
[Freddy] You guys wanna
fire up your mill.
-Let's do it.
-[Freddy] Let's do it.
[narrator] Chad,
and Dad, Greg,
along with a crew
of part-time weekend warriors
operate a huge mill,
which frees gold
trapped in rock
by crushing it to a powder.
Well, remember when we
first showed up
at the Gretzners?
I'm like, "Holy cow!"
You know, just the amount
of labor that's going into it.
[Freddy] I [bleep] hate
those chain pulls.
[Juan] Those
are painfully slow.
Four and a half minutes
to pick the first bag up
and dump it in the hopper.
[Juan] Right now,
it's not really efficient.
It takes four guys
to load the plant.
When you set up
a plant like that,
every time you gotta touch it
it costs you money.
You know, so they were having
to manually lift up
those bags with a chain hoist,
which took time.
[Chad] We have to feed it
by hand with a shovel
up there.
There's a lot of wasted time
right there, Freddy.
Lot of wasted time.
-Then, it gets
into the hopper.
-Yep.
The hopper should be able
to feed by itself,
that's the whole point
of having a hopper. It didn't.
Is that on?
It does nothing.
We got a bunch of issues
going on here.
It was a little
overwhelming, honestly.
Just because they didn't
plan their plant.
That screen right there,
we need to do something
better about that.
[narrator] The vibrating
screen that sorts the rock
lacks enough power.
Wonder why he's down there
with a hammer?
[narrator] So Chad's crew
must do it by hand.
[Freddy] Could hire
a trained monkey
to do that one, though.
Essentially, it's become
a manual screen.
Even though he has
a vibrator on it.
[Freddy] They got time killers
all down the line.
Unfortunately, every step
of their process--
-Has a bottle neck.
-It was.
-They should have called that
the Bottle Neck Plant.
-[chuckles]
-Let's weigh it out.
-Yep.
[Chad] All right. Here we go.
[narrator] Chad and his team
need to make $700 a day
to break even.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Chad] 0.03.
-[Freddy] 0.03, yep.
Nine-tenths of a gram.
[Chad] Almost a gram.
Almost a gram
from one ton of ore.
[Juan sighs]
[Juan] That's a tremendous
amount of work for that small
of a payday.
Yeah.
[Freddy] They were working
their butts off but, uh,
work smarter
not harder sometimes.
-[Juan] Needs to be
all the time.
-Mmm-hmm.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan,
with the crew's help,
set to work to make the plant
less labor-intensive
and more efficient.
Uh, I'm just setting up
this new hoist.
Electric hoist.
It's a hell of a lot easier
than pulling on that chain.
We were able to put airbags
under their hopper
to be able
to get that material
to feed properly.
These are just really simple.
They're actually
an automotive airbag,
and they work good.
-Awesome.
Very, very cool. Thank you.
-It'll work.
Before, they had a little,
tiny vibrator on the back here
that wasn't doing anything,
but we're actually
doing an eccentric.
[narrator] By spinning
heavy weights on a bar
below the hopper,
the eccentric vibrator
will pulsate a steady supply
of rocks into the jaw crusher.
[Juan] It took five guys
to feed it.
So what we're trying to do
is trying to eliminate
all that extra labor
to make it one
smooth transition,
where it feeds itself
into the jaw and you catch it
on the other side.
That screen that you built
on top of that
conveyor dropping into
the second feeder,
we were able to build that
to be able to get it back
into a wheelbarrow
so they could re-run it.
[narrator] Before,
oversized rock collected
under the hopper
and had to be removed by hand.
Now, Freddy's new screen
will divert oversized rock
down a chute
ready to be re-run
through the crusher.
[Freddy] Just getting
the rocks screened out,
where all the material
going into the surge hopper's
the size it needs to be.
And it allows them
to re-crush that material
in the same circuit
with the same ore.
So they aren't watering down
another batch of material.
It's ought to work, huh?
Really, there was a lot
of fixes we did there.
And every one of them
sped up their process.
Every fix we did
made a difference there.
[dramatic music playing]
-I'll set a timer.
-Yep.
[narrator] Fixes complete,
the Gretzner crew run another
2-hour test.
[man] First bag.
[Juan] Freddy,
it's working good.
[narrator] But, the real
measure of their fixes
is the second gold weigh.
[Freddy] It's your mine,
you do the honors.
[narrator] To make
the mine viable,
Chad must produce
at least a quarter of an ounce
of gold.
-[Freddy] 0.26.
-[Chad] 0.26.
-0.26, whoo-hoo!
-[man] Man.
-[Freddy] Just over
a quarter of an ounce.
-[Juan] That's awesome.
Well, it's dang near 10 times
the amount of gold in that pan
with a lot less work.
Whether it's placer
or hard rock,
really it boils down to,
you gotta have
the right equipment,
you gotta plan your plant.
Yep. Just like
any other thing.
-You gotta have
the right tool for the job.
-Yep.
You know,
I've worked underground,
not as much as you,
but I think I'll stick
with the placer gold, Juan.
-Yeah.
-[both chuckle]
[dramatic music playing]
-[Freddy] Boom out.
-Boom out.
[Freddy] Boom out
and boom down.
Keep coming
straight down, Juan.
[narrator] At his home
in Colorado
Coming down.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reflect on the mining
traps of the trade
and how to avoid them.
Prefect.
It's all yours, buddy.
-Thank you, Juan.
-No problem.
You guys wanna
bolt her in and--
-[Mitch] Yeah.
-[Cameron] Yep.
We'll finish it up
and get on the road with it.
[Juan] Well, you know,
something as simple as this,
with the wrong crew
would have been
a nightmare, Freddy.
[Freddy] It takes
a team to do things.
And it takes the right team.
Like, Mitch and Cameron,
you could jump in there
and do anything we just did.
-[Freddy] Yep.
-You know,
the right crew of guys.
[Freddy]
How's it going, Terry?
Terrible.
[narrator] In mining,
you need more than rich ground
and sturdy equipment
I'm not a psychiatrist,
just so you know.
I don't expect you to be,
but if you could do some work
between me and my brother,
it'd be great.
[narrator] that's only
half the battle.
Stress levels are high.
I mean, I know him.
I raised him, right.
[narrator] True success
comes with picking
the right crew
Somehow I gotta get my bucket
in that feeder.
I am a bit nervous about that.
[narrator] who have
the right skills
The guys are behind
on their wages,
so they're gonna be wanting
some cash soon.
They're gonna
be screaming, yep.
[narrator] for the job.
I feel like I'm obligated
to have to come out here.
If you're gonna run
a successful mining operation,
you gotta choose
your crew properly.
If you don't have a welder,
and a fabricator,
and mechanic on site,
you don't have a mine.
-Mmm-hmm.
-Because really
that's what it boils down to.
-So, right people for the job.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Me and you
get along well, right?
-Yep.
We work good together.
-But there's a lot of people
that butt heads.
-Yeah.
And that can
be a huge distraction
on a mine.
-Remember the Morrills?
-Oh, Gregg.
What a family affair
that was, huh?
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Five years ago,
Freddy and Juan
head to the Western slopes
of Colorado
to a struggling operation
run by father and son,
Gregg and Trever Morrill.
I always told me wife,
"When I retire,
I'm going to have a gold mine
with heavy equipment."
Gold will always
be worth some money.
So main motivation
is my family.
[Trever] The relationship
between me and my dad
is pretty good.
When we're working together,
that's when it gets hard.
I mean, you can't tell him
that he's wrong.
So you just kind of sit back
and let him go with it.
[Freddy] Well,
one of the biggest things,
you know,
was taking him
[chuckles]around four days
to clean up their gold.
-After they ran the plant
for one day, right.
-Yeah.
And if they do
that every week,
you know,
-basically they run
two days a week.
-Yep.
[Freddy] Would you run down
in my trailer and grab a bunch
of my gold pans?
-Okay. Uh-huh.
-Thanks, Gregg.
We'll just take a break
for a second.
It's a lot easier using
the snuffer bottle,
moves all the black sands up.
That's why I carry it
with me. Right there.
You didn't grab
a bunch of 'em?
[Gregg] Oh. You said
get me "a gold pan."
I thought--
-No, "some gold pans."
-[Trever] "Some gold pans."
-A bunch of gold pans.
-Your turn.
I've missed enough of this.
I am the mine owner,
I need to know.
No, we stopped.
-We didn't do anything
while you were gone.
-[Trever] We were on break.
[dramatic music playing]
Why'd you only
go down there for one?
You'd chew my ass for that.
[Freddy] The tension
between those two,
it was stiff
while we were there, boy.
[Juan] That was
a tough situation.
You know, me personally,
I don't necessarily mind
having family work with us,
if they've got a good attitude
and willing to learn
and a good work ethic.
-Yep.
-I don't pick sides.
But, you know,
they both had faults.
[dramatic music playing]
[Gregg] Never seen
that technique, did you?
-I like that.
-[Trever speaking]
-[clears throat]
-[Gregg] Bull.
[scoffs] Okay.
[Gregg] Hold it just a second.
Don't you forget
who owns this mine.
Who invested every penny
in this mine.
You are a hired hand
at this point.
[Trever] I should
be learning it from him.
[Gregg] You may wanna learn
what Freddy has to teach,
I have to if this
is going to survive.
Don't overstep
your position, son.
I don't know what's going on
between them personally.
I'm hoping
they can work past it.
The biggest logistical
challenge to this
is putting up with my dad.
[Gregg] I am in charge here.
It's my money,
it's my investment.
He can have his way
when the day comes.
Right now, I'm just
concentrating on getting
this thing going
so there will be
a someday for him.
[Juan] I understand
where Gregg
was coming from,
he didn't want his son
to mess up.
-Yeah.
-And I get that.
But you gotta give him
enough rope
to be able to go out
and try things himself.
He may hang him,
but you gotta give him
the rope.
[dramatic music playing]
So, what's the biggest problem
you have with your dad?
His lack of trust in me.
[Juan] I think my dad
has a little bit of that too.
You know, in his eyes
I'm still his little boy,
and he's the one
that taught me everything.
That's exactly right.
And if he didn't
teach it to you
you don't know
what the hell you're doing.
[Juan] Yeah.
My dad and I get along great,
as long as we're
not working together.
[Trever] Yeah, exactly.
It's the same with my dad.
Just don't give up, man.
You guys have a great thing
going here.
Gregg really needed
to kind of let go
of the reigns.
Trever, he might screw up.
He's probably gonna screw up.
Every one of us,
you know, has failed.
-Mmm-hmm.
-You know, multiple times.
-And it'll happen again.
-Yeah.
But that's all part
of the learning curve.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] And sometimes,
if personalities clash,
it runs the risk
of ending in disaster.
[Trever] You know what?
[bleep] you! [bleep] you!
How many [bleep] times
have I ran all the [bleep] way
from the Klondikes
and then back the [bleep] up?
How many times
have I [bleep] done that? Huh?
Back and forth,
back and forth,
back and forth,
back and forth.
For you!
They're just not meant
to be together, working.
When they're not
working together
the family life
will probably be good.
Yeah.
-Or better anyway.
-Yeah. Hopefully.
[narrator]
Intervention needed,
Freddy and Juan clean house.
What happened yesterday,
it's not good.
But we wanna make sure
you guys are okay.
Is there anything we can do
to help you guys out?
Throw a rock at me
once in a while.
-Just do a full timeout.
-[Juan] Mmm-hmm.
Figure out
what the main issue is.
And I'm no therapist.
And that's all
I'm going to say about it.
I'm done.
More?
Yeah.
-How you doing?
-Good.
Do me a favor.
Since you already
know how to do all this,
stand back
and just let me do
all of this stuff.
[Gregg speaking]
It's not in my nature
to just give someone
free rein,
but I need to just quit,
micromanage,
and I'll intervene
when he needs help.
[narrator] The feud resolved.
Gregg and Trever
get to work,
helping Freddy and Juan
complete the fixes
on their plant.
How does
the welds look, Gregg?
Looks good to me.
[narrator] After an overhaul
on the wash plant
Here we go.
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan run
a second four hour test.
-There was a lot
of repairs there.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
That's something
to be proud of.
[Freddy] Well, dump her
in there, Juan.
[narrator] Freddy
and Juan's fixes
increase the Morrills
gold haul by over 60%.
[chuckles] I'm very
happy with that.
-[laughing]
-Good job.
[Juan] You know,
if they could just
get along, it'd be better.
You know, having
family work for you,
it can be a good thing
because you 'em,
but it can also be
Could be a bad thing too.
Bad thing, like if you
have to let somebody go or
Makes it really awkward
for Thanksgiving dinner, huh?
Yep. Sorry, Grandpa.
[laughing]
[narrator] Coming up
Where is gold
in that bucket?
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan reveal
the biggest trap of the trade
rookie miners can face.
[Stephen] There's rumored
to be a 36-ounce nugget
found up here
back in the day.
What is the chances that
that was the only one?
[Juan] Holy cow, Fred.
I can see your new
head frame from here.
-It's massive.
-If you look
on the corners.
The corner, gussets
are my dad's old brand.
That's pretty neat.
What size pipe is that?
[Freddy] That's 36 inch.
-[Juan] You had
to outdo me, huh?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I've got a little bit
of an entrance envy now.
-Entrance envy?
-Yeah.
[Freddy] It's not
really a ranch,
but I grew up
on the Dodge Ranch.
I don't have enough
acreage to be a ranch.
[Juan] Neither do I.
-We call it the Ibarra Ranch,
but it's not.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I got wild kids
and chickens.
-That's what we got.
[chuckles]
-That's right?
[Freddy] Yeah.
Well, Juano.
That's where
the magic happens.
[narrator] In Colorado
[Juan] Get those
finds, Fred.
[narrator] at Freddy's
mining operation,
Freddy and Juan
reflect on the traps
of the trade
for miners,
and how
to avoid them.
Looks pretty good, Topher.
Yeah. Very good.
Beautiful yellow gold.
The stuff dreams
are made of.
Or nightmares.
[Juan] That little gold
adds up, though.
You can't sacrifice
that to go after big gold.
-No.
-[Juan] People get so
focused on nuggets,
and that's all
they think about.
We've seen
that before, huh?
Yeah.
Come on big gold.
[narrator] For gold
miners a nugget
can give them the fever.
The nugget factor up here
is the real deal.
[man 1] Look at that.
[man 2] There's a $3000
nugget right there. Easy.
[narrator] But if you
forget to mind the fines
[woman] I got
a color red nugget
over here, right there.
A few million more of those
we're in good shape.
[narrator] you can
end up in trouble.
[Freddy] Are you sure
you don't have gold fever?
Your eyes haven't left
those nuggets.
-Generally speaking,
gold fever is a real thing.
-Mmm-hmm.
But I think
it gets even worse
-when people get--
-With nuggets.
Yeah, you know,
over the years we've seen
several different
people that have
that same situation
-A few. Yeah.
-going on. Yeah.
They focus entirely
on the nuggets,
-and they sacrifice
the fine gold.
-Yup.
[narrator] Five years ago,
Freddy and Juan traveled
deep into the Kootenay Rockies
in British Columbia,
to The Nip and Tuck claim,
owned by reclusive miner
Stephen Latham.
I know there's a big,
big, big gold in here.
I know it.
[Juan] Stephen Latham
was a funny guy.
He is a character.
He is a character,
all right.
When we drove
to Steve's place,
we could see
from a mile away
the size of, you know,
the holes on the side
of the trommel.
And you could-- You're--
You're being literal.
-Yeah, from a mile away--
-From mile away
you could see the holes.
I'm looking at
2 1/2 inch holes
in you trommel.
[Stephen] Yeah,
I am glad that
they are that big.
It was rumored
to be a 36-ounce nugget
found up here
back in the day.
What is the chances
that that was the only one?
I think slim.
He based his entire
mining plan on that story.
Mmm-hmm.
That's right.
First bucket, Juan.
[narrator] To assess
the operation,
Freddy and Juan
watch a four hour test run.
Swear there's gold
in that bucket.
This guy's definitely
got gold fever.
I swear there's gold
in this bucket.
[Freddy] Look how dirty
those rocks are.
I bet you were losing
15-20% of the fines
out of the end of that.
He was hoping
to hit the jackpot
with one piece of gold.
Done. Retired boys.
I'm gonna
buy Bezos out.
Yeah, 35 ounces.
[both laugh]
I hit it rich boys?
No, not quite.
-It cost you triple
to make that.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
[Juan] Every bit of that
should have gone
right through that trommel.
-[Freddy] Yup, every piece.
-[Juan] Everything should
have been sluiced.
[Freddy] Yup.
There's one, two,
three, four pieces there.
-That's not good, Freddy.
That wasn't even a full pan.
-[Freddy] No, it wasn't.
He's throwing a lot of gold
at the end of that trommel.
You've got a piece of gold
that you can barely see
trying to compete
against the 2-inch rock.
-Who's going to win?
-Yeah.
The rock's going
to win every time.
[narrator] Test run complete,
Stephen begins
to clean the box.
I was hoping to see
a couple 30 ounces
in there.
[bleeps]
You and me both.
That's a little cutie.
Not the 30 ouncer
I wanted to see.
I guess if we're
to learn from that,
you don't base
your mining plan
solely on nuggets.
Might as well get
the small gold out to.
Yep, exactly, right.
Get it all.
I totally get why you
want to screen so big,
you know, the chance
of being able to catch
that bigger nugget.
But we're really worried
that you're losing a lot
of that fine or gold.
[narrator] To modify
Stephen's plant
to capture fine gold
as well as nuggets.
Freddy gets to work
on a secondary circuit.
[Freddy] We're gonna try
to get that smaller material
going down this sluice box
instead of trying to compete
with those monster boulders
that are going down
the other box.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Juan's priority
is to adapt the trommel.
We're gonna cut
a series of slots here,
and what those slots
are gonna do
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop through the trommel
into the new sluice.
We didn't want to take
away his dream
of catching that
big nugget.
But he's also catching
his fine gold now.
It's time to put
our money where our
mouth is,
-huh, Juan-o?
-Yes, it is.
[narrator] Fix is complete.
Stephen with friend James,
run a second test.
Feed the beast, Steve.
First scoop
in the new system.
[clanking]
You can see it, Freddy
Look at the difference.
[Freddy] No water
coming out of the end.
That's pretty awesome.
I'm happy with that.
[narrator] If there
is fine gold,
it should be
dropping through
Juan's slits and catching
in the new sluice.
Bigger nuggets can still
come through
the 2-inch punch plate.
And collect
in Steve's old sluice.
[Freddy] Both sluices
are both running
extremely well.
And we've got
those slick cuts
for the finer gold
and the smaller pieces.
Now they don't have to compete
with those big ass rocks
going down that
other sluice box.
I know we've improved
this gold recovery.
How much? I don't know.
[Juan] Check that
out, Freddy.
[Freddy] It's a lot cleaner.
I mean, a lot cleaner.
I'm happy with that.
[narrator] Juan's baffles
have slowed the water enough
to clean the gold off
the rocks.
[Juan] Freddy,
look at that.
None of these
are smaller
than 2-inches.
-Yep.
-So everything
2-inch and smaller
is making it
to the sluice run.
-I'm happy with that.
-[Freddy] Yup.
I'm happy with that.
[Juan] It's awesome.
[narrator] After four hours
Hey, Steve.
Last bucket.
Last one.
[narrator] they called
time on the final run.
[Juan] Hey, Steve.
[Stephen] Hey.
So, what do you think?
-[Juan] Yes--
-[Stephen] You see
anything in there?
-[Juan] This box
is running awesome.
-Box is good.
[Stephen] Yeah.
Oh, Look at all-- all. Yeah.
Those riffles
are doing exactly
-what they're supposed to.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-They're running--
-[Stephen] Beautiful.
You know that if there's
any great big nuggets
are gonna fall right in off.
Probably be in
the top mat there.
Now. You actually
have the chance
of catching that
35 ounce nugget you've
been bragging about.
I don't I don't know
what to say, guys.
It looks good.
I'm happy about it.
I think at the end
he was kind of impressed
with how much
that small sluice picked up
because it actually
recovered quite a bit.
-More than he was
expecting for sure.
-[Juan] Yeah.
[narrator] Anything over
0.15 ounces will be a success.
-[Juan] Look at that.22.
-[Stephen].22, nice!
-That's awesome.
Yeah, me too.
-Proud of that.
Wow. I cannot
believe that, guys.
[Stephen] And look
at all the fine gold
in there too, damn.
[narrator] A massive
increase of 70%.
I knew I was losing gold,
but I never knew
it was that much.
[Juan] Gold at a high.
More than ever,
it's important for everyone
that is mining
to focus on all gold.
Whether it's nuggets
or fine gold.
Don't sacrifice
that fine gold.
-[Freddy] Catch it all.
-Make sure you
catch it all.
You know, to sum it all up
for new miners out there,
to me, the number.
one thing
-they need to do
is do their homework.
-Yup.
Do their homework
on the ground
before you throw
all your money at it.
Agreed.
For years I didn't
really like putting
out my, you know,
secrets or tricks.
-Yeah.
-But you know,
the older you get,
that's what you do
is you pass on
-Knowledge,
-knowledge from
one generation the next.
-Right, so--
-So it's not lost.
I feel the same way.
You know, I've throughout
the years,
with my business
and everything else I've done,
I've gotten a lot of help.
-Mmm-hmm.
-So it really does feel like
it's a chance for us
to give back
and help people.
Avoid the pitfalls
that we've encountered.
I think it's a--
It's our responsibility
to do that.
-It's a lot easier to learn
off other people's mistakes.
-[Juan] That's for sure.
Well, Freddy gold's
through the roof right now,
and there's a fortune
to be made.
So let's go help
some miners.
-Let's do it, buddy.
-All right.
[dramatic music playing]
I love gold. Always have.
It's the most recycled element
on Earth.
What we've got here
is 10 ounces of really fine
placer gold.
Right now,
we're just gonna melt it down
and then make it into a bar
before it's sent off
to the refiner.
Gold is addictive.
More miners than ever
jump in headfirst,
no experience, no knowledge.
But what people
need to remember
is there's a lot of pitfalls
to look out for along the way.
Well, let's hope we've got
a beautiful bar here.
-[horn honking]
-There's Juan-O.
-How's it going, Juan?
-What's going on, buddy?
Melting a little gold?
Here's what I was doing, Juan.
Ooh, let me see that guy.
That's a good-looking
bar, Fred.
[Freddy]
Even ugly gold's pretty.
Yes. Still doesn't matter,
yeah. Gold's gold.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Beautiful either way.
[Freddy] Gold has always been
a motivator to make people
do extreme things.
It's made a lot of people
a lot of money.
And it's taken a lot of money
away from a lot of people.
[dramatic music playing]
-How's it going?
-Freddy. Corey.
[narrator] Ever year
expert miner Freddy Dodge
You pan this one.
See what we find.
[narrator]
and master fabricator
Juan Ibarra
I'm gonna spin it!
[narrator] heed
the distress calls of miners
struggling to find gold.
Oh! Hey!
[narrator] And the numbers
of them are growing
[man] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Shut it down!
[narrator] as the price
of gold soars to new highs.
It's better than anything
we could've hoped for.
[narrator] Fever filled
fortune seekers
take bigger risks
-[man 1] We got it, guys.
-[narrator] and face
much less reward.
Nobody's getting a paycheck
unless we see some gold.
[narrator] On this episode
of Mine Rescue
-Don't dig
where they tell you to dig.
-Been there done that.
-Yeah. Been there done that.
-We both have.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reveal the pitfalls
of gold-addicted miners.
I know there's big,
big gold in here. I know it.
Whether it's hot,
whether it's cold,
gold defines
where you're gonna
mine for gold.
[narrator] How to overcome
the traps of the trade.
There's so much
that needs to be done here.
Holy cow, just the amount
of labor that's going into it.
[narrator] And uncover
a golden payday.
-[all cheering]
-[woman] Shut the front door!
[upbeat music playing]
Right now, Fred, you know,
gold's at an all-time high.
Yeah, it's way up there.
-[Juan] Yeah, it is. Yeah.
-2,300 bucks, plus, an ounce.
You know, that's gonna
drive a lot of people
to go out and try to do
a little more mining.
[narrator] Gold is one
of the most valuable
commodities on Earth.
In the last 30 years
it's value has risen
over 400%.
And experts predict
that gold could reach as high
as $3,000 per ounce
in the next five years.
This means
more amateur miners than ever
will flood gold regions
looking to strike it
rich quick.
But most will fail
if they don't heed
the hazards.
There's a lot of pitfalls
when you get into
the mining industry.
People may think
that gold mining,
it's a get rich quick scheme,
it's not.
You gotta be able to work hard
to make it profitable
for yourself.
Well, what do you think
one of the biggest
pitfalls is, Juan?
-Really, the biggest pitfall,
Fred, is gonna be location.
-Agreed.
The actual mine,
what you're mining,
the material you have there.
'Cause if there's
not enough gold in the ground
you're going broke fast.
[narrator] Fundamental
to any miner's success
is the ground they mine.
The material he's running
is super sticky.
[narrator] And with over
50 years of combined
gold mining experience,
Freddy and Juan
have seen it all.
[Freddy]
That clay layer there,
if gold mining
doesn't work out for you
you could start
a pottery store.
[narrator]
From ancient river gravels
This whole pit
right here in my eyes,
is played out.
[narrator]
to hard rock deposits
Hey, guys. Don't take
any of the film crew
any farther than that.
[narrator] making sure
there's enough gold
on your claim
can make or break
an operation.
Location, location, location.
It's a tough one.
The pitfall is,
people go to a new mine site,
they see one
or two flakes in the pan,
and they get excited.
And they think
it's gonna carry through
the whole area.
They keep thinking
that they're gonna
strike it rich,
and that point never comes.
One of the situations
we ran into last year
were Ryan and Nolan Merritt.
You know, they had
all the intentions
but, unfortunately,
on their property
they didn't have enough gold.
[narrator] At the Mammoth Mine
in Oregon,
Freddy and Juan
answered a call
from father and son miners,
Ryan and Nolan Merritt.
What I do know about gold
is it's in the ground.
But I'm having
a hard time getting it out.
If we can't
make something happen
this year then it's--
Probably be the last season
we mine.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] To identify
Ryan's problem,
Freddy and Juan
test the pay from the cut.
Oh, God. Juan's got
a gold pan in his hand.
That makes me nervous.
-[Freddy] Let's see
what you get in this pan.
-[Juan] Not a speck.
[Freddy] Nothing.
This creek's
completely mined out.
-This is all tailings.
-Every bit of it's tailings.
[narrator] Tailings
are waste rocks
previously mined.
I always wanted to buy a mine
and ended up
up here with the realtor,
and they said
this is for sale
and there's rumors that
there's really good gold,
so we jumped on it.
-Pretty consistent ground.
-Pretty consistent garbage.
Well, I've seen claims
for sale of "selling because
of health reasons."
Yeah. The lack of gold's
got your blood pressure high,
probably is the health reason
there.
Well, you hope people
have the best of intentions,
but sometimes they're just
trying to drop it on you
and get their investment back.
-Yep. In gold mining
there's been more scams
-Oh, yeah.
than maybe
any other industry.
And we've seen 'em
with our own eyes
over the years.
One big deal is, uh,
you need to do some testing
on your own.
Let's say you wanna
buy this piece of property,
the owner's
got all this paperwork
from years past, right.
From 1800s, yeah.
Don't trust what they've
got wrote down unless
you really know the people.
Trust what your own eyes
tell you.
As far as testing that ground.
Get in there
and do some sampling.
[dramatic music playing]
-I think you shut 'em down.
-[Freddy] Shut 'em down.
Yeah, he's just burning fuel.
I think the old-timers hit it,
hydrauliced it,
and it was probably mined
in the 1930s and then probably
in the '80s.
[narrator] Only halfway
through the test, Freddy
and Juan call time on the run.
Everything here is tailings.
It's not virgin. It's been run
multiple times.
This whole 13 acres,
as far as placer goes--
-Dead?
-It's dead.
In Ryan's defense, you know,
unless you're
really experienced at it,
you've seen it a lot,
sometimes it's hard
to differentiate
what's tailings
and what could
actually be pay.
And unfortunately,
he thought it was pay.
-It was pay
a hundred years ago.
-[Juan chuckles] Yeah.
[Freddy] Nolan!
[narrator] In a bid
to give Nolan a masterclass
in prospecting,
Freddy takes him
to the edge of the claim.
[Freddy] You guys thought
it was virgin ground.
-[Nolan] Up here. Right.
-Right.
So, if it was virgin material
you'd have layers of material,
right, that have rhyme
and reason to 'em.
And reading the vegetation.
-Yep.
-There's more clues
in that too.
-[both] How old the trees are.
-[Juan] Yep.
[Freddy] They'll let ya know
when that hole was dug.
Looking at the tree growth,
everything we're walking on,
everything you see here's
been ran.
Well, how can you tell
by the tree growth
that it's been mined?
[Freddy] Because all the trees
in the valley here,
where the placer gold was,
they're all younger trees.
-You know, 30 or 40 years old.
-Right.
You got old growth
up on the hill where they
didn't mine the gold, right.
[Nolan] Right.
-It's always a fear
for both of us, right.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
That whole area
had been gutted out.
There's still
some good gold here
you just gotta search for it.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] To keep
the Merritts' gold mining
dream alive,
Freddy goes in search
of minable ground.
[Freddy] The old-timers
hit this.
[narrator]
But coming up dead
-You see
all the tailings here.
-Right.
[narrator] Freddy has
a radical solution.
-[Freddy] How's it going?
-Good. How you doing?
-[Freddy] Doing all right.
-Jim.
Jim, how you doing today?
[narrator] Downstream
from the Merritts' claim,
he finds a famer
who has some land
he'd like to lease
for a royalty.
[Freddy] So how deep's
the bedrock under here, Jim?
It's about, probably,
another 4-foot farther down.
[Freddy] Okay.
So most of this up here
probably won't contain
much gold.
Now, we get farther down.
You see how we got
tight material, right?
Yeah. Compact.
So, this is a whole
different ballgame compared
to what you got.
This is all virgin.
Yeah. After looking at this--
-[Freddy] Completely
different.
-Completely different.
-Yep.
-Mine's man-made.
And I'm seeing it now.
That, if there's
good gold here,
it's a second chance.
Proofs in the pan, right?
You guys were able to go out
and find a different
piece of property
that was a little
bit better for him.
That it was gonna
be profitable.
-Had gold left in it
that hadn't been mined.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Well, I see
a piece of gold there.
Look at that.
And a couple of 'em
are decent sized too.
[Ryan]
What's that mean, Freddy?
-That means [bleep] mine it.
-[Ryan] All right.
[Freddy] Live
and learn, right?
We got 'em, at least
headed in a direction
where they have a chance
to succeed now.
[narrator] Ryan and Nolan
run a 2-hour test
with the new ground.
-[Juan] Packed, packed,
packed, packed.
-[Freddy] Nice.
-[Nolan] That's a nice flake.
-[Juan] Nice, little flake.
I think we found
the silver lining, you know,
at the end of the tunnel.
In our case, the gold lining.
You know, it just
shows that the Merritts,
they didn't have
the experience.
-That they needed to read
the ground that they were on.
-Yeah.
Well, the simplest way
to not go broke gold mining
is a gold pan
and a lot of testing.
Yep. If you're gonna mine,
make sure you test.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Test, test, test.
And keep track
of that material, so you know
it's a ton or a yard.
-[Juan] Where it came from.
Everything else. Flag it.
-Exactly.
You wanna make sure
that the ground's
gonna be able
-to sustain that operation.
-That's exactly right.
-So do your own testing.
-Trust your own eyes.
And don't dig
where they tell you to dig.
-Been there, done that.
-[chuckles] Yeah. Been there.
-[both laughing]
-We both have!
"Oh, yeah.
We'll dig right there."
[narrator] Coming up
[man] [bleep] evil.
[bleep] evil.
He didn't want his son
to mess up.
[Trever] How many
[bleep] times have I ran
all the way
from the Klondikes?
You gotta give him enough rope
to be able to go out
and try things himself.
[Trever] Back and forth,
back and forth.
He may hang himself,
but you gotta
give him the rope.
[Trever] For you!
[upbeat music playing]
Smart dog.
[narrator] With mining season
ramping up
He's a good dog.
He's only 10 months old.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reveal the traps of the trade
and how to avoid them,
with some extra encouragement
from Doc the dog.
[Juan] Pretty amazing.
Just the other day
it was snowing.
-Now look at the weather.
-[Freddy chuckles] Yeah.
-[Juan] Just
beautiful weather.
-It is.
And it's supposed
to maybe snow tonight
and tomorrow night.
-[Juan] Really?
-Yeah.
It's just like mining.
-You don't know
what the weather's gonna be.
-[Freddy] Nope.
-It changes on us
all the time.
-[Freddy] Yep.
Fetch it out!
Gold defines
where you're gonna mine,
the weather's gonna
have a large input on that.
[narrator] Some of the best
gold deposits left
on the planet
are in the most
inhospitable places.
We got an awful lot of rain
that's coming down
with this storm.
[narrator] Tricky access
[Juan] Come on.
[narrator]
extreme temperature
or unpredictable weather.
I'd rather it be snowing
than raining.
This is one
of the wettest springs
that I ever remember
and we're already
a month behind schedule
in mining.
[narrator] To know the impact
the environment has
on the mining season
[Freddy] The weather sucks.
It's hard to weld in the rain.
[narrator]
or its destructive power
over a claim
[man] We need to go,
we need to go.
[narrator] is everyday life
for a miner.
-[man] You all right, man?
-[Freddy] Yeah. I'm not
feeling really good.
I'm dizzy and I have
a bad headache.
[man 1] That's the first sign
of heat exhaustion
out here, man.
It's [bleep] hot.
You know, some of the pitfalls
that you can't navigate, Fred,
are, uh, one of them
being weather.
[scoffs]
Planning your operation
is gonna have a large input
on your mining season.
You know, we'd seen it
in Arizona where, you know,
you have to truck water in.
-It gets too hot,
you evaporate all your water.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
[Juan] Or if in July,
that's way too damn hot
to run,
maybe you wait
for the months
where it's a little cooler.
And in colder climates,
with placer mining,
99% of everything you do
is with water.
So when it starts to go
below freezing, you know,
first of October--
-[Juan] You're done.
-Yep.
Then maybe
you gotta figure out
what your season looks like.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
-Maybe try to plan
your season accordingly.
One that really stands out
that we had an issue
with the weather
was the Nybergs.
-Yeah. Healy, Alaska.
-[Juan] Yeah.
-Man, that mountain beat us.
-It did.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Three years ago,
three generations of Nybergs
were battling the thawed out
mountains of Denali,
Central Alaska
in the hopes of a huge payday.
Guys, how's it going?
-Freddy.
-Paul.
Well, this is my dad, Beetle.
[Beetle] Weather's
our biggest time constraint.
[Paul] It's a battle
against the clock
and the elements.
[narrator] This remote area
of Alaska is frozen solid
for 6 months.
As it thaws,
the family strip topsoil,
known as overburden,
to reach a pay layer below.
[Paul] The overburden's, uh,
either frozen or mud.
It takes so long to strip it,
season usually ends up
being weeks long.
Well, in the Nyberg situation,
their pay was extremely
sloppy, Freddy.
-[Freddy] Oh! The sloppiest
I've ever seen.
-[Juan] Yeah.
When you have mountains,
you have difficult weather.
You know, it makes it
harder to mine.
I wanna go up on the hill
and see into that hopper
a little bit.
You almost always
never wanna run wet pay.
Well, you know,
every time you grab
a bucket full
you're agitating
that material,
and that gold is sinking
further and further down.
When you're digging it too,
gold's falling out
'cause gold's heavy, right.
Gold always wants to try
to get back to the center
of the Earth,
it thinks that's its home.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
are no strangers to wet pay.
Sounds like a little thing,
so your dirt's
got water in it.
Well, it's a huge thing.
[narrator] They solved
this problem
in British Columbia
by letting it dry in the sun.
[Freddy] Sometimes
it's the little things.
If we can keep
the material dry, it's gonna
make a huge difference here.
[narrator] Or drying
damp pay in Arizona
with a heated trommel.
[Juan] Holy crap! That's hot.
[Freddy] Frickin' hot, boy!
[narrator] But a fix like that
would be in vain in Alaska's
unpredictable climate.
You wanna pile it up,
let it dry if it's wet, right.
But in that situation
there was no choice.
They had to run it that way.
[dramatic music playing]
They're getting
all that material
brought down here
and they're losing good
pay material out the side
of that hopper.
Sure slopping a lot
of material on the ground.
-Like feeding a milkshake.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Poor PJ's in there, you know,
in 6-foot of muck,
putting it in the hopper.
And the hopper
was just way too tiny
for what they were doing.
They weren't lying
about this weather
changing quick. Man.
[Freddy yelling] Hey, PJ.
Last bucket.
-Talk about a mudhole, huh?
[chuckling] Holy cow.
-Yep.
[narrator]
In the boggy pay dirt
Whoo.
[narrator] the Nybergs
run 65-yards an hour less
than they need
to turn a profit.
[Juan] The environment
they were working in
was extreme.
Between the storms
that were coming in
and the hard access,
uh, it was really
a tough situation.
[Freddy] Well,
let's see your gold.
Here we go.
Exactly half an ounce,.50.
Think we need
a lot more than that.
There's room
for improvement, I'm sure.
[Juan] As far as
the repairs to the plant,
we wanna redo that hopper,
put some real grizzles on it.
Make it a little wider
and a little longer.
[Freddy] We're gonna
be a little limited
on the time
it takes us to get in here,
and if it keeps raining
like this
we got a problem.
[Paul] Winter's coming, y'all.
We got a lot of dirt to move
in a short amount of time
and hopefully they can
help us get it through
with better recovery.
[narrator] To increase
the yardage of the sloppy pay
to the plant,
a new 4-foot steel hopper
will need to be fabricated.
We can go ahead
and start cutting.
[narrator] But with
the plasma cutting trailer
unable to ascend the mountain,
Juan and PJ
will build the bigger hopper
in the boneyard below.
[dramatic music playing]
Day three of the build,
and in true Alaskan style
the weather goes from bad
to worse.
We got, uh
[chuckles softly]
snow today.
Just gonna add
that much more work
to everything
we already got going on.
It was a snowstorm
in the middle of summer
that popped up--
-Snow and rain.
-[Juan] Yeah.
Snow and rain, and just
totally screwed up our passage
to the mine site.
-And there was no way we could
get our trucks in there.
-Nope.
[narrator] But the bad
weather conditions
cause more problems
than just soggy pay.
[Freddy] We're not
crossing the creek,
we're driving in the creek.
-[banging]
-[Freddy] Whoa.
[chuckles] Whoa.
-A little sideways.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-It's a horrible road.
-When it's wet, yep.
If Mother Nature says, "Hey.
I'm gonna dump snow
on your tomorrow,"
we can't control that.
Just gotta live with it.
[narrator]
Mountain road scaled
[Paul] Made it.
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan set to work
installing the bigger hopper
to process the sloppy pay
Am I good over there, Juan?
[narrator]
hoping to increase
production by 100%.
Just keep our fingers crossed
that there's lots of gold
in this next 4-hour run.
[PJ] First bucket ready.
I love this new hopper
that Juan built me.
It's catching
all the big rocks
that aren't supposed
to go through there,
and I'm not spilling any.
[Juan speaking]
[Paul] Hey, PJ.
How many buckets?
Hundred twenty-five buckets
in 45 minutes.
Hundred and six yards an hour.
That's awesome.
It was a really
tough situation.
But considering all,
I'm really happy
with what we were able to do.
You know,
and from what I remember,
it was
a pretty decent increase.
[Freddy] How's it look?
-Looks better.
-[Freddy] Well,
let's weight it up.
It was a half-ounce last time.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Juan] There ya go.
-1.07.
[narrator]
Over a 100% increase
on the first test.
Worth roughly $1,800.
[Paul] That's great.
That's great.
-[Juan] There wasn't much
we could do to their pay.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I think a lot of it
had to do with,
now we're able
to put that much more material
through the plant.
That's exactly right.
[Juan] You know, I can see
how you guys have a really
short season out here.
So, now it's
It's not time to play around,
it's game time.
Oh, yeah. We gotta wash
as much as we can,
as fast as we can.
If you're looking
at mine site, you know,
obviously you're gonna
wanna try to find something
with the best weather,
but you can't let that
be your business plan
because you need to go
where the gold is.
Whether it's hot,
whether it's cold,
gold defines
on where you're gonna
mine your gold.
[both laughing]
[dramatic music playing]
I wanna show you something
pretty cool, Juan.
-Hunting blind
on a scissor assembly.
-Yeah.
-[Freddy] Perfect.
It's one of a kind.
-That thing's awesome, Fred.
Very cool.
[Freddy] Instead of taking
days to set up a blind,
it takes you minutes.
This is a perfect example
of efficiency, Freddy.
Either in hunting
or in mining,
try to keep it simple,
try to keep it efficient.
Yep. Unfortunately,
we've been around wash plants
over the years
that really weren't planned
very well.
[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
[narrator] From screen decks
and trommels
My electric motor's
kind of worn out.
[narrator]
to bowls and the sluice
[Freddy] These are
worthless ripples.
[narrator]
the equipment miners use
Spray bar broke off
11 seconds in.
[narrator]
and how they use it
All right, miss kitty.
Gold work, hoo.
[narrator] can make
or break an operation.
[Freddy] Don't start
the conveyor,
it's bound up.
An easy pitfall to fall into,
Freddy, is buying
too much equipment.
-Overthinking a plant.
-Yeah.
-Well, we've seen that.
-A lot of times.
If you see a plant
that has sluices, then jigs,
and then spirals,
and then this, and that,
and the other,
usually it wasn't 'cause
they were losing
that much gold
but they think they are.
Yeah. But sometimes
simplicity is actually
the key.
-Remember in California?
-The Gretzners.
That hard rock mine.
-They fall into that pitfall
of plan your plant.
-Yep.
[narrator] Two years ago,
Freddy and Juan venture to
the Mojave Desert, California
in a bid to rescue
a failing hard rock
mining operation.
When it comes to liberating
gold from hard rock,
do you have to be crazy
enough to go and get it? Yes.
[Freddy] You guys wanna
fire up your mill.
-Let's do it.
-[Freddy] Let's do it.
[narrator] Chad,
and Dad, Greg,
along with a crew
of part-time weekend warriors
operate a huge mill,
which frees gold
trapped in rock
by crushing it to a powder.
Well, remember when we
first showed up
at the Gretzners?
I'm like, "Holy cow!"
You know, just the amount
of labor that's going into it.
[Freddy] I [bleep] hate
those chain pulls.
[Juan] Those
are painfully slow.
Four and a half minutes
to pick the first bag up
and dump it in the hopper.
[Juan] Right now,
it's not really efficient.
It takes four guys
to load the plant.
When you set up
a plant like that,
every time you gotta touch it
it costs you money.
You know, so they were having
to manually lift up
those bags with a chain hoist,
which took time.
[Chad] We have to feed it
by hand with a shovel
up there.
There's a lot of wasted time
right there, Freddy.
Lot of wasted time.
-Then, it gets
into the hopper.
-Yep.
The hopper should be able
to feed by itself,
that's the whole point
of having a hopper. It didn't.
Is that on?
It does nothing.
We got a bunch of issues
going on here.
It was a little
overwhelming, honestly.
Just because they didn't
plan their plant.
That screen right there,
we need to do something
better about that.
[narrator] The vibrating
screen that sorts the rock
lacks enough power.
Wonder why he's down there
with a hammer?
[narrator] So Chad's crew
must do it by hand.
[Freddy] Could hire
a trained monkey
to do that one, though.
Essentially, it's become
a manual screen.
Even though he has
a vibrator on it.
[Freddy] They got time killers
all down the line.
Unfortunately, every step
of their process--
-Has a bottle neck.
-It was.
-They should have called that
the Bottle Neck Plant.
-[chuckles]
-Let's weigh it out.
-Yep.
[Chad] All right. Here we go.
[narrator] Chad and his team
need to make $700 a day
to break even.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Chad] 0.03.
-[Freddy] 0.03, yep.
Nine-tenths of a gram.
[Chad] Almost a gram.
Almost a gram
from one ton of ore.
[Juan sighs]
[Juan] That's a tremendous
amount of work for that small
of a payday.
Yeah.
[Freddy] They were working
their butts off but, uh,
work smarter
not harder sometimes.
-[Juan] Needs to be
all the time.
-Mmm-hmm.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan,
with the crew's help,
set to work to make the plant
less labor-intensive
and more efficient.
Uh, I'm just setting up
this new hoist.
Electric hoist.
It's a hell of a lot easier
than pulling on that chain.
We were able to put airbags
under their hopper
to be able
to get that material
to feed properly.
These are just really simple.
They're actually
an automotive airbag,
and they work good.
-Awesome.
Very, very cool. Thank you.
-It'll work.
Before, they had a little,
tiny vibrator on the back here
that wasn't doing anything,
but we're actually
doing an eccentric.
[narrator] By spinning
heavy weights on a bar
below the hopper,
the eccentric vibrator
will pulsate a steady supply
of rocks into the jaw crusher.
[Juan] It took five guys
to feed it.
So what we're trying to do
is trying to eliminate
all that extra labor
to make it one
smooth transition,
where it feeds itself
into the jaw and you catch it
on the other side.
That screen that you built
on top of that
conveyor dropping into
the second feeder,
we were able to build that
to be able to get it back
into a wheelbarrow
so they could re-run it.
[narrator] Before,
oversized rock collected
under the hopper
and had to be removed by hand.
Now, Freddy's new screen
will divert oversized rock
down a chute
ready to be re-run
through the crusher.
[Freddy] Just getting
the rocks screened out,
where all the material
going into the surge hopper's
the size it needs to be.
And it allows them
to re-crush that material
in the same circuit
with the same ore.
So they aren't watering down
another batch of material.
It's ought to work, huh?
Really, there was a lot
of fixes we did there.
And every one of them
sped up their process.
Every fix we did
made a difference there.
[dramatic music playing]
-I'll set a timer.
-Yep.
[narrator] Fixes complete,
the Gretzner crew run another
2-hour test.
[man] First bag.
[Juan] Freddy,
it's working good.
[narrator] But, the real
measure of their fixes
is the second gold weigh.
[Freddy] It's your mine,
you do the honors.
[narrator] To make
the mine viable,
Chad must produce
at least a quarter of an ounce
of gold.
-[Freddy] 0.26.
-[Chad] 0.26.
-0.26, whoo-hoo!
-[man] Man.
-[Freddy] Just over
a quarter of an ounce.
-[Juan] That's awesome.
Well, it's dang near 10 times
the amount of gold in that pan
with a lot less work.
Whether it's placer
or hard rock,
really it boils down to,
you gotta have
the right equipment,
you gotta plan your plant.
Yep. Just like
any other thing.
-You gotta have
the right tool for the job.
-Yep.
You know,
I've worked underground,
not as much as you,
but I think I'll stick
with the placer gold, Juan.
-Yeah.
-[both chuckle]
[dramatic music playing]
-[Freddy] Boom out.
-Boom out.
[Freddy] Boom out
and boom down.
Keep coming
straight down, Juan.
[narrator] At his home
in Colorado
Coming down.
[narrator] Freddy and Juan
reflect on the mining
traps of the trade
and how to avoid them.
Prefect.
It's all yours, buddy.
-Thank you, Juan.
-No problem.
You guys wanna
bolt her in and--
-[Mitch] Yeah.
-[Cameron] Yep.
We'll finish it up
and get on the road with it.
[Juan] Well, you know,
something as simple as this,
with the wrong crew
would have been
a nightmare, Freddy.
[Freddy] It takes
a team to do things.
And it takes the right team.
Like, Mitch and Cameron,
you could jump in there
and do anything we just did.
-[Freddy] Yep.
-You know,
the right crew of guys.
[Freddy]
How's it going, Terry?
Terrible.
[narrator] In mining,
you need more than rich ground
and sturdy equipment
I'm not a psychiatrist,
just so you know.
I don't expect you to be,
but if you could do some work
between me and my brother,
it'd be great.
[narrator] that's only
half the battle.
Stress levels are high.
I mean, I know him.
I raised him, right.
[narrator] True success
comes with picking
the right crew
Somehow I gotta get my bucket
in that feeder.
I am a bit nervous about that.
[narrator] who have
the right skills
The guys are behind
on their wages,
so they're gonna be wanting
some cash soon.
They're gonna
be screaming, yep.
[narrator] for the job.
I feel like I'm obligated
to have to come out here.
If you're gonna run
a successful mining operation,
you gotta choose
your crew properly.
If you don't have a welder,
and a fabricator,
and mechanic on site,
you don't have a mine.
-Mmm-hmm.
-Because really
that's what it boils down to.
-So, right people for the job.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Me and you
get along well, right?
-Yep.
We work good together.
-But there's a lot of people
that butt heads.
-Yeah.
And that can
be a huge distraction
on a mine.
-Remember the Morrills?
-Oh, Gregg.
What a family affair
that was, huh?
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Five years ago,
Freddy and Juan
head to the Western slopes
of Colorado
to a struggling operation
run by father and son,
Gregg and Trever Morrill.
I always told me wife,
"When I retire,
I'm going to have a gold mine
with heavy equipment."
Gold will always
be worth some money.
So main motivation
is my family.
[Trever] The relationship
between me and my dad
is pretty good.
When we're working together,
that's when it gets hard.
I mean, you can't tell him
that he's wrong.
So you just kind of sit back
and let him go with it.
[Freddy] Well,
one of the biggest things,
you know,
was taking him
[chuckles]around four days
to clean up their gold.
-After they ran the plant
for one day, right.
-Yeah.
And if they do
that every week,
you know,
-basically they run
two days a week.
-Yep.
[Freddy] Would you run down
in my trailer and grab a bunch
of my gold pans?
-Okay. Uh-huh.
-Thanks, Gregg.
We'll just take a break
for a second.
It's a lot easier using
the snuffer bottle,
moves all the black sands up.
That's why I carry it
with me. Right there.
You didn't grab
a bunch of 'em?
[Gregg] Oh. You said
get me "a gold pan."
I thought--
-No, "some gold pans."
-[Trever] "Some gold pans."
-A bunch of gold pans.
-Your turn.
I've missed enough of this.
I am the mine owner,
I need to know.
No, we stopped.
-We didn't do anything
while you were gone.
-[Trever] We were on break.
[dramatic music playing]
Why'd you only
go down there for one?
You'd chew my ass for that.
[Freddy] The tension
between those two,
it was stiff
while we were there, boy.
[Juan] That was
a tough situation.
You know, me personally,
I don't necessarily mind
having family work with us,
if they've got a good attitude
and willing to learn
and a good work ethic.
-Yep.
-I don't pick sides.
But, you know,
they both had faults.
[dramatic music playing]
[Gregg] Never seen
that technique, did you?
-I like that.
-[Trever speaking]
-[clears throat]
-[Gregg] Bull.
[scoffs] Okay.
[Gregg] Hold it just a second.
Don't you forget
who owns this mine.
Who invested every penny
in this mine.
You are a hired hand
at this point.
[Trever] I should
be learning it from him.
[Gregg] You may wanna learn
what Freddy has to teach,
I have to if this
is going to survive.
Don't overstep
your position, son.
I don't know what's going on
between them personally.
I'm hoping
they can work past it.
The biggest logistical
challenge to this
is putting up with my dad.
[Gregg] I am in charge here.
It's my money,
it's my investment.
He can have his way
when the day comes.
Right now, I'm just
concentrating on getting
this thing going
so there will be
a someday for him.
[Juan] I understand
where Gregg
was coming from,
he didn't want his son
to mess up.
-Yeah.
-And I get that.
But you gotta give him
enough rope
to be able to go out
and try things himself.
He may hang him,
but you gotta give him
the rope.
[dramatic music playing]
So, what's the biggest problem
you have with your dad?
His lack of trust in me.
[Juan] I think my dad
has a little bit of that too.
You know, in his eyes
I'm still his little boy,
and he's the one
that taught me everything.
That's exactly right.
And if he didn't
teach it to you
you don't know
what the hell you're doing.
[Juan] Yeah.
My dad and I get along great,
as long as we're
not working together.
[Trever] Yeah, exactly.
It's the same with my dad.
Just don't give up, man.
You guys have a great thing
going here.
Gregg really needed
to kind of let go
of the reigns.
Trever, he might screw up.
He's probably gonna screw up.
Every one of us,
you know, has failed.
-Mmm-hmm.
-You know, multiple times.
-And it'll happen again.
-Yeah.
But that's all part
of the learning curve.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] And sometimes,
if personalities clash,
it runs the risk
of ending in disaster.
[Trever] You know what?
[bleep] you! [bleep] you!
How many [bleep] times
have I ran all the [bleep] way
from the Klondikes
and then back the [bleep] up?
How many times
have I [bleep] done that? Huh?
Back and forth,
back and forth,
back and forth,
back and forth.
For you!
They're just not meant
to be together, working.
When they're not
working together
the family life
will probably be good.
Yeah.
-Or better anyway.
-Yeah. Hopefully.
[narrator]
Intervention needed,
Freddy and Juan clean house.
What happened yesterday,
it's not good.
But we wanna make sure
you guys are okay.
Is there anything we can do
to help you guys out?
Throw a rock at me
once in a while.
-Just do a full timeout.
-[Juan] Mmm-hmm.
Figure out
what the main issue is.
And I'm no therapist.
And that's all
I'm going to say about it.
I'm done.
More?
Yeah.
-How you doing?
-Good.
Do me a favor.
Since you already
know how to do all this,
stand back
and just let me do
all of this stuff.
[Gregg speaking]
It's not in my nature
to just give someone
free rein,
but I need to just quit,
micromanage,
and I'll intervene
when he needs help.
[narrator] The feud resolved.
Gregg and Trever
get to work,
helping Freddy and Juan
complete the fixes
on their plant.
How does
the welds look, Gregg?
Looks good to me.
[narrator] After an overhaul
on the wash plant
Here we go.
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan run
a second four hour test.
-There was a lot
of repairs there.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
That's something
to be proud of.
[Freddy] Well, dump her
in there, Juan.
[narrator] Freddy
and Juan's fixes
increase the Morrills
gold haul by over 60%.
[chuckles] I'm very
happy with that.
-[laughing]
-Good job.
[Juan] You know,
if they could just
get along, it'd be better.
You know, having
family work for you,
it can be a good thing
because you 'em,
but it can also be
Could be a bad thing too.
Bad thing, like if you
have to let somebody go or
Makes it really awkward
for Thanksgiving dinner, huh?
Yep. Sorry, Grandpa.
[laughing]
[narrator] Coming up
Where is gold
in that bucket?
[narrator]
Freddy and Juan reveal
the biggest trap of the trade
rookie miners can face.
[Stephen] There's rumored
to be a 36-ounce nugget
found up here
back in the day.
What is the chances that
that was the only one?
[Juan] Holy cow, Fred.
I can see your new
head frame from here.
-It's massive.
-If you look
on the corners.
The corner, gussets
are my dad's old brand.
That's pretty neat.
What size pipe is that?
[Freddy] That's 36 inch.
-[Juan] You had
to outdo me, huh?
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I've got a little bit
of an entrance envy now.
-Entrance envy?
-Yeah.
[Freddy] It's not
really a ranch,
but I grew up
on the Dodge Ranch.
I don't have enough
acreage to be a ranch.
[Juan] Neither do I.
-We call it the Ibarra Ranch,
but it's not.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
I got wild kids
and chickens.
-That's what we got.
[chuckles]
-That's right?
[Freddy] Yeah.
Well, Juano.
That's where
the magic happens.
[narrator] In Colorado
[Juan] Get those
finds, Fred.
[narrator] at Freddy's
mining operation,
Freddy and Juan
reflect on the traps
of the trade
for miners,
and how
to avoid them.
Looks pretty good, Topher.
Yeah. Very good.
Beautiful yellow gold.
The stuff dreams
are made of.
Or nightmares.
[Juan] That little gold
adds up, though.
You can't sacrifice
that to go after big gold.
-No.
-[Juan] People get so
focused on nuggets,
and that's all
they think about.
We've seen
that before, huh?
Yeah.
Come on big gold.
[narrator] For gold
miners a nugget
can give them the fever.
The nugget factor up here
is the real deal.
[man 1] Look at that.
[man 2] There's a $3000
nugget right there. Easy.
[narrator] But if you
forget to mind the fines
[woman] I got
a color red nugget
over here, right there.
A few million more of those
we're in good shape.
[narrator] you can
end up in trouble.
[Freddy] Are you sure
you don't have gold fever?
Your eyes haven't left
those nuggets.
-Generally speaking,
gold fever is a real thing.
-Mmm-hmm.
But I think
it gets even worse
-when people get--
-With nuggets.
Yeah, you know,
over the years we've seen
several different
people that have
that same situation
-A few. Yeah.
-going on. Yeah.
They focus entirely
on the nuggets,
-and they sacrifice
the fine gold.
-Yup.
[narrator] Five years ago,
Freddy and Juan traveled
deep into the Kootenay Rockies
in British Columbia,
to The Nip and Tuck claim,
owned by reclusive miner
Stephen Latham.
I know there's a big,
big, big gold in here.
I know it.
[Juan] Stephen Latham
was a funny guy.
He is a character.
He is a character,
all right.
When we drove
to Steve's place,
we could see
from a mile away
the size of, you know,
the holes on the side
of the trommel.
And you could-- You're--
You're being literal.
-Yeah, from a mile away--
-From mile away
you could see the holes.
I'm looking at
2 1/2 inch holes
in you trommel.
[Stephen] Yeah,
I am glad that
they are that big.
It was rumored
to be a 36-ounce nugget
found up here
back in the day.
What is the chances
that that was the only one?
I think slim.
He based his entire
mining plan on that story.
Mmm-hmm.
That's right.
First bucket, Juan.
[narrator] To assess
the operation,
Freddy and Juan
watch a four hour test run.
Swear there's gold
in that bucket.
This guy's definitely
got gold fever.
I swear there's gold
in this bucket.
[Freddy] Look how dirty
those rocks are.
I bet you were losing
15-20% of the fines
out of the end of that.
He was hoping
to hit the jackpot
with one piece of gold.
Done. Retired boys.
I'm gonna
buy Bezos out.
Yeah, 35 ounces.
[both laugh]
I hit it rich boys?
No, not quite.
-It cost you triple
to make that.
-[Freddy] Mmm-hmm.
[Juan] Every bit of that
should have gone
right through that trommel.
-[Freddy] Yup, every piece.
-[Juan] Everything should
have been sluiced.
[Freddy] Yup.
There's one, two,
three, four pieces there.
-That's not good, Freddy.
That wasn't even a full pan.
-[Freddy] No, it wasn't.
He's throwing a lot of gold
at the end of that trommel.
You've got a piece of gold
that you can barely see
trying to compete
against the 2-inch rock.
-Who's going to win?
-Yeah.
The rock's going
to win every time.
[narrator] Test run complete,
Stephen begins
to clean the box.
I was hoping to see
a couple 30 ounces
in there.
[bleeps]
You and me both.
That's a little cutie.
Not the 30 ouncer
I wanted to see.
I guess if we're
to learn from that,
you don't base
your mining plan
solely on nuggets.
Might as well get
the small gold out to.
Yep, exactly, right.
Get it all.
I totally get why you
want to screen so big,
you know, the chance
of being able to catch
that bigger nugget.
But we're really worried
that you're losing a lot
of that fine or gold.
[narrator] To modify
Stephen's plant
to capture fine gold
as well as nuggets.
Freddy gets to work
on a secondary circuit.
[Freddy] We're gonna try
to get that smaller material
going down this sluice box
instead of trying to compete
with those monster boulders
that are going down
the other box.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Juan's priority
is to adapt the trommel.
We're gonna cut
a series of slots here,
and what those slots
are gonna do
is gonna allow
that fine material
to drop through the trommel
into the new sluice.
We didn't want to take
away his dream
of catching that
big nugget.
But he's also catching
his fine gold now.
It's time to put
our money where our
mouth is,
-huh, Juan-o?
-Yes, it is.
[narrator] Fix is complete.
Stephen with friend James,
run a second test.
Feed the beast, Steve.
First scoop
in the new system.
[clanking]
You can see it, Freddy
Look at the difference.
[Freddy] No water
coming out of the end.
That's pretty awesome.
I'm happy with that.
[narrator] If there
is fine gold,
it should be
dropping through
Juan's slits and catching
in the new sluice.
Bigger nuggets can still
come through
the 2-inch punch plate.
And collect
in Steve's old sluice.
[Freddy] Both sluices
are both running
extremely well.
And we've got
those slick cuts
for the finer gold
and the smaller pieces.
Now they don't have to compete
with those big ass rocks
going down that
other sluice box.
I know we've improved
this gold recovery.
How much? I don't know.
[Juan] Check that
out, Freddy.
[Freddy] It's a lot cleaner.
I mean, a lot cleaner.
I'm happy with that.
[narrator] Juan's baffles
have slowed the water enough
to clean the gold off
the rocks.
[Juan] Freddy,
look at that.
None of these
are smaller
than 2-inches.
-Yep.
-So everything
2-inch and smaller
is making it
to the sluice run.
-I'm happy with that.
-[Freddy] Yup.
I'm happy with that.
[Juan] It's awesome.
[narrator] After four hours
Hey, Steve.
Last bucket.
Last one.
[narrator] they called
time on the final run.
[Juan] Hey, Steve.
[Stephen] Hey.
So, what do you think?
-[Juan] Yes--
-[Stephen] You see
anything in there?
-[Juan] This box
is running awesome.
-Box is good.
[Stephen] Yeah.
Oh, Look at all-- all. Yeah.
Those riffles
are doing exactly
-what they're supposed to.
-[Freddy] Yeah.
-They're running--
-[Stephen] Beautiful.
You know that if there's
any great big nuggets
are gonna fall right in off.
Probably be in
the top mat there.
Now. You actually
have the chance
of catching that
35 ounce nugget you've
been bragging about.
I don't I don't know
what to say, guys.
It looks good.
I'm happy about it.
I think at the end
he was kind of impressed
with how much
that small sluice picked up
because it actually
recovered quite a bit.
-More than he was
expecting for sure.
-[Juan] Yeah.
[narrator] Anything over
0.15 ounces will be a success.
-[Juan] Look at that.22.
-[Stephen].22, nice!
-That's awesome.
Yeah, me too.
-Proud of that.
Wow. I cannot
believe that, guys.
[Stephen] And look
at all the fine gold
in there too, damn.
[narrator] A massive
increase of 70%.
I knew I was losing gold,
but I never knew
it was that much.
[Juan] Gold at a high.
More than ever,
it's important for everyone
that is mining
to focus on all gold.
Whether it's nuggets
or fine gold.
Don't sacrifice
that fine gold.
-[Freddy] Catch it all.
-Make sure you
catch it all.
You know, to sum it all up
for new miners out there,
to me, the number.
one thing
-they need to do
is do their homework.
-Yup.
Do their homework
on the ground
before you throw
all your money at it.
Agreed.
For years I didn't
really like putting
out my, you know,
secrets or tricks.
-Yeah.
-But you know,
the older you get,
that's what you do
is you pass on
-Knowledge,
-knowledge from
one generation the next.
-Right, so--
-So it's not lost.
I feel the same way.
You know, I've throughout
the years,
with my business
and everything else I've done,
I've gotten a lot of help.
-Mmm-hmm.
-So it really does feel like
it's a chance for us
to give back
and help people.
Avoid the pitfalls
that we've encountered.
I think it's a--
It's our responsibility
to do that.
-It's a lot easier to learn
off other people's mistakes.
-[Juan] That's for sure.
Well, Freddy gold's
through the roof right now,
and there's a fortune
to be made.
So let's go help
some miners.
-Let's do it, buddy.
-All right.