Gold Rush (2018) s05e05 Episode Script

Hard Bargain

Up in the goldfields of the Klondike Get the (BLEEP) truck back here.
.
.
Parker's season is falling apart.
I think we got a problem.
That's the edge of the cut.
His 2,000 ounce goal is looking more and more like a fantasy.
If we can't find something that's thawed, we might be in trouble.
His new untested ground is a disaster.
Garbage.
And his crew is losing confidence in him.
We'll run 100 hours.
That will be a 100-hour waste of time.
You don't want to waste (BLEEP) time? It's my (BLEEP) time to waste.
At Clear Creek Pull it up! .
.
Tony Beets struggles with the heaviest part of his 75-year-old dredge.
But he has no idea if his under-sized crane is strong enough.
If the ladder's too heavy, it will pull the crane over.
One mistake, and someone will get hurt.
Up, up, up! (CREAKING) And over at McKinnon Creek .
.
Todd Hoffman has persuaded his crew to give mining one last shot.
I'm glad we're not mining diamonds this year.
But straight away This is ridiculous.
.
.
Todd's operation is chaotic.
I'm out of pay.
This is ridiculous.
The crew demands the return of Todd's right-hand man.
Why is Dave not here? But getting Dave Turin back What is Todd Hoffman doing here? .
.
will cost Todd more than he bargained for.
I'll do it if I'm a partner.
And I can be 50% owner and I call all the shots.
In the Klondike, Todd, Jack, and Thurber pull the mats at the end of their third week at mining.
I hope we got some good gold.
I seen some, Thurb.
What do you think? This looks good, Todd.
I'm seeing lots of gold in there.
I'm seeing it up at the top there.
It's chokey.
Looks excellent, man.
Look at that.
That's what the guys came to see right there.
We took a big risk.
I want to see a lot of gold in this clean-up.
Make them feel like they made a good decision.
Last week, Logan, Kevin, and Andy made the decision to return.
None of them saw any real gold all of last season.
How does it look? What do you think, man? That's not bad.
Let's measure it up.
34, 35, 36.
37, 38.
38.
14.
That's awesome.
It's been a long time since I've seen gold.
We didn't see a lot of this in the jungle.
I'm glad we're not mining diamonds this year.
You worked and sweated your ass off in the jungle.
We got jack (BLEEP).
This 38 ounces, with us three guys, what can we do with all you guys? That proves that there's gold in the ground.
Let's get to work, huh? For the first time this season, Todd has a full team of miners working on McKinnon Creek.
If you want to get the pump, I'll get the plant going.
Sweet.
Logan Pierce and Kevin Hiatt fire up the washplant.
Here we go.
I'm taking the water up.
Andy Hall's paydirt.
Right there, drop it.
Good job.
And Jack feeds the washplant in the 460 excavator.
This is as good as it gets right here.
The Hoffman crew is firing on all cylinders.
You guys got this plant sweet.
Running good dirt.
We're finally doing it.
Our first! That's the sound of money.
My guys are here and it feels good.
We're going to kick some ass this year.
After eight hours, the crew has already run 600 yards of paydirt.
Todd? Yeah? I'm running out of paydirt.
Wait a minute.
What? You're out? Yeah, I'm out of pay.
The loader has got a distance to go.
And it can't go fast enough.
Three scoops in my bucket and the loader material is gone.
Todd has Andy in the loader, hauling paydirt 730m from the cut to Little Red.
Andy, you got to get in there and get that faster if you can.
It ain't working.
We're at the point where we're going to run out of dirt.
You must be joking.
I'm loading as fast as we can.
But it's just way too slow.
Not going to keep up with all the (BLEEP) paydirt this way.
OK, Todd, Thurber, this is the last load.
I'm going to run this one through and that's it, I'm out of pay.
You want to shut down? Yeah.
I have to.
I'm out of pay.
This is ridiculous.
We got good gold, good paydirt.
We just can't get it to the plant fast enough.
(SWITCHES OFF) Jack and Todd, they're not good at planning.
That's the problem we have.
There's no plan.
So we got to do something.
This isn't working.
I don't usually argue with you on things.
I just do my job.
But I don't want to fail again.
We failed last season.
I can't do that again.
No, I agree with you 100%.
I think you got great ground.
But without a plan, and without Dave here to figure out how to move this dirt, it ain't going to work.
Why is Dave not here? For four seasons, Dave Turin was Todd's right-hand man and his secret weapon.
Two years ago, Dave was a key reason the crew mined over a million dollars of Klondike gold.
But after last year's jungle disaster, Dave left Todd to mine at Carmacks with Freddy and Derek Dodge.
Big, nuggety Carmacks gold.
Now the crew is demanding Dave back.
I've already tried to get him here at least twice.
He says no, he ain't coming.
Last time, he actually sounded annoyed that I called.
So it's us, dude.
We got to do it.
We got to do it on our own.
We can't do it like we're doing it.
We're not going to put money in everybody's pockets.
You need to get in your (BLEEP) truck and drive to Carmacks and talk to him in person.
North, at Clear Creek.
Tony Beets is racing to take apart his 75-year-old dredge.
His plan, move it 240 kilometres to a new claim.
And mine like the old-timers did 100 years ago.
Today, he faces his biggest challenge yet.
Removing the heaviest section of the 64m dredge.
What does that do? The trommel is inside, right? For 22 years, Tony's dredge mined for gold using a series of buckets that ripped through paydirt and sent it to a washplant inside the vessel.
On a good year, it produced 5,000 ounces of gold.
Worth $6 million today.
The 72 cast-iron buckets, weighing around 20 tonnes, are carried by a massive steel structure called the ladder.
A gigantic conveyor.
Tony has no idea what the ladder weighs or if the 50-tonne crane can even move it.
The crane may be on its limits here when we get set up.
It's got a scale on it, so we can kind of tell what's safe.
We'll tug on it and see what it says, huh? To detach the ladder, Tony first has to remove the steel bolts that secure it to the dredge nine metres above the ground.
All right.
Let's do it.
Need gloves? No.
Once we cut her loose, we're committed.
Then we have no choice.
She's got to go.
Just four 25cm steel bolts connect the massive ladder to the dredge.
With the steel bolts detached, Jerry now plans to lift the ladder up and away from the body of the dredge.
No-one has made parts for a Yukon dredge for over 30 years.
If they damage the ladder, there's no replacement.
If it does take the weight, we can take the ladder off.
Lower it on the truck and get it out of here.
If it doesn't, I'm not sure what we're going to do.
We're overloading.
The crane won't hold it.
We got to stop.
At this angle, the crane can lift 13,000 kilos.
But it's not enough to budge the ancient steel ladder.
It's not going to take the weight like we figured.
So how the (BLEEP) is that going to work? At Scribner Creek, Parker Schnabel has been sluicing for four weeks.
He has 171 ounces of gold.
Worth just over $200,000.
To hit his 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million season goal, he has to get 100 ounces a week.
So far, he's averaging just 43.
He needs to rethink his operation.
Hey, Chris.
I've been looking at this pay pile.
Things are going pretty well, huh? Yeah, the plant's running like a top.
I think we got enough to make it through the day anyway.
There's more than that if Rick keeps it coming.
You know what I'm thinking? I'm afraid of what you're thinking, Parker.
You should be.
I'm thinking we should start running 24/7.
Last time we did this, it didn't go so well.
But if we want to do 2,000 ounces a season, a night shift has to work.
It's the only way we're going to get there.
They're gaining on me a little bit.
But if we ran a night shift, we'd probably hit this pile pretty quick.
The only thing better than pretty fast is twice as fast.
Right? Hang on a second.
You know the song I sing, right? If I need more paydirt I don't know, Parker.
We're eating it up.
It's a nice pile, yeah.
We got the dirt, but If we can keep this pace up, I don't see any reason why we can't run a night shift.
And how lean this ground is, I don't see any other way to make money.
I agree with you on the lean ground.
But you want to pull a guy off to run nights for just a couple nights? It's going to be a challenge.
It really is.
Last time, you ran out.
The time before, you ran out.
That's strike two.
Yeah, but this is different.
We've got quite a bit of ground opened up.
I think we can make it work.
Let me talk to Rick and make sure that he thinks so.
And that he can get the pay up here.
The plant's running good? Yeah, running like a top.
That's why I'm wondering if you'll be able to keep up.
I'd rather have the battle be trying to keep up.
You won't run out of pay.
If we run out of pay, I get to buzz that mop off.
All right? All right.
You can look just like me.
You're going to be wearing a hat.
It's really hard to sustain a good night shift.
Especially on the ground we're on.
There's a lot of risk.
But there's also a lot of potential for reward, right? Parker's last attempt at running a night shift failed miserably.
The ten-minute haul time from the cut to Big Red meant they couldn't deliver enough pay to keep the washplant running.
Parker has moved Big Red almost a kilometre so it sits right next to the cut.
Now they can haul paydirt to the plant in less than a minute.
The whole idea of moving the plant over here was to make the haul short.
Pick up our time, pick up the load counts on the trucks every day.
All of that has happened.
So what are we waiting for? With the shorter haul from the cut .
.
Parker's crew now has enough paydirt to run the plant 24/7.
Looking good! Keep more of the same! Coming in.
There you go.
Good.
Coming up, Chris! Whoo! Operator David Croker arrives for his solo night shift.
All right, are you ready for this? Yeah, let's give her another go.
With a massive stockpile of pay beside the plant, David runs more than 1,600 yards in just 12 hours.
At 7AM, Chris Doumitt arrives to start the day shift.
And there's still a large stockpile left to run.
Good morning.
Morning.
It worked.
This is awesome.
We ought to be able to go a solid week non-stop, right? We're never shutting this thing down.
Parker, copy? Yeah.
What's up, Rick? Can you come down to the swamp cut? I think we got a problem, man.
Be there in a minute.
That's the edge of the cut.
It's kind of a weird problem.
Between the 700 and how close the plant is, we're running out of real estate fast.
I don't think we got more than a couple days left here.
Yeah.
Couple days if you're lucky.
Yeah.
The swamp cut is an area that was already cleared of overburden by previous miners.
For at least a month, Parker's crew chewed through a staggering 30,000 yards of pay in this cut.
Now they've reached the edge of the stripped ground much faster than anticipated.
We're going to have to open up more ground, then.
And quick.
We'll find something because we're not shutting down.
Thanks, Rick.
Things have been going so smooth now that the problem is we're out of pay.
We had a massive area here opened up.
Look at it.
It's huge.
But what happened today happens.
You run out of ground.
If we can't find something that's thawed, we might be in trouble.
Todd Hoffman is on a mission.
He's driven 480km south to recruit the one man that can make his season.
I'm headed down to Carmacks, to Freddy and Derek Dodge's mine.
I need Dave Turin back.
The guy knows how to move dirt.
But he's already turned me down twice.
The answer is probably going to be no.
Todd! Hey, Freddy! How are you? What are you doing here? I'm doing good, man.
Good to see you, man.
Derek.
Mr Hoffman.
How are you, man? What do you think? I like it.
How's the gold? That's the key.
We got a few little toys like that.
Wow.
And it's only getting better.
Getting better? I'm happy for you guys.
What brings you to Carmacks country? I come to visit Dave.
Down there.
What is Todd Hoffman doing here? How are you doing? Shoot it to me straight.
What are you doing here? This is cool and I'm glad you're getting nuggets.
And I'm glad this is working.
But I think we're onto something big up north.
I got a claim, but I really need you down there.
We got a lot of dirt to move.
That's why I'm here.
Face to face, one last chance.
To see if we can finish what we started.
I got nuggets.
What have you got? Show me what you got.
I have a good claim.
Three million dollars' worth of virgin ground.
A lot of gold.
So what's your answer, man? Are you in or out? At Carmacks, hundreds of kilometres from his Klondike claim, Todd Hoffman makes a last desperate plea to his old buddy Dave Turin.
To redeem himself, Todd needs Dave back on his crew.
I have a good claim.
Three million dollars' worth of virgin ground.
A lot of gold.
So what's your answer, man? Are you in or out? Can't do it.
I'm out.
Todd, you're on your own on this one.
You got to do what you got to do.
Good luck to you.
Good luck to you.
Before I leave, I need you to look at something.
Real quick.
You got a minute? Yeah.
What's up? Look over this.
You got a place where you can sit down? In the cook shack.
When I leased the land, Dave, it came with maps and all kinds of information.
You're looking at three million dollars' worth of drilling.
Wow.
I've never seen this many drill holes.
There's a pay streak.
It goes right through this property.
I'm talking a lot of gold.
I have 40,000 to 50,000 yards.
You're kidding me.
Already stripped.
But it's not a real mine.
It's not a real mine unless you have somebody that can move (BLEEP) dirt.
I committed to Freddy.
I can't just up and leave.
Let me have Freddy look at this though.
Dude, I'd be happy to.
Freddy! You got a minute? This is the ground Todd is mining on.
I want you to look at it.
Somebody drilled a lot of holes, didn't they? Somebody spent a lot of money and wanted to make sure they didn't lose their ass before they started mining.
Look at that high-dollar stuff.
It's all running in a pattern.
A guy could follow it.
If these drill holes are right, this isn't sand in the jungle.
You're not making this easy, Freddy.
He's asked me to go help him.
Problem is, I'm committed to you guys.
I told Todd I can't do it.
Dave, you know the situation here.
You're just here working for wages.
If you can get a personal stake in this, be part of it, not just working for wages, if I was in your shoes, jump at it.
This is a big deal here.
You'd be all right with that? Dave, we're always friends.
OK? You make your own tracks.
Thanks, buddy.
You got to do what's best for you and your family.
What do you think? If these drill holes are right, Todd, you're sitting on quite a goldmine there.
You need somebody to move some dirt.
And I'm the guy.
But I'm not doing it for wages.
If I'm doing it for wages, I'll stay here.
I'll do it if I'm a partner.
And I can be 50% owner and I call all the shots.
You need to know what you're asking for, Dave.
You've seen me make money.
And you've seen me get my ass kicked.
I tell you what, as part-owner, you're part responsible for the bills.
Are you in a position to do something like that? If I commit to this, and I'm a partner, I'm going to bring some money with me, OK? Well You may not like this number, but this is what it's going to take to do it.
To give up that kind of control.
Half a million bucks.
(BLEEP)! And that's a discount.
Because I need your help.
We'll go in and I'll split the gold with you.
So what's your answer, man? Give me some time.
If I can round up the money, I'm all in.
You got a deal.
You see me lose my ass last year.
There's a chance you could lose your ass this year.
At Clear Creek, Tony Beets has tried and failed to budge the huge steel ladder on his dredge.
What do you figure, Jerry? Tony, the crane doesn't have the capacity to lift this.
I was pulling 29,000lb there.
And it said 32 is all I was supposed to pull on it.
We're too far away.
We need to cut that distance down from the crane to the ladder.
If you cut the distance by half, it will lift twice as much.
Monica moves tailings onto the ground next to the ladder.
Tony then flattens them to create a stable base for the crane.
To make sure it comes out, Tony is bringing in another piece of equipment.
Tony suspects that because the ladder hasn't moved in 25 years, it's rusted to the dredge.
So his son Kevin will try and pull the ladder free with the grader while Jerry lifts with the crane.
The crane is lifting close to its capacity right now.
The plan is sketchy.
If Kevin can free the ladder, its entire weight will suddenly fall onto the crane.
Pull it up! If the ladder's too heavy when it comes loose from the dredge, it will pull the crane over.
We don't want that to happen.
He needs to be able to go.
If he can't get out, he's just dead.
Period.
Yep.
Let's see if she works.
There we go.
It's free.
We're lifting right at the max of the crane.
Hopefully it will hold.
Get it separated so we can pull the (BLEEP) thing out.
Let's go.
Keep an eye on that crane.
Get her! Get her! Let's go! Good.
Jerry, lift the right side out of there, please.
Watch the ladder, Tony! (BLEEP)! (BLEEP) unbelievable.
When we finally got it free, it swung out, over and around, and just missed smashing into Jerry's cab.
Going any faster than that, it could have been a little rough.
Now they just have to figure out how to load it onto the truck.
Swing it out and get the truck underneath.
Yes! Down, down, down.
OK.
Perfect.
Another step closer to get the thing turning again and get some gold out of the ground.
At Scribner Creek, Parker Schnabel has run the last paydirt from his swamp cut.
He's now desperate for more thawed ground to keep the washplant fed.
That's the swamp cut there.
And Up against the hillside, that's all frozen.
So we can't go that way.
Towards the creek.
That's here? Yeah.
Where it says no sample? Yeah.
It's thawed, huh? The only thawed ground on the claim is an extension of the swamp cut that runs towards Indian River.
The whole area has been drilled.
But the tests from the extension showed no results.
I don't see any other option than to go for that spot.
More uncharted territory.
It might not be the greatest ground, but we've got to keep the plant running.
Before we make the decision to do this, maybe at least dig some test holes to make sure it's not a complete (BLEEP).
Let's do it.
All right.
I'm going to pan some of this material out of this hole.
See if it's potentially a hole full of gold.
Not really seeing a lot.
Garbage.
Parker.
Hey, dude.
I was doing some test pans in the extension.
Looks like (BLEEP).
Yeah? Um I think it's a waste of our time, Parker.
Rick, it's not the greatest ground.
But compared to last year, we're way ahead of the game.
I understand that.
Could we be further on? Yeah, we could be (BLEEP) further along.
When is enough enough? OK, here's what we'll do.
We'll run 100 hours.
If we don't get 100 ounces - We ain't getting (BLEEP) 100 ounces.
It's going to be a 100-hour waste of time.
You don't want to waste your (BLEEP) time? It's my (BLEEP) time to waste.
I'm just looking out for you.
Yeah, it is your (BLEEP) time.
I'm looking out for myself, Rick.
If it's (BLEEP) ground, I'll end up with the bill, right? Get the (BLEEP) back here.
2,300km south, Dave Turin arrives in Oregon, hoping to raise the half a million dollars he needs to buy into Todd's operation.
I'm headed back home.
Meeting with the brothers and my dad.
I need some money to get this thing going.
It's an amazing opportunity.
Hopefully they'll buy into this.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Hi, Dad.
Good.
Dave.
How's it going? Good.
You guys got a couple minutes to talk? Yeah.
Here's the deal.
I've got an opportunity to walk into a goldmine in the Klondike.
I've got an opportunity to be the 50% owner.
I call all the shots on the mining.
We've got drill logs.
This is averaging way better than anything I've ever seen.
It's two to three times better than what we did two years ago at Quartz Creek.
Those are all above $15 to $20 a yard.
So what are you looking for from us? The partner wants half a million dollars.
Who is this partner anyway? The partner is Todd Hoffman.
You got to be kidding me.
Todd Hoffman.
You're going to go partners with Todd Hoffman.
What are you thinking?! After last year's debacle? I get it.
And Guyana.
And you want to go partners with Todd.
If I don't jump on this now, Todd will find somebody else.
And he's going to move forward.
I got to find some money.
We don't have the money.
I don't have time for this.
Good luck.
I understand where your brothers are coming from.
We're talking about a half a million bucks here.
That's a lot, a lot, of money.
Dad, I promise you that I'll run the show.
I promise you I'm getting half the gold that comes out of this claim.
I got some faith in you, Dave.
You've always been good at what you've done.
I'll find a way, Dave, to help you out with this money.
Thanks, Dad.
You're welcome, Dave.
I really appreciate your support.
Once again, Dave heads north to the Klondike.
But this time, he won't be working for Todd Hoffman.
He'll be a mine boss.
It's not easy for Todd to turn over the reins of this thing.
It's been Todd's baby.
But in the end, it's got to be me calling the shots, making the decisions, when it comes to mining.
That way, we're going to get there.
At Scribner Creek, Parker Schnabel is about to weigh the gold he's mined from the swamp cut extension.
The only thawed ground left on his claim.
To have any chance of his 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million target, Parker needs his best clean-up of the season.
At least 100 ounces.
Hey, how's it going, man? Long time no see.
No kidding.
Tony Beets, as claim owner, arrives for the big weigh-in.
That looks pretty good, huh? Yeah, not bad actually.
That always brightens the day.
Yeah.
We ran 100 hours.
We're hoping for 100 ounces.
An ounce an hour is kind of what it takes.
Let's weight this up, huh? It's going to be (BLEEP) close.
92.
70.
92 ounces, worth over $110,000, is the biggest clean-up Parker's had all season.
Not 100.
No.
Better than 50.
Huh? Yours is 13.
9.
13.
9.
Bag it up.
The more you get, the better I do.
So get on with it.
The way this ground is, we can make money on that actually.
Parker, thanks.
Catch you on the next one.
Get me some more, would you? Will do, Tony.
Good.
Six weeks into the season, Parker has pulled out 263 ounces.
Worth around $316,000.
This time last season, he had only 51 ounces.
92 ounces isn't too bad.
It's not the 100 we were looking for.
But we are making money.
And that extension is paying off.
At McKinnon Creek, Todd awaits Dave Turin's arrival in the Klondike.
Hey, Todd.
Yeah, Dave? Where are you? I'm on my way and I've got my investment with me.
Hopefully, you've got a suitcase of cash.
I don't have any cash, but I got something better.
Look at that! (HORNS) Whoo! Holy gamoly! Dave's bought into the Hoffman mine with half a million dollars.
Which he's used to lease a massive collection of heavy equipment.
Here comes the cavalry, Dad.
Amazing.
Todd and his crew finally have the equipment and manpower they need to redeem themselves after last season's jungle disaster.
How are you doing, partner? Hey! Whoo! Whoo! Check it out, huh? This is awesome.
What do you think? Oh, my gosh.
You rob somebody? Check this out.
A D9L.
This is what we need to start stripping.
Pretty sweet? I know it.
Dave, this is the biggest stuff we've ever had.
Dave, I am so glad you changed your mind.
We couldn't have done it without you.
Thanks, Jack.
We're going to go get some gold.
And we're going to kick some ass this year.
Gold, baby.
We're going to do it.
This is our last chance.
Dave's gone out on a limb.
We got to come together as a team.
Now it's all of our faults if we don't make it.
Hey, man! So Todd got Dave here.
Brought some equipment with him.
We've got the ground, the equipment.
I don't see any reason why we can't meet our goals.
I took a chance.
And it is so nice to be back.
Back in the Klondike.
Back with my boys.
This could be a great year.
Dave didn't bring this equipment in just because he likes me, because we're buddies.
It's business.
He brought this in because .
.
he knows what I know.
We got a chance of winning this year.
On the next Gold Rush Todd and Dave's new partnership gets off to a rocky start.
I'm going to finish what we started.
We stuck to the jungle too, and that didn't work out so good.
Tony Beets gives his daughter Monica a chance to prove herself.
It's like 90 feet long.
It's not 90 feet long.
It's 85 feet long.
But delivering the 85 feet, 26 metre, conveyor (BLEEP)! .
.
is no joke.
And a careless mistake by Parker (CRUNCH) No way! .
.
brings his operation to a screeching halt.

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