Hoffman Family Gold (2022) s02e06 Episode Script

1
This could be the week
where we really decide
which plant is better.
It's halfway
through the season,
and the Hoffmans
have only reached
284 ounces
of their 1,000 ounce goal
Nothing good comes easy.
but
with both plants
finally running full tilt
We got water pumping, baby!
will the competition
push them
towards their goal?
I guarantee you,
this thing here
is gonna be hard to beat.
It's game on.
But will they push
their equipment too hard?
Holy .
Holy cow.
That is not good at all.
It's
father versus son
It's gonna be a little bit
of a bitter surprise
when they see how much gold
we get out of this cleanup.
Whether they can
beat us or not, I doubt it.
- Clear!
- and it's
all on the line.
Let's get it on,
baby!
Damn,
we're putting the flag up!
You ready?
Yeah.
Nice and easy, boss.
Heads up!
Look at that, boys!
Looking good!
We're
right behind the generator.
-You can see
the bolts there, right?
- Yeah, I see it.
-I'll turn it right on, there.
-Okay.
I just don't want it to fall
and hit one of you guys.
Oops.
You all ready?
So, now we're in a really
precarious position.
Yep, we're .
Hold it, hold it, hold it,
hold it, hold it,
hold it, hold it.
- Now,
that was just hot!
- Oh, jeez!
Our flag is flown
for our faith,
our patriotism
towards our country,
and we tip our hat
to the people
of the armed services.
Let's fly this bitch.
You got it?
What's up, baby?
Here she is, boys.
Money. Oh, dude, that's sick.
Let's hook her up.
We're the bad guys this time.
Okay,
this is gonna look sick.
You know, we're using
this old, pirate ship-looking
wash plant,
we're here to get treasure,
and this is a good way
for me to prove myself
as a gold miner.
I wanted to prove a point.
I wanted to prove, you know,
to my dad and to these guys
that we could take this on,
and we could do it.
Oh, hey!
Oh, they got
the Pearl flag up.
Yeah.
The Jolly Roger.
Their flag flies
over pirate ships
that go around
and steal stuff.
That's
pretty cool, though.
It does look
dope, you know?
Yeah,
it does look dope.
They're gonna fly
their flag,
we're gonna fly ours,
and then,
it's game on.
You know what's funny is
that was us three one day.
Uh-huh.
Full of piss and vinegar.
And then, someday,
they'll be standing over here,
and their kids will be
over there
smart-mouthing them.
And they'll be like, "Yep."
-And that'll be sweet justice.
I do want to see gold
through that plant,
but whether they can beat us
or not, I doubt it.
You got two plants,
father-son,
running side by side,
so naturally,
there's gonna be
a little competition.
Age and treachery
always beats out
youth and beauty.
All right, guys!
Are you ready to get it on?
Let's get it on, baby!
Fire it up!
We'll see,
see how much gold
we can get here,
'cause I guarantee you,
this thing here
is gonna be hard to beat.
Fire up the generator!
This could be the week
where we really decide
which plant is better.
This might be
kind of fun, this week.
Hopefully, we start hitting
some of our gold here,
and we'll see what happens.
Let's fire up.
-All right. Let's do it, man.
- All right.
My dad's running dirt.
He's weeks ahead of me.
They already have
a head start,
so we need
to make up for lost time.
So, this is gonna be
the first time we're doing
a full day's run.
We're gonna get her fired up,
and run until it gets dark.
We just don't really have
a choice at this point.
We gotta get the gold,
we gotta run the yards,
and my guys are with me.
You ready,
Sparky?
Yes, sir. I'm ready
whenever you are.
Hopefully,
I'm gonna be able to catch up,
and start beating these guys.
We're about to get it
right now.
Clear!
We got water pumping, baby!
I've always been competitive.
I played sports growing up.
But there's a lot of times
where I could let things go,
and let somebody else
be right,
or think that they're right,
but when it comes down
to me and my dad,
I got a lot
of pent-up stuff inside.
The only reason
that this plant is running
is because I needed
to prove him wrong.
My dad, Andy, and Tater,
I know
that they didn't really think
we were gonna be able
to do this
on our own like this,
but me, Sparky, and Cub
are gonna keep
plugging away,
and I think we're gonna prove
the Black Pearl
is an instrumental piece in us
actually getting to our goal,
and I think, in the end,
everybody's gonna be happy
that we put in
the work we did.
With both plants
running at full capacity,
Andy and the rest of the crew
work to deliver
twice the amount of paydirt
from the ancient river cut.
Now, it's our job
to go get the gold
out of the ground.
That's what we're here to do,
so we're gonna run
both plants, some paydirt.
I think we're going
in the right direction.
We keep feeling like
we're getting closer
to the source of where
this gold is coming from.
A lot of this gold
is so jagged and rough,
and it doesn't have
a smooth edge on it,
so it didn't travel
from very far.
It just indicates that
you're getting closer
to where it came from,
so the more
of that material we got,
the more gold's gonna be
in it.
We're just gonna keep digging,
and keep
working our way upstream.
One of the first cuts
that we did up here,
it was literally
the richest gold pan
we'd ever seen.
You could actually
make a living
panning for gold here.
I'm really excited
to see
what kind of gold we can do
with the Black Pearl.
We can run a lot of stuff
that the Holy Roller
just can't.
Ours was built
for this material, custom.
Nome is known
for having a lot of clay,
so The Holy Roller,
they can't handle
that amount of clay.
Their trommel is like
a Slip 'N Slide.
Ours is like
a torture chamber,
so it'll beat the crap
out of anything
we put in there.
I don't think these old guys
know what's coming.
We're gonna go
back in here.
Dakota and I
are scraping this.
I'm slinging it all to Dakota,
and I'm scraping
all this bedrock,
and getting it cleaned up,
and we're gonna get it
to both plants.
Right now,
everything looks good.
I want to keep putting
pay into it.
If we have no breakdowns,
we'd have a good idea
of how well
this thing's actually working.
I think we'll have
some good gold in the box.
We ran the Holy Roller
eight hours today.
Andy literally was able
to bring us
2,000 yards of pay.
Were gonna go ahead
and shut down,
and Hunter's gonna go ahead
and run into the night.
Go ahead and shut down.
You want
to kill the, uh, generator?
My dad,
and Andy, and all those guys,
their plant's off,
and we're getting gold, man.
Kind of feels nice.
All right, boys,
make this
a million dollar night.
Thanks, brother.
I'm seeing it
turning and burning,
spin it to win it.
I love it.
I really hope
that this thing runs good,
because I want to see them
have some payoff.
The payoff will be
the gold in the box.
We're behind,
so while things
are going right,
we gotta take advantage of it.
We gotta keep
jamming pay through it,
so I know we're all tired,
we already worked all day,
but we're just gonna keep
putting pay into it.
We're gonna
take advantage of this,
and we're gonna run all night.
How are we looking, Cub?
It looks good.
Let's turn
the RPOs up a little bit.
Every bucket counts,
and I'm hoping that
we can make up for lost time,
so we'll see.
Hopefully,
at the end of the day,
if the box is full of gold,
we'll see what happens.
This is all I wanted,
right here, man.
I wanted us to do
our plant, our way,
do it ourself, and I wanted
me and my little brother
to be able
to get gold together.
He's been killing it,
and this is the first time,
ever, in a decade,
that we've been able
to have this moment
right here, together,
so it feels good.
Did you hear me, Hunter?
Honestly,
I just wasn't paying
attention.
I got carried away talking
about how much I love you.
I don't really care
about how much you love me.
I care about the amount
of gold we're gonna get.
That's the right attitude
on this team.
Now that this thing's running,
I think, uh, it's gonna be
a little bit
of a bitter surprise
when they see how much gold
we get out of this cleanup.
There's no turning back,
and there's
no slowing down, so
Oh!
What the happened?
Sparky!
What the ?
What the
is that?
Oh, no.
It's
literally right here.
I wasn't paying attention,
clipped this with the tooth,
and put a huge hole in it.
We just got in a hurry,
and I made a mistake.
Now I gotta deal with it.
After running
the Black Pearl for 12 hours,
Hunter has put a costly
three-foot-long puncture
in the pipe
that feeds the plant.
The Black Pearl needs water
to process gold.
It's pumped to the trommel
through a long pipe.
Now that
the pipe is punctured,
his plant is out of commission
till it can be repaired.
Repairing a broken 14-inch
polyethylene water pipe
is paramount.
Without the water it provides
running the Black Pearl,
every day the team is losing
roughly $30,000 in gold
sitting idle.
Where's
that coming from, Hunter?
The main line. It's cracked.
Oh, .
Let's just undig that thing,
and maybe we gotta cut it,
and reweld it.
Thurber,
can you come down here
and spot for Jack
on this water line?
Please stop
calling people over here.
I don't need it right now.
Yeah, well, you're gonna
my line up, okay?
So you're gonna need
a spotter.
We can count on it.
We'll take care of it.
Plastic and steel don't mix.
It punctured right through it.
He probably
didn't even feel it,
but here we are.
We gotta dig it out.
All this we're standing on,
that's all gotta get removed,
so critical time,
they lost a whole day.
We're on top of it.
If we can get to the pipe,
and then I can dig
along the side,
and we'll be all right.
Just an unfortunate accident.
Sometimes, you think
if it wasn't for bad luck,
you wouldn't have
any luck at all,
but you don't quit.
You don't.
You gotta fix the problem.
That's what we're doing.
We're gonna expose
the pipe real nice,
get it all cleaned up,
and ready to repair,
and get running again.
Ooh, that's
a pretty good gouge, there.
It's a huge bummer,
it's a huge letdown,
and something
I can't fix right away.
I'm gonna have to have Nate
and some guys come in tomorrow
and help us patch this thing,
and so, right now,
we're dead in the water
right when we got started,
and it's frustrating,
but this whole project
has taught me
I have to just keep
pressing forward,
so we're just gonna
stay positive,
and hope for the best.
With
the Black Pearl down
for the remainder of the day,
Todd must rely solely
on the Holy Roller
to hit the weekly target
of 102 ounces.
The water pipe issue
is like, you know,
you gotta live and learn.
I've hit my own fair share
of water pipes.
Usually, if something bad's
gonna happen,
it happens at night.
Hopefully, we can catch up
on what we just lost today.
That's kind of the cool part
about having two plants.
I'm at least still heading
towards a goal.
But I don't know
if we're gonna reach it
without his plant.
Here he is.
Hunter!
-What the ?
- Yeah.
This was a huge mistake.
It cost me
all day's run yesterday,
and half of today.
-You gotta plug it.
- Oh, that's a good one!
Yeah.
We don't have
the fuser machine to fix it,
so I convinced Nate to come
all the way back out here.
Let's mark it,
and get it cut out.
-Let's get to it, then.
- Okay.
Let's see if we can't get you
up and running here quick.
We're gonna cut out
the bad section, refuse it.
There we go.
Cut it in half, like that.
Hopefully, in an hour or two,
we're gonna be up and running,
and sluicing some more dirt.
This is
a pretty expensive up,
and especially for something
that could have been avoided.
There we go.
With the pipe
cut and cleaned,
it's time
for the pipe fusion machine.
We had to bring out
a really, really expensive
fusion machine.
It's the only one in town
that'll do 14-inch.
All right. You ready?
This multistep process
starts by loading
each side into clamps
Keep going! A little more!
and merging
them together.
- Okay!
And we're just gonna try
to work it this way.
Okay.
That's pretty good.
Then,
the cutter is inserted
-to reface each side
-Good.
so the surfaces
are flush when married.
Now, I'm adjusting
the pressure so it cuts,
and it'll remount the pipe,
so we have a flush face
to heat and fuse.
If the pipes are not
perfectly flat
with each other,
you'll never get
a good fusion.
Next,
a heating pad,
heated to 500 degrees,
melts the 14-inch plastic.
Does it say 500?
Perfect.
We heat it for six minutes,
and then cooling for 12.
As it cools,
steady pressure is applied
to create a seal
that's just as strong
as the original pipe.
Beautiful.
- Perfect.
- Yeah, it's perfect.
Dude, we're gonna be
up and running in no time.
We're in a little bit
of a hurry.
Yep.
It's always
something, ain't it.
Yeah.
No kidding.
I've been doing this
a long time,
and one of the things that's
gonna make Hunter successful
is he's not shy
to reach out for help,
and get other people's opinion
on this stuff,
and that's crucial.
People that know it all are
the ones that fail up here.
This was
a huge mistake.
Hopefully,
we don't do this again.
If we don't hit it again,
we shouldn't have
any other issues.
I think
you guys will kill it here,
once you get it all dialed in.
Okay.
We're back online.
-Now you know.
- Nate.
-Thank you.
-Yeah.
- We're back
in the game, baby. Thank you.
-All right.
Let's run some dirt.
Yeah.
Uh, 10-4.
Right now,
we got
a limited amount of time,
so once we're both running,
I think we're gonna have
a good chance of getting
a pretty good, uh, recovery.
I hope.
Hey, Todd.
We have a leak.
where?
Oh, .
.
Uh, we've developed a leak
while we were feeding.
Looks like the feed line
to our junction box
blew a hose.
Tater,
how bad is it?
Well, the six-inch line
between the two boxes
has a split in it.
It's leaking bad.
Well, I don't know if we got
any extra. That's the thing.
Hit the bypass.
Rinse it off.
10-4.
The water line
that feeds the junction box
and supplies
the water pressure
necessary to run
the hydraulic riffles
has sprung a leak.
We're gonna have to shut down
to fix it.
Uh, hopefully,
we can get it fixed fast.
Anytime we're not running,
we're not making any money,
so we're gonna get on this
right away.
Without
a steady feed rate
to the riffles,
it won't inject
the necessary five pounds
of water pressure
to fluidize the gravel,
and flush it from the troughs.
This leads to clogging,
which leads to losing gold.
So, we're on some
of the best paydirt I've seen.
We just had
our biggest cleanup,
and then, of course,
we blow a line,
Hunter hits one
with his bucket,
I just blow a hose,
so this might put us out
another day.
But, like, every day
is, like, 30,000 bucks,
so it's frustrating.
-It's leaking
over here somewhere?
- It's leaking a lot.
Yeah. Right in the middle
of it, somewhere.
-It was
- Dude, that's
a brand-new hose.
No.
We reused this one. See it?
- Oh yeah, it's all--
-It's in one of these.
Oh, it's all cracked.
-Look at all those cracks.
-Yeah.
We have one more
We have a new one, right?
I think we got
another one that's laying down
-by the road. Yeah.
- Yes!
There is one laying there.
Yeah, we can do that,
but we need
to get this thing done.
I'll take my truck down,
see if I can find it.
Let's get it,
let's wrestle it in there,
-let's frigging get
fired up again.
-Yes. We need to.
We're running out
of good days, man.
The good thing is,
I got a lot of guys,
I got a lot of crap,
and we're just gonna
work our way around it.
Like everything else in life,
nothing good comes easy.
You ready, Sparky?
Yep, yep!
After losing
more than a day to fix
their punctured water line,
and with the Holy Roller
having problems of its own,
Hunter's ready to do his part,
and keep
the Black Pearl productive.
Clear!
I'm firing the Black Pearl.
Black Pearl's back up
and running,
so me and Sparky
are gonna get it ripping,
and while
they're losing speed,
we'll, uh, start putting
some points on the board.
Sparky, bring the water on.
Hopefully, with the yardage
that we can do
with this thing,
I'm gonna be able to catch up
and get some gold in the box.
We're down. We got
a six-inch hose that's gone.
Now we're on the hunt
for another six-inch hose.
Every hour
that we're not running,
we lose $5,000.
There goes a lot of money.
A lot of money.
Yeah. Go all the way.
All right. I'm all the way.
All right.
Water's coming!
How does the sluice look like?
Cub, does it look like enough?
Sluice looks good to me.
Okay, can you guys
just keep an eye on it
for the first couple
and make sure that
everything holds good.
Roger.
We're finally
up and running
after we got our pipe fixed.
Feels really good.
And, uh
yesterday, when we
found out that we had a leak,
a couple of the guys
on the other team
gave out some, you know,
kinda snarky little comments.
So that was pretty upsetting,
but, uh,
today, just before we fire up,
they find out
they have a leak.
And so I just said,
"It's an accident,
things happen."
But in the back
of my head, I'm like,
"Yep, karma."
Not backing up,
we are doing good.
Everything checks off.
Everything's running great.
Water's running,
pump's running,
engine's looking good.
So I think Think we're
pretty good right now.
We're down, we got
a six-inch hose that's gone.
So I think
it's gonna be long enough.
If this is long enough, score!
It is the very last
of our brand new hose.
You got the rattle gun,
everything?
I gotta go get a battery
and then the rattle gun.
Perfect, all right,
I'll get it down there.
-All right, I'll meet
you down there.
-I'll get the couplers off.
Oh, we are so lucky right now
that we have a piece
of brand new hose.
This piece of hose
got flown in
with a 100-foot roll
to put our plant together.
Luckily, there's
some leftover,
just enough to fix this
and hopefully get running
here in the next hour.
I'll see you back down there!
If the replacement
hose doesn't fit,
and fails to stop the leak,
there is no plan B.
The Holy Roller and their goal
of 102 ounces this week
will be in jeopardy.
It's long enough.
You're a
freaking animal.
For the first time,
the Pearl is running,
and we're broke down.
So we want to get
this hose off,
get the new hose on
as quick as possible
'cause we got a goal to meet.
Let me see
if I can drive it out
like we drove it in.
- Okay.
Next end.
Although the leak
they've set out to fix
originated with
a hole in the hose,
the greatest
probability of a leak
in the replacement line
are the couplings
they must install
at each end of their new hose.
Give her
a little love.
All right,
to the next end.
One to go.
Hey, Todd, do you have
a copy? Todd?
Yeah, Tater?
10 minutes, this your
10-minute warning.
Okay, we're actually
gonna be back up in business,
which is actually
kinda rare around here.
It's looking like
we're actually gonna
do okay on this one.
All right.
The aluminum
couplings are designed
to maintain a watertight seal
that can withstand
75 pounds of pressure
per square inch.
Okay.
Todd, we're gonna go head
and fire the water back up,
make sure she don't leak,
but I think we're good to go.
Perfect. Thank you, man.
Yee-haw.
Who said old guys
weren't good at stuff?
As soon as Randy
turns on the pump,
we'll find out if it leaks,
and if it isn't,
we're gonna start
throwing dirt at this thing.
Hey, Randy, I'm gonna
need a wrench.
Nah, leave it running.
Let me, uh,
see what it's gonna take
to get it to stop.
Yeah,
just give it to her.
Damn it! It's still
leaking out.
I'm gonna have to
redo this, shut it off.
Holy cow, that is
not good at all!
10-4, just let me know
if I can speed up
or slow down.
Roger.
Okay,
the Black Pearl's
up and running.
We had some down time
'cause of our water line.
Lost a day and some change,
but now,
the Holy Roller's down,
so they won't run until
they get that thing fixed,
and out here,
pipe and fittings
and things like that
are hard to come by.
That's why it literally was,
like, a crazy scavenger hunt
to even get my plant running.
I have fittings on here
that are literally
cracked in half.
We have no other choice
but to use them, so
For everybody's sake,
I hope they get it running,
but for our team's sake
it's kinda nice
to be out here running solo.
Me and the guys
can start getting some of
our own cleanups
and get some points
on the board.
Grab that one right there.
I think this is
the other side.
-Yeah.
- Look at there.
-Now all we gotta do
is slide it on, right?
-Is that the right one?
-Yeah.
-This is the wrong one
I think.
-Nope.
- This is
the wrong one.
-That's the right one.
- Yeah, the right one.
We got tons
of great pay dirt,
I don't know,
it's It's aggravating.
One little hose like that,
and out here in the middle
of freaking nowhere
it's not good,
might as well be
in Antarctica,
it's, like, hard.
I might even have to
fly this stupid hose
into this town, I don't know.
So we had
the wrong clamp.
Dude, I'm sweating.
All right,
now hopefully,
this is the right clamp.
We're gonna find out
right now.
Even when you have
the parts a little fixed,
like, a leak like this,
it can cost you
thousands of dollars.
If you're doing
a hundred yards an hour,
and it's two ounces a hundred,
and you're down two hours,
that's four ounces of gold
and depending on the price,
that could be a lot of money.
Water lines have been
Are becoming a major issue.
You haven't dropped
anything on them,
and all the sudden,
they just blow a hole.
Just the pressure
I guess, but
we just don't have
a lot of time.
That's the problem.
Hey, Randy,
do you have a copy?
Yeah, go ahead.
Rev it up, let's see
what it does.
All right, here we go.
I'm gonna bring it up to about
1,200.
I'm gonna bring it up
to about 1,200.
Three hours
into replacing
the burst water hose
that shut down
the Holy Roller
and one failed
attempt at a fix
frustration is rising
as their losses mount.
It is, like, $30,000,
it's, like, literally
30-grand, 40-grand,
50-grand in a day.
So hopefully, I can get a fix,
get it back going again
We can run,
we're good to go.
All right!
We got lucky
this time,
we had the parts
for this fix on-site,
which now we're out of hose.
Uh, next time could be worse.
We could be waiting days.
Hey, Todd, I'm going to,
uh, kick the bypasses off
and, uh, get you
fired up, buddy.
Okay, firing up.
All clear?
Fire this thing up.
Come on, baby.
All right, that's it!
We're back and running.
We're back in business.
Hopefully, we can catch up
on what we lost today.
After
water-line failures
put the Black Pearl
and the Holy Roller
out of commission,
both plants are finally
back to work.
Yeah, buddy!
It looks really good, man.
And with
just a day to go
before mats are pulled,
it's all hands on deck
to get as many yards through
the plants as possible.
Let's go, baby!
10-4.
This whole thing
has to work together
like a clock.
You have Andy
hunting the pay dirt.
Then the trucks haul
the pay dirt to the plant.
We run it through the plant,
so every organism
is important.
This'll be my 10th of the day.
Seems like mining,
you lose a lot,
but today, this is a win.
I feel so amazing right now
because Black Pearl's
up and running.
I'm freaking
happy, dude.
Man, it was not easy
getting to this point.
We're gonna keep
our head up high,
our worries down low,
and we're gonna see
if this box
is actually catching
something.
The boys,
it's kind of cool,
they're doing
their first cleanup.
-You remember ours?
- Oh, yeah.
-Very well.
- I mean,
they've learned a lot
from watching us,
they know what not to do
because we did it.
- Yeah, we did
all the bad things, you know.
We've made as many mistakes
as you can possibly make.
What do you think
it's gonna do?
Yeah,
I don't know.
We'll see.
-It'll be exciting.
We'll find out, huh.
The man, the myth,
the beautiful mustache.
After we shut down,
we're gonna get this
cleanup in action.
Start cleaning the carpets
and see if Todd's gamble
is really worth it.
Visually, we're seeing gold.
I think this thing
is a gold goblin,
but we don't know
until we do this cleanup.
And we're both running
the same ancient
riverbed dirt.
This might even be better
at catching gold.
Shut it down!
Dude, I'm ready
to see this box though.
- Should look good.
- I think it's gonna
look spanking.
You know, I'm excited.
- Here, look at this.
- Dude, look at this.
-Grandpa.
- Look at this,
grandpa, look at this.
Seeing it there,
I see it there. Yeah.
- Look right here.
- That is sh-loaded.
That's big chunks,
that's a lot of freaking
gold, man.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm excited
for this cleanup now.
-Holy crap.
Yup,
it's working good.
-See, look at this
whole side.
- Oh, yeah.
- Look at that.
-I'm glad your guys'
goes to our total too.
- Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
-Dude, this is awesome.
Looking really good, Hunter.
This is
all the hard work
shown right in the palm
of your hands.
We did it, Sparky,
you like that?
I love it. I could
eat that, dude.
We really
needed to see this,
I needed to see some gold.
Sparky needed it,
Cub needed it,
you know, Black Pearl
flag's flying.
I got everybody I love here,
and, uh, my sluice box
is packed full of gold.
-Okay, come on.
- I'm happy for you.
- Come on.
-Come on.
-Give me a hug, come on.
It's a good feeling.
We got to prove to Todd
that this plant
can catch gold.
I think ours is in the money,
but we're gonna find out.
-Yeah, yeah.
- You guys ready?
-Hell yeah.
-Ready, I'm ready, show it.
Dude!
We pulled the box,
it looked really good to me.
But I'm curious to see,
you just don't know
until you get it
to the gold room.
Sometimes you think
it's good, and it's not,
so we're just gonna
keep going, hope for the best.
Whoa.
This is crazy.
It's my birthday.
My birthday corn dog.
sucks .
I will never ever spend
another 21st birthday
mining again.
I'll also never spend it
anywhere else either, so
hopefully, we get
enough gold to actually
make it worth it.
What were you guys doing
on your 21st birthday?
Pretty cool.
Way cooler than mine.
Guys, uh, I'm seeing a lot
of gold over here.
Look at all that
just stacked in there.
It's all back here.
It's actually right there too.
That's literally a solid pile
of gold in there.
-Look at that.
-Mmm-hmm.
That right there
and this right here
is always a sweet spot.
Right there and right there.
The box
is looking promising,
but with the Black Pearl
and the Holy Roller
both going down this week,
I don't know if we're gonna
hit that 102-ounce goal.
I think your
hydraulics are full.
Look at this guys, come here.
Look at that.
It's coming out right here.
Yep, they're full.
Look right here.
We have never
had them that full.
- Look at this.
- Yep.
I am confident though
that we are going to beat
the Black Pearl.
All right, man.
Whew!
I never get sick
of staring into this thing.
No?
- No.
-'Cause it always has gold.
-Unless there's no gold,
-when I see gold, I'm good.
- Yeah.
For the first time
in their mining career,
Todd and Hunter Hoffman
will each have a cleanup
from their own wash plant.
Dude, first gold
for the Black Pearl,
pretty exciting.
Did you see a lot in the box?
Yeah, it was
shining back,
chunky and some nuggets.
I mean, I could tell
that the sluice box
is catching good gold.
-So it's working.
- Uh-huh.
-That's good.
- Hopefully,
our little bit helps
because of my whole
water line screw up.
Ooh,
that's a pretty good
gouge there.
Learning curve.
You got it fixed quick,
and you got it up and rolling,
and we're getting gold.
First gold in the box,
it's a good feeling, huh?
I'm hoping that
even though we didn't
run very long,
I'm hoping that we finally get
over our gold weekly average
that we can't seem to hit.
How's our water to hose?
We have one leak, right?
Kinda concerned
with the hoses.
Hopefully, they hold out
for the season,
but time will tell.
I'm thankful for how simple
our wash plant is,
looking over
your guys' set up.
You guys have a lot
of different hoses going on,
I just hope everything
was, you know, set up properly
and that you guys don't have
any more leaks.
Yeah.
Uh-oh.
-Whoa.
- Double trouble.
Love it, dad, where'd you get
the black bottle? That's cool.
-That's what we're doing, huh?
- Black one, man.
- Black pearl, baby.
- All right, I like it.
-I like it.
- I like that.
I like
the black bottle.
Okay, where are we,
Thurb, total?
We're at 285,
and we're at $485,000,
almost half a million.
-Wow.
- Yeah.
We're supposed to get
to $1.6 million, $1.7 million.
Hopefully, two plants,
that's gonna push us
over our goal
of 102 ounces this week.
I say
pour the Black Pearl first,
-go for it.
- Okay.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20,
21
21.4, boys.
Wow.
From what happened,
that's actually more
than I thought.
It's not actually what
you guys probably wanted,
but that's actually
That's not bad for a start.
My first whole season,
we had 16 ounces,
the total.
That's your first cleanup.
Just to put it in perspective,
we've done worse. So
All right, dad.
Holy Roller, baby.
See what we got.
All right.
Please don't put
a smaller tray on there.
Look at the nuggets.
Oh, look at that chunk.
- 20
-Big nuggets, lots of nuggets.
30
40
50
Come on.
60
-65.
- God, just right
65, 21, 86
$150,000-ish.
Running out of time now,
we're getting farther behind.
The Black Pearl's
first cleanup comes in
at just over 21 ounces.
while the Holy Roller
finishes the week with 65
for a combined total
of 86 ounces,
nearly halfway
through the season,
the Hoffmans' 371 ounces
is well below half their goal.
They'll need nearly
630 more ounces
to hit their 1,000 ounce goal.
Where does this
put us with this?
We need to get
104 ounces per week.
But with the two plants,
-we got Black Pearl
in the mix
-Yeah.
don't get complacent,
keep going.
We're gonna make it.
I feel good
'cause, like,
getting to this point
took me to the brink,
mentally, physically,
emotionally, everything.
So it's finally paying off,
and it makes me feel good.
Everything's coming together,
and we're finally
getting rewarded.
Okay, we got a big week ahead.
We'll stay in communication,
see how it goes.
All right, let's get to work.
All right.