Hoffman Family Gold (2022) s02e12 Episode Script
The Hoffman's Clutch Up
1
We're down to the end here, man.
It's the last week.
We need to hit that
goal and get out of here.
This town's about
to freeze over.
And it all comes
down to the final push.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
Just have to burn
that midnight oil.
The Hoffman family needs
their highest payout
of the season.
138 ounces of gold this week
to call their season a success.
I'm hoping and
praying this is good.
Everything is out of
our hands right now,
and it's up to fate
from here on out.
But with the black
Pearl out of commission
and their pay dirt on the
brink of freezing solid
We got about five
hours of pay left.
We need every bucket
that we can scratch.
Can hunter get his
old relic to run in time?
I'm praying to god it's
the right parts we need,
otherwise the black
Pearl's done for the season.
Or will their season
stop dead in its tracks?
Right now the black
Pearl's still down,
and I'm having trouble
finding the parts that I need
to get it fixed.
Come straight out my way.
Splines are tore right
off the ceramic friction.
Pressure plate's cracked.
So you think there's
no way around it?
We're down for a couple days?
Couple days. I need parts.
We're gonna have to fly them in,
and I don't know exactly
how long it's gonna take.
Without the black Pearl running,
we're not gonna
hit 1,000 ounces,
and we need to be running.
- So
- What's the verdict?
From what I'm hearing,
it's gonna be at least four days
before we can
even get the parts.
Wow.
And you know how it is
every time we fly in parts.
It's like, you know,
they say four days,
- could turn into seven.
- Then it's like
- it seems like six.
- Or eight.
- Ouch.
- And then we gotta install it.
To me it looks like we are
not gonna make our 1,000.
So we definitely
have to do something.
That's for sure.
So that puts us behind?
Yeah, I don't know. It's just
It is what it is.
That puts us at least a minimum
of 100 ounces behind.
Everybody scavenged around town.
That part's not here.
No way?
There's no way.
But, you know, I think I
have a creative solution.
What I'm thinking is
me, cub and sparky
run the holy roller at night,
and we just run that thing 24/7
to just make up for the yardage.
Otherwise I don't
see any other way
how we're gonna get the gold.
Running the plant at night,
that's where you seem to
have the most problems.
You gotta really
be on your game.
It I it makes nervous.
Well, the Pearl's not gonna go.
So you got a solution.
I think it's a good one.
Yeah, I mean, running
at night, it's just
Hard. I know.
If you guys are willing to,
to go for it, we'd love to
We need the gold, period.
Let's do it. I mean,
let's run a night shift.
You know, hunter, it
makes me feel good
that you're coming up
with your own solutions.
That's kinda the only way I see
us making it, so It is.
It really is.
The way I'm looking at it,
I'm not willing for us
to have another loss.
We need to win this season.
I wanna hit 1,000 ounces.
We all deserve it.
We all need a win.
- Yeah.
- So till the Pearl gets up and running,
me and my guys
will run at night.
Keep the gold on track.
Cub and sparky
might not like it,
but this is what we need to do.
Well, you go talk
to 'em about it.
Get them on the same page
and friggin' turn the
lights on, rock and roll.
Okay. I'll go talk to the guys
and then I think
we start tonight.
You know, right now
there's not a lot of hope.
But, finding that nugget
To me that's a sign that
we need to keep going.
And, you know,
we've come way too far
and worked way to
hard to give up right now.
So I'm gonna talk
to cub and sparky
and hopefully they're
on board with me.
Because without
them, I can't really do it.
Hey. Todd to tater.
Do you have a copy?
Yeah, bud. Go ahead.
Hey, how's How's
that pay dirt looking?
What's it looking like up there?
It's frozen.
How much, how much
of it are you finding?
Are you still thinking
there's quite a bit left
or are we getting close?
I'd say we've got enough
to run a few more days.
The Hoffmans have already mined
more than half the pay
dirt from the lost cut,
with only 43% remaining.
The team is up
against colder weather
that threatens to
freeze the ground
before it can be mined.
They have roughly
seven days left
to reach 1,000 ounces.
Talk about an uphill battle.
The black Pearl is still down,
and it's really costing us.
We still need 138 more ounces.
Basically it's about
20 ounces a day.
But the holy roller's
only averaging
about 12 ounces per day.
Hunter approached
me and my father about
maybe running all night.
I have a few reservations.
It's super-dark out here.
We have a few lights, but
Usually if something
bad's gonna happen,
it happens at night.
And our plant isn't
exactly bulletproof.
We've had several hoses blow,
we've had some issues
here and there as well.
But I think it's actually
pretty admirable of him.
But even with running at night,
there's no way we can do
this with just the holy roller.
We can run up to 300 yards
an hour with this machine.
But we're just gonna
need more volume.
It's gonna take the
black Pearl to get it done.
Hunter's gotta get
his plant running.
I gotta break the
bad news to the guys,
but also I have an
idea I wanna run by 'em.
They're probably
not gonna like it.
- Yo.
- What up, brother?
Okay. So
It's gonna take at
least a couple days
to get that part in.
Couple days?
Yeah, they gotta
fly 'em My god.
From the states,
fly 'em up here.
You know how everything
takes when they
- That's a struggle.
- Try to ship stuff up here.
And it's probably gonna
be longer and everything.
I know.
So
This is what I was thinking.
I know you guys
aren't gonna like it.
But.
I was thinking that maybe
we run the holy roller at night
after they shut off.
Plant's already difficult to run
during the daytime.
Imagine running it at night.
It's dangerous.
That thing is a hot mess.
There's so many
frickin' psi gauges,
levers, you name it.
I hate that plant. Sorry.
We're already sleep-deprived,
and
You know, that many
hours when it's dark
Hear me out, though.
We're not gonna be
able to run anyway.
Okay? And if we do run,
it gets us closer
to 1,000 ounces,
which helps everybody
out. That's the way I look at it.
Obviously there's risks.
This plant's not super-simple,
and it's a lot harder
to run it at night.
- Way sketchier.
- But it'd just be us three.
And we would just run it,
get some more
yardage on their box,
just keep running.
If we do this, I think
It'll benefit us
in the long run.
So but obviously
I can't do it
unless you guys wanna do it.
If you guys are
totally against it,
then I don't wanna do it, but
It's kinda the only
idea I had right now.
What do you think?
You're the leader,
and, you know,
I respect that decision.
So if that's what you wanna do.
What do you think?
If it gets to where
we need to get to,
I guess I'm in.
Let's do it for one night.
If everything goes good,
you know, we'll do it
a couple nights tops
until our parts show up.
That fair?
Yeah.
Just have to burn
that midnight oil.
Yeah.
I'm gonna swap out
framer and I'm gonna feed.
I'll have you get in the loader
and then I was gonna see if
you could fire up
the light plants.
Do small tailings and just
keep an eye on everything.
I do not wanna have
any breakdowns.
If the black Pearl is down,
I wanna be
contributing to the team,
not hurting them, so
Let's go nice and steady.
Keep an eye on
everything. We'll be good.
All right, I'll go turn
on the light plant.
Framer, I'm ready to
swap you out, buddy.
All right, sounds good.
All right, man. Thank you.
- Appreciate it.
- Good luck, you guys.
- Don't break my girl.
- Okay.
All right, fellas,
light plant's on.
Area is lit up for
the night shift.
I got cub in the loader.
Number one thing right now is
just keeping an
eye on everything.
Night shift is a totally
different animal.
Nighttime? You
can't see that good.
A problem can turn
into a huge disaster.
So I'm doing small
tailings, inspecting this plant.
It's gonna be a good 10 hours.
You know, for the
good of everybody,
we need to make sure
we keep running pay
and we need to
keep getting gold.
It's keeping us on
track for 1,000 ounces.
Yes, we are in a competition.
This doesn't really
help our team.
But it helps everybody out
if we're able to run this
thing through the night.
Running in the dark
makes everything harder.
It's colder, the pay is
starting to freeze up a little bit,
so it's hard to kinda keep
a good eye on everything.
It's high stress
and high pressure,
but so is every other
day this whole season.
Cub, how's everything
looking on your end?
Everything's good.
It's a little tough to
see, but I'm doing fine.
We'll just, keep an even pace
and make sure we
keep up with everything.
Roger.
Is everything
We'll just keep an even pace
and make sure we
keep up with everything.
Roger.
Is everything Not good.
Sparky, what's wrong
with that light plant?
I wasn't expecting it.
The plant literally
just blew out.
Think we can get it back on?
It scares me 'cause
I can barely see.
I don't see any
any shared lines.
We gotta get this
back up running.
Sparky's taking a
look at it right now.
Just trying to illuminate
the plant the best we can
so we can keep an
eye on everything.
So fingers crossed.
You're good.
Hey, good work.
We just gotta keep
Keep on our toes, honestly.
After adjusting the
generator's throttle,
sparky has restored
power to the lights
illuminating the holy roller.
Once the parts come
in for the black Pearl,
we're gonna jump
back on our ship
and keep going. But for now
We're gonna bite the
bullet for a couple nights.
We gotta keep the
holy roller running
as much as possible.
So, it looks like the boys
shut down two hours ago.
From what I hear, they
had a really good run.
Got a lot of hours in.
They went ahead
and hit the rack.
If we can keep this
thing going day and night,
it's good. All do
our shifts and
We keep scratching
and just keep shoving
it through the box.
How much pay
dirt do we have left?
Maybe five days'
worth of pay left.
We've hit a little frozen
but I think we can
finish out the season.
Try to get us up.
Just take us over the hump, man.
Get us over 1,000 ounces.
- Sound good?
- Yeah.
Let's do it.
So, the boys ran all night.
They wanted to go ahead
and put in some hours.
I'm just proud of 'em.
This has been a
very tough season.
I had some issues with hunter.
We argued and fought.
What are you doing?
What's going on?
I said things to you for days,
and you completely
disregard everything I said.
I don't even wanna
be a part of this.
You're gonna change the plans?
You gotta run it by us.
We were going to do it
how you guys are
suggesting it now.
Then we were told specifically
- to do it another way.
- Who did?
- Who told you?
- You.
- And you.
- No, I did not.
- Me and you walked it.
- That is a bold-faced
That is not the truth.
But he's changed his tune.
He's buckled down.
I can see the good
leadership developing in him.
Looks like there's something
wrong with the holy roller.
We'll just, we'll figure out
what the problem is,
hopefully get it fixed.
I'll help relieve the
workload a little bit and,
we'll just go at it
until we get it done.
And he's become a
pretty damn good miner.
I'm super-proud of him.
There we go.
Trommel's turning.
Yeah, we're all good. You
can go ahead and bring it up.
I wanna hit that 1,000 to
make this season profitable,
but the holy roller's
had its issues too,
so I don't wanna
blow something up
and wreck something
for the future.
We gotta be smart.
I gotta oil this.
I got different
places to grease.
We're starting to wear
out some of the folds, but
We're back in business.
Hey, give me a second.
This pay is tough to dig up.
This late in the
season, we don't have
any ground that's thawed out.
We're picking and
scraping every little pocket
of thawed ground
that we can find.
It's definitely freezing
up. I can feel it.
Hopefully this dirt's
got the gold in it
that we need to get us
to the end of the season.
Everything's changing color.
The birds are all heading south.
We need to get sluicing.
We just gotta get
it dug out of here
and get it to the plant.
Days after the black
Pearl's clutch failed
and shut down the plant
- You ready for this?
- Yeah.
Ta-da!
A replacement has arrived.
- It's complete. We got lucky.
- Wow.
I'm praying that
It's the right parts we need,
otherwise the black
Pearl's done for the season.
So we're gonna see if we
can get this thing patched up
and try to run some dirt today.
I'll take the heavy end.
And if you can
grab the other end.
I'm just gonna get up.
- This end?
- Yeah.
Under the gear here.
Yeah. Okay?
- Don't drop it on your hand.
- No.
It's okay. And we'll
go straight up here.
Okay. Let's go.
Careful, it's a little slick.
Just set it there.
All right.
We had a really tough
time finding the parts.
We ended up buying
a complete assembly,
ready to go. So by doing that,
it saved us a lot of
work and a lot of time.
We worked way
too hard on this plant
for it to stop right here.
You know, I've grown
to love this thing.
So this this means
something to all of us.
So, um, we have
to get it going again.
So, we grease up
this little pilot here
so it can't hang
up on the way in.
I'm gonna wrestle this thing up.
And if you can
Grab a bar to help line up
the pilot holes and the bolts.
Grab a couple of bolts, cubby.
Sure.
We just start with
the top corners here
You got it.
In order to get the black Pearl
operational again,
the new clutch must be
aligned and threaded perfectly
with the existing flywheel.
And try not to jam
it into the thread.
Hand me another one, cub.
Okay, hang on.
- I wanna - There. It's engaged now.
- Yup, yup.
That's the hard part.
All right, so
- Just snug these up.
- Yeah.
So it pulls in nice and square.
There you go. So go
ahead and release it.
There you go.
See? Now I can free-wheel
and get my belts on.
If something binds up,
we want the clutch
to slip a little bit,
rather than tear itself apart
- like it did last time.
- Yeah.
You know, this
thing's been sitting
alongside the ocean
for seven years
not running at
all, and before that
it had a lot of wear on it.
Literally all the steel
that we put on here
besides the rings
was, like, stuff that
we'd salvaged or scabbed
off of something else,
so she finally got
something new.
All right, those will
all straighten out
- once we get rolling here.
- Yeah.
Let's have a look at it from
back here that it's still straight.
- What do you think?
- I think we're good.
It's the rest of your
season right here.
Give it to her.
Bring your clutch
in nice and easy,
and then lock it in.
See if it turns.
It's the rest of your
season right here.
Give it to her.
We don't have any
weird banging noises.
No friction. Nothing's rubbing.
Bring your clutch
in nice and easy,
and then lock it in
and see if it turns.
Let's try her?
Just give her a
little little traction.
You'll see the belt
starting to tighten up.
Lock it in.
Lock it in. There you go.
After days of delays
waiting for a new
clutch to arrive,
the black Pearl is whole again.
That sound okay?
- Okay.
- What do you think?
- You're back in business.
- Ron, thank you.
- Yeah. You're welcome, guys.
- Thank you so much.
Thanks for your Patience.
You should be good
to go. Let's get to 1,000.
- Hammer it.
- Let's do it, Ron.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Cub, you wanna get on the pump?
- Yeah.
- Get the 490 up here.
- And then we'll rip it.
- Yeah.
Okay, let's go.
Me and cub are exhausted.
But the Pearl's
back up and running,
so we're gonna keep pressing on
and try to get some yardage
through the plant today,
and try to get some more gold.
The black Pearl's
up and running again
and that's perfect.
Everything hunter's doing here,
he's learning something new.
And you gotta be tough
if you're gonna make it.
So he's getting tough.
And I like seeing it.
Please, god,
help us not have any
more breakdowns.
We need 10 ounces
from each plant per day.
The problem is we only have
maybe three or
four days of pay left,
and it's getting cold fast.
This is the last push here,
and every bucket counts.
So the game plan is to try to get
some more yardage on the plant.
We're running at full capacity.
I'm kinda banking on
the fact that we can run
more yardage
than the holy roller.
But we're running out of time,
so I'm pushing 300,
400 yards an hour.
This plant can handle it.
We're just gonna run
it as hard as we can.
We got about 130
ounces left to go.
We're just moving dirt
down here, running it.
Huge push all
the way to the end.
Hunter and I are gonna
run everything we have out
in the ramp and
everything we can touch,
wherever we're sitting
on, the mount, everything.
Every bucket I put in
here is a good feeling.
It's getting us closer
and closer to our goal.
This is it right here.
This is it. It's do or die.
Take it as far as you can reach.
I think it'll work good.
This will actually give
us a ton more pay,
'cause there's a lot of
that red gravel in there, too.
Yeah, it's fine.
Whatever I left, just
take it all the way down.
We're stripping
this ground clean.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
Loving it. Loving it.
Regardless of what happens,
as a leader, I'm looking at this
as a learning experience for me.
There was times where if it
was just me working on this,
I would have quit, honestly.
I'm just learning
that to pull off
something really great,
you have to push past
the point of when
you wanna give up.
This is our last big push.
Time is running out.
We got about four or
five hours of pay left.
Then we're gonna have
to shut the plants off,
and hopefully this is enough.
Probably after this load,
tater, we'll be out of pay.
No.
Let's all haul one more load.
Affirmative.
Okay.
Keep pushing, hunter.
We can slam a few more
buckets through here.
Last bucket right here.
This is it, guys.
This is the last couple
dropping in right now.
Shut her down.
You know, I really
don't want to shut down,
but we don't have
any more pay dirt left.
I wish we just could
run one more day.
But that's it.
Everything is out of
our hands right now,
and it's up to fate.
There's a lot of
gold in this box,
so that's a good sign.
We're very hopeful.
We got nothing left to run.
I hope it was enough.
We got the black
Pearl up and running,
but maybe it was too late.
We're only 138
ounces from 1,000.
We really gotta hope that
we have that gold
in that clean-up.
But I tell you what,
man, we've learned a lot,
and, if we can get
to 1,000 ounces,
we can actually come out of
this with everybody winning.
You know? And
that's what we want.
You know, we're about to
have our last weigh-in here.
And there's been countless
things that I've done this season
that I've never done before.
Here she is.
This thing is crazy.
Yeah, it is.
You think this will
do what you need?
Yeah.
This is the plant I need.
These guys might be a
little bit out of their league.
We should call this
thing the black Pearl.
I think in some ways we went
from boys to men this summer.
And I think we showed
every dude here that
we can mine just
as hard as them,
and personally I think
we mine better than them.
I've never seen any of you guys
cut your entire wash
plant into a bunch of pieces,
repair the entire thing
and reassemble it, so
We don't want any spilling.
Careful, careful.
You know, I'm a
little bit nervous
that we're not gonna
make it to 1,000,
but, I'm praying that we do.
Here we are.
We're all wishing
we'd had more time.
This is where all those
accumulated hours
that you're down
break down or whatever,
really come into effect.
Hopefully we'll make our
goal of 138 ounces this week.
It's been a lot of pressure
on the young guns.
They've been working
their assess off,
and I'm proud of 'em.
I see that hunter
has paid attention
and he knows what he's doing.
With hunter, he's stepped up
and taken hold of the
reins with the younger guys,
and he's done a good job.
When I see this kind of
gold, it's kinda exciting.
For the yardage that they ran,
it's gonna be a good clean-up.
I've gotten excited,
thinking it's gonna be great.
It's nice to see gold, but
Is it as good as I think?
Hopefully.
Looks pretty darn good to me.
I like seeing that
gold come out like that.
I'm hoping and
praying this is good.
Let's see.
Everything's frozen
up, we're out of pay dirt.
This is our last
weigh-in of the season
and to be honest with you,
I'm actually pretty nervous.
138 ounces to a very huge goal,
and we may not hit it.
We had one tough year this year.
But I'm not sure we got it.
You never know until
Jack and thurber pour it.
But this is what we've
worked for all season.
So, the weather's
pushing us out.
We got a pay dirt
issue pushing us out.
We've scratched
everything up and down
the left limit, right limit.
Nothing's thawing.
I just I don't know
where any of the pay is.
Hopefully we hit 1,000 ounces
and we end this
night on a high note.
Start packing our bags.
No matter what happens
here, tater, Randy,
and everybody, man,
thank you for coming up.
I think we could change
our families' lives here.
If we hit 1,000
It's gonna feel really good.
And one thing I
think we all agree is
we really earned it.
This is probably the toughest
mining season I've ever had.
- Hang on, hang on!
- Whoa!
But also at the same time,
this is the most
I've ever learned
about mining and about myself.
Before this season, I
didn't really look at mining
as, like, a serious career,
I guess you would say.
Going pretty smooth right now.
But after what we
were able to accomplish,
think that maybe
it is our future.
I think that we've
proven our self.
Been waiting a long time
for this moment right here.
You know, I think that this
mining season changed me.
I think for the better.
I think I learned how
to work even harder.
It's rolling.
I think I learned
how to see a vision
and execute on it no matter what
kind of adversity
that I'm facing.
Come here, give me a hug.
Get some gold, grandpa.
It's something to be proud of.
You know what, dude?
I love you, man.
I'm in your corner.
I know that you'll be successful
in whatever you do, okay?
Let's hope we hit it this time.
You know?
And come out of
here on a big win.
Hopefully this is it right here.
I wanna go home a
little heavier this time.
Hopefully we're knocking
at the door of 1,000.
- All right.
- That's looking good.
What are we, 138?
138 to get to our goal.
That's actually really big.
We've never got that
much gold in one week
this whole season.
Who goes first?
- Let's do holy roller.
- Yeah.
You go ahead, dad.
Yeah, there we go.
- Look at that.
- Five.
15, 20.
I know we did good.
Thirty-five, 40, 50.
- Sixty-five.
- Sixty-five.
- Seventy.
- Seventy.
Seventy-five.
Seventy-eight.
That's a big clean-up.
That's pretty good?
We got 78 ounces
from the holy roller,
and we couldn't have done
that without hunter and the boys
running at night.
How many more? We
only need 60 ounces.
Black Pearl was down at
the beginning of the week.
But they ran really, really hard
when they were up and going.
So did they get the 60
ounces that we need?
I don't know. We're
gonna find out.
We're about to have
our last weigh-in here.
And, I don't know.
We faced a lot of
issues here at the end.
The trommel's not spinning.
There was a lot of pressure
on my shoulders from everybody
and, you know, I'm
a little bit nervous that
we're not gonna
make it to 1,000.
But I'm praying that we do.
Okay.
Let's do it.
Happy birthday, dad.
- Beard, beard, beard!
- Watch that beard.
- All right.
- You did it.
Dad, you got anything to
say? Seventy-seven years?
Well, you know, for
the younger people,
if you have something
that you wanna do,
whatever it is, do it.
You'll never know if you don't.
You're going
through life one time.
So that's what I'd
recommend to do.
That's what I did.
Follow your dreams, you know?
My dad's 77 years old
and he's got health issues.
You know, at some point,
he's not gonna be here.
It's really cool
just to have him
and my kids here with me.
I just love 'em. Yeah.
- Happy birthday.
- All right.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
Seventy-seven years.
No guts, no glory.
There you go, dad.
Okay.
Let's do it.
60 ounces short of
their 1,000-ounce goal,
all they have left
is the last clean-out
from the black Pearl.
I think we'll be close.
- Ten.
- Ten, and going well.
Twenty.
Come on, baby.
Thirty.
Feels good.
- Forty.
- Come on, baby.
- Come on, baby.
- Sixty.
- Sixty, boys.
- Yeah!
Keep going.
We got it!
We're over 1,000.
Seventy-five.
You beat us.
- Eighty-one.
- All right!
Eighty-two.
- No way.
- That's a win.
No way.
So, we hit our goal.
Our guys are happy. They
take a little bit of gold home.
I'm really super-proud
of these guys.
We really needed this win.
You know, we mined
maybe 700 more ounces
than the black Pearl did,
but we could not have hit
1,000 ounces without 'em.
All the hard work
that they put in
and teamwork is invaluable.
Proud of everybody.
- We did it, man.
- Proud of you, man.
We made the 1,000-ounce goal.
So I'm just proud of
each and every person.
It just proves that you
just gotta keep going.
You know, you never quit.
For their final weigh-in,
the holy roller
fetches 78 ounces
while the black Pearl earns
an additional 82 ounces.
This combined sum of 16 ounces
brings the Hoffmans'
season total
to 1,022 ounces,
surpassing their season goal.
That's over $1.7 million, guys.
Of scratching thawed dirt.
We came up here and
we did a heck of a job.
And yes, it was strained.
We had hard times, we
had some fights, arguments.
Whatever, I don't care.
Nobody will ever be able
to take this away from us
and what we did here, okay?
You will look back
on a lot of this summer
with fond memories,
even if it's just from the
crazy accomplishments
that we all did.
'Cause I worked
harder this summer
than I ever have
in my whole life.
You know, hunter, you and I
may not always see
eye-to-eye on everything,
but I'MMA tell you right now,
we wouldn't have done
it without the black Pearl.
Hunter won this weigh-in
and he really stepped
up this season.
And our relationship,
even though it's had
some ups and downs
I told you where to put
your sluice over here.
Everybody saw you
tell me to put it like this.
I'm hoping that we both have
learned a lot from this season.
We are all clear, hunter.
Everything looks good.
And hopefully we have some
really cool things to build on.
Me and my dad got
closer this summer.
But it's never easy
working with family.
You've been stepping on
my toes the whole project.
No, I haven't.
But also think he
knows my capability.
All right, guys, you
ready to get it on?
Let's get it on!
I love my dad and I respect him.
I'm thankful that you came.
There was a lot of times
where we could have all
turned back or stopped.
You know?
If I learned anything,
it was just to
You know, you
just have to keep
You have to keep going.
You know? I've
learned that from you.
It's ingrained in my mind now.
And I feel like you set the tone
for the work here.
So
Yeah. I just wanna
say thank you.
I want any bad
blood to end right here
with us getting 1,000 ounces.
I'll tell you right now,
I love you to death.
- Thank you.
- Come here, man.
This is the time I feel like
Jim thurber right now, jeez.
Dad, why don't you
close us in prayer, man?
Sure.
Get over here.
Heavenly father,
we thank you for
a, successful adventure.
Being able to come up
here with Todd and the guys,
it changed my outlook
on a lot of things in life.
And, I'm hoping to get to
do it again with these guys.
We are grateful for everything
that you've done for us.
Help us to share it with
those you want us to.
We hit our goal. The
guys came together.
Hopefully they see the
fight is worth the reward.
I feel really good right now.
It's in your name
that we pray forever.
Amen.
1,000 ounces was my goal
because that's just,
like, beginner stage.
That gets you to
the table again.
So my guys will take
a little bit of gold home
and they're all happy.
But I'll tell you what,
we got a big future here.
I got the team, I
got the equipment,
I got the cuts, I
got the licence.
I'm ready to go.
Wrap up the gold and
let's get the hell out of here.
1,000 ounces is
just the starting point.
Watch what happens next year.
We're set up to win.
We're down to the end here, man.
It's the last week.
We need to hit that
goal and get out of here.
This town's about
to freeze over.
And it all comes
down to the final push.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
Just have to burn
that midnight oil.
The Hoffman family needs
their highest payout
of the season.
138 ounces of gold this week
to call their season a success.
I'm hoping and
praying this is good.
Everything is out of
our hands right now,
and it's up to fate
from here on out.
But with the black
Pearl out of commission
and their pay dirt on the
brink of freezing solid
We got about five
hours of pay left.
We need every bucket
that we can scratch.
Can hunter get his
old relic to run in time?
I'm praying to god it's
the right parts we need,
otherwise the black
Pearl's done for the season.
Or will their season
stop dead in its tracks?
Right now the black
Pearl's still down,
and I'm having trouble
finding the parts that I need
to get it fixed.
Come straight out my way.
Splines are tore right
off the ceramic friction.
Pressure plate's cracked.
So you think there's
no way around it?
We're down for a couple days?
Couple days. I need parts.
We're gonna have to fly them in,
and I don't know exactly
how long it's gonna take.
Without the black Pearl running,
we're not gonna
hit 1,000 ounces,
and we need to be running.
- So
- What's the verdict?
From what I'm hearing,
it's gonna be at least four days
before we can
even get the parts.
Wow.
And you know how it is
every time we fly in parts.
It's like, you know,
they say four days,
- could turn into seven.
- Then it's like
- it seems like six.
- Or eight.
- Ouch.
- And then we gotta install it.
To me it looks like we are
not gonna make our 1,000.
So we definitely
have to do something.
That's for sure.
So that puts us behind?
Yeah, I don't know. It's just
It is what it is.
That puts us at least a minimum
of 100 ounces behind.
Everybody scavenged around town.
That part's not here.
No way?
There's no way.
But, you know, I think I
have a creative solution.
What I'm thinking is
me, cub and sparky
run the holy roller at night,
and we just run that thing 24/7
to just make up for the yardage.
Otherwise I don't
see any other way
how we're gonna get the gold.
Running the plant at night,
that's where you seem to
have the most problems.
You gotta really
be on your game.
It I it makes nervous.
Well, the Pearl's not gonna go.
So you got a solution.
I think it's a good one.
Yeah, I mean, running
at night, it's just
Hard. I know.
If you guys are willing to,
to go for it, we'd love to
We need the gold, period.
Let's do it. I mean,
let's run a night shift.
You know, hunter, it
makes me feel good
that you're coming up
with your own solutions.
That's kinda the only way I see
us making it, so It is.
It really is.
The way I'm looking at it,
I'm not willing for us
to have another loss.
We need to win this season.
I wanna hit 1,000 ounces.
We all deserve it.
We all need a win.
- Yeah.
- So till the Pearl gets up and running,
me and my guys
will run at night.
Keep the gold on track.
Cub and sparky
might not like it,
but this is what we need to do.
Well, you go talk
to 'em about it.
Get them on the same page
and friggin' turn the
lights on, rock and roll.
Okay. I'll go talk to the guys
and then I think
we start tonight.
You know, right now
there's not a lot of hope.
But, finding that nugget
To me that's a sign that
we need to keep going.
And, you know,
we've come way too far
and worked way to
hard to give up right now.
So I'm gonna talk
to cub and sparky
and hopefully they're
on board with me.
Because without
them, I can't really do it.
Hey. Todd to tater.
Do you have a copy?
Yeah, bud. Go ahead.
Hey, how's How's
that pay dirt looking?
What's it looking like up there?
It's frozen.
How much, how much
of it are you finding?
Are you still thinking
there's quite a bit left
or are we getting close?
I'd say we've got enough
to run a few more days.
The Hoffmans have already mined
more than half the pay
dirt from the lost cut,
with only 43% remaining.
The team is up
against colder weather
that threatens to
freeze the ground
before it can be mined.
They have roughly
seven days left
to reach 1,000 ounces.
Talk about an uphill battle.
The black Pearl is still down,
and it's really costing us.
We still need 138 more ounces.
Basically it's about
20 ounces a day.
But the holy roller's
only averaging
about 12 ounces per day.
Hunter approached
me and my father about
maybe running all night.
I have a few reservations.
It's super-dark out here.
We have a few lights, but
Usually if something
bad's gonna happen,
it happens at night.
And our plant isn't
exactly bulletproof.
We've had several hoses blow,
we've had some issues
here and there as well.
But I think it's actually
pretty admirable of him.
But even with running at night,
there's no way we can do
this with just the holy roller.
We can run up to 300 yards
an hour with this machine.
But we're just gonna
need more volume.
It's gonna take the
black Pearl to get it done.
Hunter's gotta get
his plant running.
I gotta break the
bad news to the guys,
but also I have an
idea I wanna run by 'em.
They're probably
not gonna like it.
- Yo.
- What up, brother?
Okay. So
It's gonna take at
least a couple days
to get that part in.
Couple days?
Yeah, they gotta
fly 'em My god.
From the states,
fly 'em up here.
You know how everything
takes when they
- That's a struggle.
- Try to ship stuff up here.
And it's probably gonna
be longer and everything.
I know.
So
This is what I was thinking.
I know you guys
aren't gonna like it.
But.
I was thinking that maybe
we run the holy roller at night
after they shut off.
Plant's already difficult to run
during the daytime.
Imagine running it at night.
It's dangerous.
That thing is a hot mess.
There's so many
frickin' psi gauges,
levers, you name it.
I hate that plant. Sorry.
We're already sleep-deprived,
and
You know, that many
hours when it's dark
Hear me out, though.
We're not gonna be
able to run anyway.
Okay? And if we do run,
it gets us closer
to 1,000 ounces,
which helps everybody
out. That's the way I look at it.
Obviously there's risks.
This plant's not super-simple,
and it's a lot harder
to run it at night.
- Way sketchier.
- But it'd just be us three.
And we would just run it,
get some more
yardage on their box,
just keep running.
If we do this, I think
It'll benefit us
in the long run.
So but obviously
I can't do it
unless you guys wanna do it.
If you guys are
totally against it,
then I don't wanna do it, but
It's kinda the only
idea I had right now.
What do you think?
You're the leader,
and, you know,
I respect that decision.
So if that's what you wanna do.
What do you think?
If it gets to where
we need to get to,
I guess I'm in.
Let's do it for one night.
If everything goes good,
you know, we'll do it
a couple nights tops
until our parts show up.
That fair?
Yeah.
Just have to burn
that midnight oil.
Yeah.
I'm gonna swap out
framer and I'm gonna feed.
I'll have you get in the loader
and then I was gonna see if
you could fire up
the light plants.
Do small tailings and just
keep an eye on everything.
I do not wanna have
any breakdowns.
If the black Pearl is down,
I wanna be
contributing to the team,
not hurting them, so
Let's go nice and steady.
Keep an eye on
everything. We'll be good.
All right, I'll go turn
on the light plant.
Framer, I'm ready to
swap you out, buddy.
All right, sounds good.
All right, man. Thank you.
- Appreciate it.
- Good luck, you guys.
- Don't break my girl.
- Okay.
All right, fellas,
light plant's on.
Area is lit up for
the night shift.
I got cub in the loader.
Number one thing right now is
just keeping an
eye on everything.
Night shift is a totally
different animal.
Nighttime? You
can't see that good.
A problem can turn
into a huge disaster.
So I'm doing small
tailings, inspecting this plant.
It's gonna be a good 10 hours.
You know, for the
good of everybody,
we need to make sure
we keep running pay
and we need to
keep getting gold.
It's keeping us on
track for 1,000 ounces.
Yes, we are in a competition.
This doesn't really
help our team.
But it helps everybody out
if we're able to run this
thing through the night.
Running in the dark
makes everything harder.
It's colder, the pay is
starting to freeze up a little bit,
so it's hard to kinda keep
a good eye on everything.
It's high stress
and high pressure,
but so is every other
day this whole season.
Cub, how's everything
looking on your end?
Everything's good.
It's a little tough to
see, but I'm doing fine.
We'll just, keep an even pace
and make sure we
keep up with everything.
Roger.
Is everything
We'll just keep an even pace
and make sure we
keep up with everything.
Roger.
Is everything Not good.
Sparky, what's wrong
with that light plant?
I wasn't expecting it.
The plant literally
just blew out.
Think we can get it back on?
It scares me 'cause
I can barely see.
I don't see any
any shared lines.
We gotta get this
back up running.
Sparky's taking a
look at it right now.
Just trying to illuminate
the plant the best we can
so we can keep an
eye on everything.
So fingers crossed.
You're good.
Hey, good work.
We just gotta keep
Keep on our toes, honestly.
After adjusting the
generator's throttle,
sparky has restored
power to the lights
illuminating the holy roller.
Once the parts come
in for the black Pearl,
we're gonna jump
back on our ship
and keep going. But for now
We're gonna bite the
bullet for a couple nights.
We gotta keep the
holy roller running
as much as possible.
So, it looks like the boys
shut down two hours ago.
From what I hear, they
had a really good run.
Got a lot of hours in.
They went ahead
and hit the rack.
If we can keep this
thing going day and night,
it's good. All do
our shifts and
We keep scratching
and just keep shoving
it through the box.
How much pay
dirt do we have left?
Maybe five days'
worth of pay left.
We've hit a little frozen
but I think we can
finish out the season.
Try to get us up.
Just take us over the hump, man.
Get us over 1,000 ounces.
- Sound good?
- Yeah.
Let's do it.
So, the boys ran all night.
They wanted to go ahead
and put in some hours.
I'm just proud of 'em.
This has been a
very tough season.
I had some issues with hunter.
We argued and fought.
What are you doing?
What's going on?
I said things to you for days,
and you completely
disregard everything I said.
I don't even wanna
be a part of this.
You're gonna change the plans?
You gotta run it by us.
We were going to do it
how you guys are
suggesting it now.
Then we were told specifically
- to do it another way.
- Who did?
- Who told you?
- You.
- And you.
- No, I did not.
- Me and you walked it.
- That is a bold-faced
That is not the truth.
But he's changed his tune.
He's buckled down.
I can see the good
leadership developing in him.
Looks like there's something
wrong with the holy roller.
We'll just, we'll figure out
what the problem is,
hopefully get it fixed.
I'll help relieve the
workload a little bit and,
we'll just go at it
until we get it done.
And he's become a
pretty damn good miner.
I'm super-proud of him.
There we go.
Trommel's turning.
Yeah, we're all good. You
can go ahead and bring it up.
I wanna hit that 1,000 to
make this season profitable,
but the holy roller's
had its issues too,
so I don't wanna
blow something up
and wreck something
for the future.
We gotta be smart.
I gotta oil this.
I got different
places to grease.
We're starting to wear
out some of the folds, but
We're back in business.
Hey, give me a second.
This pay is tough to dig up.
This late in the
season, we don't have
any ground that's thawed out.
We're picking and
scraping every little pocket
of thawed ground
that we can find.
It's definitely freezing
up. I can feel it.
Hopefully this dirt's
got the gold in it
that we need to get us
to the end of the season.
Everything's changing color.
The birds are all heading south.
We need to get sluicing.
We just gotta get
it dug out of here
and get it to the plant.
Days after the black
Pearl's clutch failed
and shut down the plant
- You ready for this?
- Yeah.
Ta-da!
A replacement has arrived.
- It's complete. We got lucky.
- Wow.
I'm praying that
It's the right parts we need,
otherwise the black
Pearl's done for the season.
So we're gonna see if we
can get this thing patched up
and try to run some dirt today.
I'll take the heavy end.
And if you can
grab the other end.
I'm just gonna get up.
- This end?
- Yeah.
Under the gear here.
Yeah. Okay?
- Don't drop it on your hand.
- No.
It's okay. And we'll
go straight up here.
Okay. Let's go.
Careful, it's a little slick.
Just set it there.
All right.
We had a really tough
time finding the parts.
We ended up buying
a complete assembly,
ready to go. So by doing that,
it saved us a lot of
work and a lot of time.
We worked way
too hard on this plant
for it to stop right here.
You know, I've grown
to love this thing.
So this this means
something to all of us.
So, um, we have
to get it going again.
So, we grease up
this little pilot here
so it can't hang
up on the way in.
I'm gonna wrestle this thing up.
And if you can
Grab a bar to help line up
the pilot holes and the bolts.
Grab a couple of bolts, cubby.
Sure.
We just start with
the top corners here
You got it.
In order to get the black Pearl
operational again,
the new clutch must be
aligned and threaded perfectly
with the existing flywheel.
And try not to jam
it into the thread.
Hand me another one, cub.
Okay, hang on.
- I wanna - There. It's engaged now.
- Yup, yup.
That's the hard part.
All right, so
- Just snug these up.
- Yeah.
So it pulls in nice and square.
There you go. So go
ahead and release it.
There you go.
See? Now I can free-wheel
and get my belts on.
If something binds up,
we want the clutch
to slip a little bit,
rather than tear itself apart
- like it did last time.
- Yeah.
You know, this
thing's been sitting
alongside the ocean
for seven years
not running at
all, and before that
it had a lot of wear on it.
Literally all the steel
that we put on here
besides the rings
was, like, stuff that
we'd salvaged or scabbed
off of something else,
so she finally got
something new.
All right, those will
all straighten out
- once we get rolling here.
- Yeah.
Let's have a look at it from
back here that it's still straight.
- What do you think?
- I think we're good.
It's the rest of your
season right here.
Give it to her.
Bring your clutch
in nice and easy,
and then lock it in.
See if it turns.
It's the rest of your
season right here.
Give it to her.
We don't have any
weird banging noises.
No friction. Nothing's rubbing.
Bring your clutch
in nice and easy,
and then lock it in
and see if it turns.
Let's try her?
Just give her a
little little traction.
You'll see the belt
starting to tighten up.
Lock it in.
Lock it in. There you go.
After days of delays
waiting for a new
clutch to arrive,
the black Pearl is whole again.
That sound okay?
- Okay.
- What do you think?
- You're back in business.
- Ron, thank you.
- Yeah. You're welcome, guys.
- Thank you so much.
Thanks for your Patience.
You should be good
to go. Let's get to 1,000.
- Hammer it.
- Let's do it, Ron.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Cub, you wanna get on the pump?
- Yeah.
- Get the 490 up here.
- And then we'll rip it.
- Yeah.
Okay, let's go.
Me and cub are exhausted.
But the Pearl's
back up and running,
so we're gonna keep pressing on
and try to get some yardage
through the plant today,
and try to get some more gold.
The black Pearl's
up and running again
and that's perfect.
Everything hunter's doing here,
he's learning something new.
And you gotta be tough
if you're gonna make it.
So he's getting tough.
And I like seeing it.
Please, god,
help us not have any
more breakdowns.
We need 10 ounces
from each plant per day.
The problem is we only have
maybe three or
four days of pay left,
and it's getting cold fast.
This is the last push here,
and every bucket counts.
So the game plan is to try to get
some more yardage on the plant.
We're running at full capacity.
I'm kinda banking on
the fact that we can run
more yardage
than the holy roller.
But we're running out of time,
so I'm pushing 300,
400 yards an hour.
This plant can handle it.
We're just gonna run
it as hard as we can.
We got about 130
ounces left to go.
We're just moving dirt
down here, running it.
Huge push all
the way to the end.
Hunter and I are gonna
run everything we have out
in the ramp and
everything we can touch,
wherever we're sitting
on, the mount, everything.
Every bucket I put in
here is a good feeling.
It's getting us closer
and closer to our goal.
This is it right here.
This is it. It's do or die.
Take it as far as you can reach.
I think it'll work good.
This will actually give
us a ton more pay,
'cause there's a lot of
that red gravel in there, too.
Yeah, it's fine.
Whatever I left, just
take it all the way down.
We're stripping
this ground clean.
We're gonna kick some ass now.
Loving it. Loving it.
Regardless of what happens,
as a leader, I'm looking at this
as a learning experience for me.
There was times where if it
was just me working on this,
I would have quit, honestly.
I'm just learning
that to pull off
something really great,
you have to push past
the point of when
you wanna give up.
This is our last big push.
Time is running out.
We got about four or
five hours of pay left.
Then we're gonna have
to shut the plants off,
and hopefully this is enough.
Probably after this load,
tater, we'll be out of pay.
No.
Let's all haul one more load.
Affirmative.
Okay.
Keep pushing, hunter.
We can slam a few more
buckets through here.
Last bucket right here.
This is it, guys.
This is the last couple
dropping in right now.
Shut her down.
You know, I really
don't want to shut down,
but we don't have
any more pay dirt left.
I wish we just could
run one more day.
But that's it.
Everything is out of
our hands right now,
and it's up to fate.
There's a lot of
gold in this box,
so that's a good sign.
We're very hopeful.
We got nothing left to run.
I hope it was enough.
We got the black
Pearl up and running,
but maybe it was too late.
We're only 138
ounces from 1,000.
We really gotta hope that
we have that gold
in that clean-up.
But I tell you what,
man, we've learned a lot,
and, if we can get
to 1,000 ounces,
we can actually come out of
this with everybody winning.
You know? And
that's what we want.
You know, we're about to
have our last weigh-in here.
And there's been countless
things that I've done this season
that I've never done before.
Here she is.
This thing is crazy.
Yeah, it is.
You think this will
do what you need?
Yeah.
This is the plant I need.
These guys might be a
little bit out of their league.
We should call this
thing the black Pearl.
I think in some ways we went
from boys to men this summer.
And I think we showed
every dude here that
we can mine just
as hard as them,
and personally I think
we mine better than them.
I've never seen any of you guys
cut your entire wash
plant into a bunch of pieces,
repair the entire thing
and reassemble it, so
We don't want any spilling.
Careful, careful.
You know, I'm a
little bit nervous
that we're not gonna
make it to 1,000,
but, I'm praying that we do.
Here we are.
We're all wishing
we'd had more time.
This is where all those
accumulated hours
that you're down
break down or whatever,
really come into effect.
Hopefully we'll make our
goal of 138 ounces this week.
It's been a lot of pressure
on the young guns.
They've been working
their assess off,
and I'm proud of 'em.
I see that hunter
has paid attention
and he knows what he's doing.
With hunter, he's stepped up
and taken hold of the
reins with the younger guys,
and he's done a good job.
When I see this kind of
gold, it's kinda exciting.
For the yardage that they ran,
it's gonna be a good clean-up.
I've gotten excited,
thinking it's gonna be great.
It's nice to see gold, but
Is it as good as I think?
Hopefully.
Looks pretty darn good to me.
I like seeing that
gold come out like that.
I'm hoping and
praying this is good.
Let's see.
Everything's frozen
up, we're out of pay dirt.
This is our last
weigh-in of the season
and to be honest with you,
I'm actually pretty nervous.
138 ounces to a very huge goal,
and we may not hit it.
We had one tough year this year.
But I'm not sure we got it.
You never know until
Jack and thurber pour it.
But this is what we've
worked for all season.
So, the weather's
pushing us out.
We got a pay dirt
issue pushing us out.
We've scratched
everything up and down
the left limit, right limit.
Nothing's thawing.
I just I don't know
where any of the pay is.
Hopefully we hit 1,000 ounces
and we end this
night on a high note.
Start packing our bags.
No matter what happens
here, tater, Randy,
and everybody, man,
thank you for coming up.
I think we could change
our families' lives here.
If we hit 1,000
It's gonna feel really good.
And one thing I
think we all agree is
we really earned it.
This is probably the toughest
mining season I've ever had.
- Hang on, hang on!
- Whoa!
But also at the same time,
this is the most
I've ever learned
about mining and about myself.
Before this season, I
didn't really look at mining
as, like, a serious career,
I guess you would say.
Going pretty smooth right now.
But after what we
were able to accomplish,
think that maybe
it is our future.
I think that we've
proven our self.
Been waiting a long time
for this moment right here.
You know, I think that this
mining season changed me.
I think for the better.
I think I learned how
to work even harder.
It's rolling.
I think I learned
how to see a vision
and execute on it no matter what
kind of adversity
that I'm facing.
Come here, give me a hug.
Get some gold, grandpa.
It's something to be proud of.
You know what, dude?
I love you, man.
I'm in your corner.
I know that you'll be successful
in whatever you do, okay?
Let's hope we hit it this time.
You know?
And come out of
here on a big win.
Hopefully this is it right here.
I wanna go home a
little heavier this time.
Hopefully we're knocking
at the door of 1,000.
- All right.
- That's looking good.
What are we, 138?
138 to get to our goal.
That's actually really big.
We've never got that
much gold in one week
this whole season.
Who goes first?
- Let's do holy roller.
- Yeah.
You go ahead, dad.
Yeah, there we go.
- Look at that.
- Five.
15, 20.
I know we did good.
Thirty-five, 40, 50.
- Sixty-five.
- Sixty-five.
- Seventy.
- Seventy.
Seventy-five.
Seventy-eight.
That's a big clean-up.
That's pretty good?
We got 78 ounces
from the holy roller,
and we couldn't have done
that without hunter and the boys
running at night.
How many more? We
only need 60 ounces.
Black Pearl was down at
the beginning of the week.
But they ran really, really hard
when they were up and going.
So did they get the 60
ounces that we need?
I don't know. We're
gonna find out.
We're about to have
our last weigh-in here.
And, I don't know.
We faced a lot of
issues here at the end.
The trommel's not spinning.
There was a lot of pressure
on my shoulders from everybody
and, you know, I'm
a little bit nervous that
we're not gonna
make it to 1,000.
But I'm praying that we do.
Okay.
Let's do it.
Happy birthday, dad.
- Beard, beard, beard!
- Watch that beard.
- All right.
- You did it.
Dad, you got anything to
say? Seventy-seven years?
Well, you know, for
the younger people,
if you have something
that you wanna do,
whatever it is, do it.
You'll never know if you don't.
You're going
through life one time.
So that's what I'd
recommend to do.
That's what I did.
Follow your dreams, you know?
My dad's 77 years old
and he's got health issues.
You know, at some point,
he's not gonna be here.
It's really cool
just to have him
and my kids here with me.
I just love 'em. Yeah.
- Happy birthday.
- All right.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
Seventy-seven years.
No guts, no glory.
There you go, dad.
Okay.
Let's do it.
60 ounces short of
their 1,000-ounce goal,
all they have left
is the last clean-out
from the black Pearl.
I think we'll be close.
- Ten.
- Ten, and going well.
Twenty.
Come on, baby.
Thirty.
Feels good.
- Forty.
- Come on, baby.
- Come on, baby.
- Sixty.
- Sixty, boys.
- Yeah!
Keep going.
We got it!
We're over 1,000.
Seventy-five.
You beat us.
- Eighty-one.
- All right!
Eighty-two.
- No way.
- That's a win.
No way.
So, we hit our goal.
Our guys are happy. They
take a little bit of gold home.
I'm really super-proud
of these guys.
We really needed this win.
You know, we mined
maybe 700 more ounces
than the black Pearl did,
but we could not have hit
1,000 ounces without 'em.
All the hard work
that they put in
and teamwork is invaluable.
Proud of everybody.
- We did it, man.
- Proud of you, man.
We made the 1,000-ounce goal.
So I'm just proud of
each and every person.
It just proves that you
just gotta keep going.
You know, you never quit.
For their final weigh-in,
the holy roller
fetches 78 ounces
while the black Pearl earns
an additional 82 ounces.
This combined sum of 16 ounces
brings the Hoffmans'
season total
to 1,022 ounces,
surpassing their season goal.
That's over $1.7 million, guys.
Of scratching thawed dirt.
We came up here and
we did a heck of a job.
And yes, it was strained.
We had hard times, we
had some fights, arguments.
Whatever, I don't care.
Nobody will ever be able
to take this away from us
and what we did here, okay?
You will look back
on a lot of this summer
with fond memories,
even if it's just from the
crazy accomplishments
that we all did.
'Cause I worked
harder this summer
than I ever have
in my whole life.
You know, hunter, you and I
may not always see
eye-to-eye on everything,
but I'MMA tell you right now,
we wouldn't have done
it without the black Pearl.
Hunter won this weigh-in
and he really stepped
up this season.
And our relationship,
even though it's had
some ups and downs
I told you where to put
your sluice over here.
Everybody saw you
tell me to put it like this.
I'm hoping that we both have
learned a lot from this season.
We are all clear, hunter.
Everything looks good.
And hopefully we have some
really cool things to build on.
Me and my dad got
closer this summer.
But it's never easy
working with family.
You've been stepping on
my toes the whole project.
No, I haven't.
But also think he
knows my capability.
All right, guys, you
ready to get it on?
Let's get it on!
I love my dad and I respect him.
I'm thankful that you came.
There was a lot of times
where we could have all
turned back or stopped.
You know?
If I learned anything,
it was just to
You know, you
just have to keep
You have to keep going.
You know? I've
learned that from you.
It's ingrained in my mind now.
And I feel like you set the tone
for the work here.
So
Yeah. I just wanna
say thank you.
I want any bad
blood to end right here
with us getting 1,000 ounces.
I'll tell you right now,
I love you to death.
- Thank you.
- Come here, man.
This is the time I feel like
Jim thurber right now, jeez.
Dad, why don't you
close us in prayer, man?
Sure.
Get over here.
Heavenly father,
we thank you for
a, successful adventure.
Being able to come up
here with Todd and the guys,
it changed my outlook
on a lot of things in life.
And, I'm hoping to get to
do it again with these guys.
We are grateful for everything
that you've done for us.
Help us to share it with
those you want us to.
We hit our goal. The
guys came together.
Hopefully they see the
fight is worth the reward.
I feel really good right now.
It's in your name
that we pray forever.
Amen.
1,000 ounces was my goal
because that's just,
like, beginner stage.
That gets you to
the table again.
So my guys will take
a little bit of gold home
and they're all happy.
But I'll tell you what,
we got a big future here.
I got the team, I
got the equipment,
I got the cuts, I
got the licence.
I'm ready to go.
Wrap up the gold and
let's get the hell out of here.
1,000 ounces is
just the starting point.
Watch what happens next year.
We're set up to win.