Gold Rush, S03E14, Bedrock Blowout

BEDROCK BLOWOUT

At the Indian River claim, in the Klondike. Dave and his team have an impressive 414 ounces of gold so far this season worth over $650,000, but they have just 3 weeks left of the mining season, to reach their 1000 ounce goal. Greg and Dave tries to figure out how they can get more pay dirt out of their bench cut. Dave wants them all down to bedrock, because that's the pay dirt which holds the most. 5 weeks ago, Dave and his crew opened up a cut on the bench, and last week they cleaned out a record 137 ounces, worth a staggering $220,000. Now the bench cut is down to the bedrock layer, this material contains large rocks, it should be full of gold but it could also block up their plant. Chris Doumitt feeds the first bedrock dirt into the wash plant. Dave and Logan watch for any problems, while Chris feeds the wash plant. Suddenly something jams, the crew rushes to stop the wash plant, it appears that bedrock jammed the feed chute, but Dave stepped in quickly to unplug it. The wash plant is running for now, but Dave is leaving the claim to head home and check on business, leaving Todd in charge of the whole operation. In the beginning of the season, Dave cleared a cut on the lower bench, now they're mining the upper bench. Todd thinks the key to success now is extending cut one. Todd and Dave disagrees on Todd's idea about extending the first cut, but they agree to talk about it when Dave gets back from his trip to Oregon. Todd states that he's not going to wait for Dave to come back, he says that Dave is still playing a 500 ounce game, but that he is playing a 1000 ounce game.

Down south at Porcupine Creek. The Dakota Boys have 117 ounces, worth over a $180,000, they're digging deeper than ever in the glory hole, to reach their 160 ounce goal. Fred and Dustin are fighting a constant battle against the ground water pouring into their 80 foot hole. To get down deeper than 70 feet, they're gonna have to move their pump down another 10 feet. Fred builds a road down as close as he can to the pump, but he's still stretching to reach it with his excavator. Dustin hooks the chain to the pump, and Fred lifts it up into the air. As Fred moves left, the intake hose gets snagged under water, leaving the pump dangling 20 feet in the air, Fred's excavator arm is at full reach. Dustin and Melody have to use their brute strength, and eventually they get the hose free and they re-locate the pump. Dustin rips the hard rocky ground with the "bedrock shark", while Fred moves the rich material out of the hole. Dustin's track suddenly detaches from the excavator, leaving the excavator literally dead in the water, to make things worse the pump isn't pumping, so the hole is now filling up with 1200 gallons of water a minute, the excavators engine could be under water and destroyed within an hour. Fred brings his 340 excavator to try and get the track back on, but he can't force the track back on, with no time to loose Dustin tries to lift it into place instead. Fred lifts up the track with the excavator, almost getting it into place, he then gives it a slam on the side, with the bucket of his excavator and the track finally comes on again. Fred slowly drives the excavator out of the hole and out of danger.

Across the creek at the Big Nugget Mine, Parker Schnabel has 135 of the 300 ounces he wants this season, he's on his new rich ground the Discovery claim. Parker struck out on both Smith Creek Hill and Emerson Trench this season, but last week Parker started digging new ground just up from Big Nugget, he ran his new dirt and got some of his best cleanups yet. Parker's crew now knows that they're on the best gold yet, they rush to run as much material as possible. The problem is that the new claim is up a dangerous two mile road, with a 300 foot drop to the creek on one side. Parker insists on loading and driving the pay dirt to the plant by himself. To keep the wash plant running at capacity and to maximize the gold take, Parker needs to haul 10 loads an hour. Suddenly Parker's back end slips and the bed of the rock truck flips over on the side. Parker's 330 excavator is strong enough to lift the bed of the rock truck when it's empty, but loaded with pay dirt is weighs 63,000 pounds, way more than the excavator is designed to handle. Parker manages to flip the bed of the rock truck back up with the excavator. Parker's rock truck is not badly damaged, but the accident on the road has left Parker rattled. Parker's crew is on their best gold of the season, this week alone Glenn has cleaned up 25 ounces out of the Discovery claim, but out of nowhere Parker calls a meeting. Parker decides to shut down the Discovery claim, with no good ground left to dig, Parker may be forced to shut down the Big Nugget Mine.

Back up at the Indian River claim, in the Klondike. While Dave is away on business, Todd and his night shift crew Mitch and Andy meet at the lower cut, the area that Dave did not want Todd to start digging. Mitch and Andy have to remove up to 30 feet of mud from a 72,000 square-foot area. Todd thinks that they can get down to pay dirt within 5-7 days. Mitch and Andy strip into the night instead of doing their night shift job, maintaining the wash plant. While Mitch and Andy open up the new lower cut, Todd runs the wash plant by himself, he's loading old bench cut bedrock at full speed, the same material that blocked up the plant on Dave's shift. Suddenly the wash plant get's blocked by bedrock again and Andy rushes in to help, large angular chunks of bedrock has once again blocked the feed chute, throwing water and pay dirt over the top of the wash plant. They quickly clear the blockage and restart the wash plant. To avoid another blockage Andy suggests that they run slowly, but Todd insists on getting the water and plant running again at full speed. The water is running at full speed, but Todd has forgotten to put pay dirt into the plant, clean water is rushing through the sluice boxes, washing out the gold. Because Todd didn't have his experienced crew at the wash plant, he may have just lost 4 days of Indian River gold.

Back down at Porcupine Creek in south-east Alaska, the Dakota Boys are running dirt dug from 80 feet down the glory hole, after 5 days of running they shut down and start the cleanup. The Dakota Boys needs an average of 2 ounces a day to reach their goal for the season, from this weeks cleanup they need at least 12 ounces. This weeks cleanup is at 22.4 ounces, they now have 139 ounces of gold worth close to a quarter of a million dollars, they're on track to reach their goal of 160 ounces.

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The Golden Nugget:

Melody Tallis was raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. Before her passion for gold mining took hold she worked in a television repair shop and as a surgical scrub technician.

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At Indian River, Todd is about to find out if he accidentally washed their best gold yet out of the wash plant the night before, the crew looks for gold in the sluices. Dave Turin is just back from Oregon, it doesn't take him long to see that the things aren't as he left them at Indian River. In the gold room, Jim Thurber is running the cleanup. The sluice box is designed to catch the gold in the first 8 feet of carpet, but for insurance it has an extra 22 feet, to catch any gold that is washed down by too much water, if Thurber finds a lot of gold in the bottom mats, they can be sure they've washed gold right out of the wash plant. Their worst fears has come true, there's about 2 ounces of gold in the bottom sluices, suggesting that they've washed gold right out of the wash plant. Thurber and Jack cleanup the rest of the carpets. The crew gathers by the fire to wait for Jack to finish weighing the gold. Despite their worst fears and loosing gold, the Hoffman crew has one of their biggest clean outs yet, the 107 ounce clean out brings their season total to 521 ounces, worth around $830,000. They're now just one big clean out, from $1,000,000 in gold.

PREVIOUS EPISODE: THE NIGHTSHIFT

Dual Survival, S03E01, Mars on Earth

Mars on Earth

Atacama Desert, Chile

Episode scenario

In this episode, Cody Lundin and Joe Teti will take the role of a power para glider, who crash landed on one of the Atacama Desert's towering volcanoes in Chile, 14.500 feet above sea level. 

High altitude

The Atacama Desert, a place so barren and geographically unique that NASA named it "Mars on Earth", and uses it to test rovers bound for the red planet. The Sahara for instance gets 2 millimeters of rain per year, the Atacama Desert gets 0.1 each year. What makes the environment so terrifying is the altitude, with the cold, with the lack of atmosphere, with the lack of water, surviving here is no breeze.

At this high altitude, there's limited oxygen which makes it very hard to breath. Cody and Joe has to strip the para glider which they found, and then head for lower elevation. At the para glider they find a yellow helmet, a multitool and a altimeter, there's no gas in the tank of the para glider and the battery is dead as well. They also find a water container, which fits into a backpack, the container is filled with a quarter of water, they also find the parachute, along with the reserve chute as well. Last but not least they find a matchbox, and as they open it, one single match can be found inside. When one ascents too quickly, one can fall victim to hypoxia, which leads to mountain sickness and eventually death. Both Cody and Joe knows that they have to decent down the mountain, but Joe also knows that higher up the mountain there may be ice, but ascending further can be very dangerous. Joe proposes that he goes alone, but Cody is not much for that idea, but Cody knows that water is crucial to survival, so he agrees that they split up, they use a rock as a rally point, once Joe has gone and collected the ice. The worst case scenario is that they would be separated for the night,  if Joe doesn't manage to descent again before nightfall and rally up with Cody. Joe starts his ascent up the mountain and Cody heads downhill towards their rally point, to look for shelter. It is crucial that the shelter protects from the wind, as the nights in the Atacama Desert are freezing, dropping into the teens, which puts hypothermia into play as well. Cody has to go beyond their rally point, because it doesn't protect enough from the wind, he finds another suitable spot a little further. He will then use the parachute to create a "lean to shelter", which keeps them out of the wind, that also gives them the possibility of a reflector fire, which reflects heat back onto them via the rock. Joe has now ascended to 17.000 feet above sea level, he has also found ice, which he chops up and places in the reserve parachute, so that he can carry it down again. Joe begins his decent downhill again, to rally up with Cody.

Joe has reached their rally point, but can't see Cody. He has to find Cody within the next 30 minutes, or he has no choice but to sleep alone for the night. Cody has finished the "lean to shelter" and is ready to start a fire with the only match he has, he only has one single change to light the kindling he's gathered, he strikes the match and manages to light up the fire. Meanwhile Joe has gone beyond their original rally point, and is shouting out for Cody, as Cody has finished the fire he heads towards the sound of Joe yelling. Joe spotted the helmet that Cody put up on top of the rock. Reunited, they head inside the shelter so that Joe can warm up again, they use the helmet to melt the ice which Joe took down with him. As the night comes to an end, they get ready to keep going, the ice they melted came down to about 3 liters, which they fill into the bladder container, which they found at the para glider.

Descending down

Joe and Cody has to descend down the mountain, they have to get below 8.000 feet above sea level, where hypoxia and mountain sickness is less likely to happen. As they reach 13.000 feet, they see a change in the terrain, and Joe suspects that it is the last place in which they will be able to acquire firewood for a fire. Cody on the other hand, disagrees with Joe, he doesn't think that they have to gather firewood, since he hasn't had the need to do it in 23 years. Joe is still positive that they will need it down the road, and eventually Cody gives in and agrees to carry some wood along, but only because Joe had carried ice down the mountain for them to drink, the previous day. As they keep descending down, they notice that the terrain is getting steeper and they have no idea whats ahead of them. Joe and Cody eventually end up in a canyon, where they have to climb down, Joe states that one should always keep 3 points of contact when free climbing down, whether its two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand doesn't matter. Suddenly they reach a massive drop off, which appears to be from 30-50 feet, they have to decide whether they want to go back and find another way, or if they should come up with a way to get down the drop off. They come up with the idea of using the reserve parachute as a rope, so they can climb down, they twist the parachute. They also have to anchor the parachute to something, and for that they need rope which can handle it, they twist the parachute cord, so that the tensile strength doubles. Tensile strength is the maximum load a material can hold when under pressure. Usually in climbs like this, one should use three anchor points, but Cody and Joe are limited to only one. Joe climbs down first and makes it to the bottom of the drop off, so does Cody as it is his turn next.

Deep in the canyons where Cody and Joe are, sunshine rarely reaches the floor, finding a shelter for the night, now becomes top priority. At a Y-intersection in the canyon, they split up each taking a path, to try and find a suitable shelter for the night. Cody comes up empty handed, but Joe on the other hand finds a location which is suitable. Cody stresses that core protection is vital, one should always keep their chest area warm. Joe wants to light a fire, and to preserve firewood he wants to burn one stick at a time, Cody tells him that it's not possible to burn one stick at a time, and they also probably use up a quarter of their firewood, just to get the fire started. There's probably only enough wood for just a single hour, so they agree to use the firewood at the coldest part of the night, since the nights are 12 hours long in the Atacama Desert, in the winter times. They both wrap up in the same parachute, so that they can use their body heat to warm each other up. Cody and Joe has descended from high altitudes of a volcano, gone through deep canyons, to emerge at a sun scorched  salt flat. Water now becomes top priority, the 3 day rule says that you can go 3 days without water, but in the Atacama Desert that is greatly reduced, due to elevation and dryness. They continue to head downhill, as water would travel downhill as well. They're at an altitude of 9.000 feet above sea level. In the Atacama Desert, a person can go through 4 liters of water an hour, Cody and Joe has been rationing 3 liters over the past 3 days. They eventually run out of water, but they keep descending, they seek to find shade, as shade can reduce dehydration. They find some shade by a rock and they decide to take a rest, at this time Joe decides that he's going to drink his own piss to gain a psychological edge. Urine is double the amount of zodiam than normal body saline, almost 2%. Joe states that he's a survivor and if this kills him it was his time to go anyway.

Out of the desert

The Atacama Desert in Chile, was formed by earthquakes and lava flow, some 145 million year ago. Cody and Joe are now at 7.500 feet above sea level, and has now descended below 8.000, hypoxia and mountain sickness is less likely at this point. As they reach a huge canyon they can hear water flowing, there's a river at the bottom of the canyon, but they're 400 feet above it, they look for the safest place to descend into it. They find a steep sand bank which leads down to the river, the sand down is deep and they kind of have to jump in it, Joe states that it's like a controlled fall. They eventually reach the river at the bottom of the canyon, and they immediately drink from it, without disinfecting the water first. They've found a place where they now can rest and re-hydrate, before they keep pressing on, to get out of the desert. Joe surveys the area and finds a tree, which in the winter time drops seeds, which is similar to dried beans and are edible, they taste sweet. Joe collects a whole bunch of the beans and returns to Cody. Cody explains that the beans have a lot of carbohydrates which gets into your blood quickly, it raises your glucose levels, so they're perfect in their situation. They decide to head downstream and eventually they see lama's by the river, along with a lady. Water equals life, so wherever there's water there's bound to be civilization.     

  

About Dual Survival

About Dual Survival

Dual Survival is an American reality TV show, which is aired on Discovery Channel. The TV show features two survival experts handling challenging environments all across the globe. Dual Survival originally aired for the first time in 2010, where the first episode were aired June 11th. The first season of Dual Survival featured a total of 10 episodes, before the season ended August 20th, 2010. Season 1 of Dual Survival featured Cody Lundin and Dave Canterbury as the two survival experts. Cody Lundin is a naturalist and primitive skills expert, he runs the "Aboriginal Living Skills School" in Arizona, he also doesn't wear any shoes, socks or long pants. Dave Canterbury is a military trained survival instructor, he runs the "Pathfinder Training School" in Ohio.

Season no. 1

As stated above, the first season of Dual Survival featured 10 episodes. The first season featured scenarios from around the globe, such as Belize, Peru, Brazil, New Zealand, Novo Scotia, Laos and some inside the US as well, Louisiana being one of them. 

Season no. 2

The second season of Dual Survival features 2 more episodes than season 1 did, it features 12 episodes in total. The first episode in season 2 originally aired April 22th 2011, and the last one aired July 1st. The second season once again features survival scenarios from around the globe, some being: Thailand, South Africa, Panama, Mexico, and they even strand on a deserted island in the South Pacific ocean. There's also several episodes within US borders, taking place at the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the Everglades in Florida, and the Great Plains in Montana.

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Changes in season no. 3
As far as season 3 goes, Dave Canterbury didn't return for it, he has been replaced by Joseph(known as Joe) Teti, which is a retired "Force Recon Marine" and former "Army Special Forces Green Beret". Season 3 aired it's first episode January 1st 2013, and it is yet unknown how many episodes it's going to feature, but hopefully as many as the previous seasons did.

REVIEWS:

Coming shortly

Gold Rush, S03E13, The Nightshift

THE NIGHTSHIFT

4 months into the 5 months mining season, the Hoffman Crew is running hard at Indian River. Despite their total of 277 ounces of gold, they still need 98 ounces just to break even, let alone hitting their 1000 ounces season goal, which they’re 723 ounces short of. For the Hoffman Crew to reach their season goal, Todd has to come up with a new mining plan. He proposes to Dave Turin, that he starts a nightshift, so that they can keep the wash plant “Big Red” running as much as possible. Dave’s concerned about the wash plant not being able to run that long, the last thing he wants is for the wash plant to break down. Last week, Todd shut down his Quartz Creek operation, and moved all his equipment and men to Indian River, to work alongside with Dave Turin and his crew. Together they managed to get 46 ounces of gold in a week, which is 17 ounces less that Team Turin’s best week. Over the season Team Turin has fine tuned their wash plant, it consistently produces 1 ounce of gold for every 10 buckets of good pay dirt, to succeed this season, Todd needs to double the amount of buckets that they run through the wash plant, and he wants to prove that his crew is at least as good as Dave’s crew. The dayshift ran 124 buckets of pay dirt through the wash plant the nightshift though, wants to run 200 buckets through it. 4 months into the mining season, the Yukon nights are getting longer. Facing a 12-hour shift, Todd sets a goal of 17 buckets an hour. Within hours the fast pace starts taking its toll on the wash plant, but Todd refuses to stop for anything, the water is starting to sweep away the ground under the sluice boxes, but Todd doesn't have time to stop, they have to keep running. The hopper feeder belt suddenly seizes up, forcing Todd to shutdown the wash plant. 3000 pounds of hydraulic pressure is building up on the jammed con weigher, the crew has to remove the rock to relieve the pressure, or they’ll destroy the con weigher. They manage to remove the rock, and they get the con weigher belt running again. After running hard for 12 straight hours, dawn marks the end of Team Todd’s first nightshift, in their first shift Todd’s crew has run a record 1400 yards through the was plant.

Down in Alaska, Fred Hurt is digging gold rich pay dirt at Porcupine Creek. The Dakota Boys have spent the last month on the hunt for what they think is an ancient waterfall, the deeper they've gone in their pit, the better the gold has become. Fred is following the grey material as he digs down, as he’s been so focused on getting the grey dirt, he’s missed something. 1000 years ago a river ran through the valley, forming cracks in the bedrock of the river, the cracks can act as a natural riffle, trapping gold as it flows down the river. Melody explores the big cracks in the bedrock wall of the glory hole, if Melody is right, the cracks could contain thousands of dollars in gold. Fred doesn't buy it he just wants to keep digging down. To dredge in the glory hole, they’d have to flood it with water, and then they’d use a suction hose to vacuum the gold and silk out of the cracks, this material then travels through a floating sluice box, which traps the gold. But a glory hole full of water will prevent Fred from digging. Dustin wants to bring in a dredge to vacuum the gold out of the cracks.

Back up at Indian River, Team Todd’s nightshift is finished and Team Turin takes over. They arrive to a nasty surprise, Todd’s nightshift washed the base out from under the sluice box, determined to run more dirt than Team Turin, Todd refused to stop his shift to fix the problem. The wash plant could easily fall into the pond. Team Turin can’t start their dayshift before they pack rocks back under the base of the 15,000 pound sluice box to keep it from sinking, but the time it takes to make this fix is money straight out of their pocket. They test the fix by turning on the water, but Dave won’t know whether it works, until it gets the full weight of the water and pay dirt running through the wash plant. It appears to be working as it should. To have any hope of reaching their 1000 ounce goal, Team Turin then has to keep up with Team Todd, but its taken Team Turin half their shift just to clean up Todd’s mess.

Down at the Big Nugget Mine, in southeast Alaska. Parker Schnabel is ready to mine his new ground, the Discovery claim. With just a month left in the mining season, Parker is still 96 ounces or $150,000 from breaking even for the season. The Discovery dig site has to payoff, or else Parker will loose money for the second season in a row. Two weeks ago, Parker discovered that Emerson Trench the last remaining ground on Big Nugget, was a bust. Out of option, Parker leased the Discovery claim, it was on this claim that in 1898 the first Porcupine Creek gold was found. Parker's plan is to haul 20 loads of dirt down to his plant each day, but the Discovery claim lies up a dangerous mountain road, that snakes it's way 300 feet up from Big Nugget. Parker is ready to bring down his first load, in an almost 20-year old loader, which weighs 80,000 pounds when it's fully loaded. On either side of the road there's danger, on one side there's bedrock wall which could slice through his tires, and on the other side there's a 300-foot cliff, which drops down to the creek below. Halfway down, Parker scrapes his tires into the bedrock wall, and if he goes just 6-inches to the other side, he could tip over the cliff. Parker makes it safely past, but next he has to back up to a 100-foot cliff, to dump his load down the hillside, so they can use a loader to carry it to the wash plant.

Less than a mile from Big Nugget, over at Porcupine Creek. Dustin is heading back to the claim, rather excited. Dustin has just spent $2,000 of his own money on a gold dredge, to get at the gold in the glory hole bedrock wall's cracks, which Melody discovered not long ago, but Fred is still not really excited about using a dredge, because he can't dig at the same time. Dustin though insists that they go for the gold in the cracks with the dredge. Dustin is nervous about the dredge, since he has never used one before. Dustin has flooded part of the glory hole, so Fred can no longer dig, but before Dustin can get to work with the dredge, he and Melody has to carefully move it down into the bottom of the glory hole, if they damage the floats on the sidewall, the dredge will be rendered useless. They manage to eventually place it into the flooded glory hole. Dustin fires up the dredge's vacuum and Melody gets to work on sucking out the dirt inside the bedrock cracks, the vacuum is rated for 30-feet and can easily vacuum up gold from deep within the cracks. Unable to mine, Fred can only stand and watch. After 4 hours of dredging, both Dustin and Melody has had enough, the water is frigid cold, due to it being mountain runoff.

Back over at the Big Nugget Mine, across the creek from the Porcupine claim, Parker Schnabel is feeding his first pay dirt from the Discovery claim into his wash plant. Not long in, one of the blades from inside Parker's trommel tumbles out of the end, they have to shut down the plant to check out the damage done, and to repair the damage as well. Parker is clearly frustrated about the situation, but he has no choice but to weld the blade back into the trommel, even though it's not the preferable fix. He'll only know it works, when it once again can handle the large Big Nugget boulders. They fire up the wash plant once again, and loads dirt into the plant, the fix appears to work perfectly.

Back over at Porcupine Creek, Fred Hurt is frustrated. Dustin and Melody's idea of dredging the cracks in the bedrock wall, has prevented Fred from digging pay dirt out of the glory hole. They're now lifting the dredge back out of the water, down deep in the glory hole. Up in the gold tent, Melody is panning the material which they got from the dredging, the material will prove whether her idea of dredging the cracks was a good idea, and from what she's seeing, Fred will eat his own words. Fred is rather impressed with the take, as Dustin and Melody shows him, they head on inside the cabin to weigh up the gold. Last week, they pulled a record high 28 ounces worth $44,000 in five days of running grey material. This cleanup is from just a single day of dredging. The total take for the dredging is 14 ounces of gold, worth over $20,000, not bad for only a day of dredging.

Back up north, at Indian River, the nightshift is ready to go, the previous night they managed to load 200 buckets into the wash plant, and this night they want to do even better. There's a slight problem though, since the dayshift had to fix Todd's mistake, they didn't manage to stockpile enough pay dirt to feed the nightshift, Todd has Kevin get pay dirt from the bench cut, as Kevin has a truck load, he has to back it up to a 50-foot cliff, and dump it down to the wash plant, that's something he hasn't done yet, in the middle of the night. Kevin can't see his back wheels, so he has no way of knowing if he's close to the edge, an inch too far and he could fall down the cliff in his 40 ton rocktruck, down 5 stories into Walt in the loader. Todd pushes Kevin to keep getting the pay dirt down, but eventually Kevin snaps, and starts an argument with Todd. Though he later agrees to keep going, with Walt as his spotter. Despite the risks the nightshift is back on track.

Down in southeast Alaska, at the Big Nugget Mine. Parker Schnabel is about to find out, whether the Discovery claim were a good idea, he's ready for his first cleanup of the wash plant, with dirt only from the Discovery claim. He needs the dirt to payoff, as he's spent $10,000 in fuel this week, just to haul the dirt down the road. Right off, he spots a lot of gold at the top when he checks out the sluice box, and he calls over the crew to see. The entire crew is amazed by the amount of gold in the sluice. These recent week, Parker has not found too much, the last two weeks, he's only found 14.3 ounces of gold, worth less than $23,000. In just one week, Parker and his crew has cleared 43 ounces, which is worth almost $70,000, his total is now 135 ounces, worth $216,000.

Back up at Indian River in the Klondike, both the day- and nightshift has been mining around the clock, for a week. In 6 days, they've run a massive 10,000 yards through the wash plant. Now it is time to find out, if adding the nightshift was a wise move. They remove the miners moss from the sluice boxes, and takes it over to Jack in the gold tent, Jack then processes the concentrate, cleans the gold and weighs it. The crew is positive that this cleanup will be a big one. Jack finishes weighing up the gold, and heads for the campfire, where the entire Hoffman crew is gathered. He pulls out a jar from the truck, which contains 100 ounces of gold, he then pulls out a second jar from behind his back, containing 37 ounces. The total take for the week, with running the day- and nightshift is 137 ounces, worth a whooping $219,200, the Hoffman Crew is now at 414 ounces for the season so far, which is worth $662,400. This means that the Hoffman Crew are now past their break even point, and every single ounce of gold they now pull from the ground, is going straight into their own pockets. But they still have a long way to go, to get to their 1000 ounce goal, with only one month left in the mining season.

PREVIOUS EPISODE: THE MERGER
NEXT EPISODE: BEDROCK BLOWOUT

Gold Rush, S03E12, The Merger

 

 

 

Audible Review

THE MERGER

 

The mining crews are 106 days into the 150 day mining season, and up at Quartz Creek in the Klondike, the mine site is at a stand still, since Todd Hoffman shut down his trommel. Todd calls an emergency meeting of both the Indian River and Quartz Creek crew. He breaks the news to the entire Hoffman crew, that he's going to shut down Quartz Creek for good, Todd also states that the failure could be blamed on this and that, but in the end it's his fault that Quartz Creek didn't pay off. Quartz Creek has only produced 7 ounces of gold worth about $11,000, meanwhile over at Indian River, Dave Turin has pulled 223 ounces worth over $350,000. Disappointed in Todd's performance at Quartz, their investor Jason threatened to pull the plug unless Todd cut costs. Todd Hoffman states that they all have to work together under one plan, that being Indian River, he also says that if they have to get from 500 to 1000 ounces out Indian River, they have to open up alot more ground, and for that they need every single crew member. Dave Turin says that this could just make everything collapse around them, but also believes that they can pull it off. Todd states that if they don't get their goal, they're not going to come back, if would simply be the end for them. Nobody is ready to go home just yet, so they're all pumped up to go, they all believe that if they stick together they can pull it off. Todd says that he's done the math, and that it is possible to get to 1000 ounces, he wants to get to 1000 ounces. With two excavators, two rock trucks and a dozer, Todd's crew makes the two mile journey from Quartz Creek to Indian River. They now have double the manpower and machines, the once rival crews have to put aside their differences and work together on the common goal of 1000 ounces.

In Southeast Alaska, at Porcupine Creek, the Dakota Boys are digging the grey material out of the glory hole, river washed rocks are a sign that they're on the gold. After a season of breakdowns, last week Fred finally brought in new equipment, and right away they saw results in the form of a $20,000 cleanup. With the plant processing their best dirt yet, they're certain that the next cleanup will be really great. Larger sized rocks have begun to show out of the dirt and Fred wants them run through their D-Rocker washplant, Dustin is a little bit concerned that the D-Rocker can't handle these huge rocks. As Dustin drops the huge rock into the D-Rocker, is completely rips off the deck on the machine, pushing it through the washplant, landing on the ground at the end, exposing the wheels beneath, they quickly shut down the machine to inspect the damage done. The D-Rocker washes the rocks on a moving deck, rocking the dirt back and forth by three pairs of truck wheels, a series of welds holds the top of the deck in place, the massive boulder has snapped the welds, causing the 10,000 pound deck to crash to the ground. It's a disaster since when the machines are down they can't run.

Across the creek, at the Big Nugget Mine, Parker Schnabel is waiting for the results of a 4 day run of Emerson Trench dirt. Parker has run 2,000 yards of dirt to find out weather Emerson Trench will pay off, Parker needs 5 ounces of gold, just to cover his $8,000 four day running costs. The cleanup is disappointing, it's only 2.3 ounces, half of what he needed to cover his costs, Parker leaves the room immediately after learning the result. Parker's worst fears has come true, Emerson Trench is a bust. Parker states that they really need to find some better dirt, since their running costs a day is at $2,000 and that they need 190 ounces just to break even for the season. He turns to Gary a six year Big Nugget veteran for advice, asking him weather he knowns of any easily accessible ground. Gary does know of a claim, known as the Discovery claim, but it isn't easily accessible, he suggests that Parker should try to work out a lease deal. The Discovery claim is two miles up a hill from Big Nugget, back in 1898, miners using a basic wooden sluice box produced around 100 ounces a day from the claim, which at todays prices are worth around $160,000. Parker heads up the hill to check out the claim, and notices river gravels right of the batch as he arrives. Parker heads up to the claim owner by himself, without the cameras, since the claim owner doesn't want to be a part of it.

Up north in the Klondike, Todd Hoffman has shut down Quartz Creek, and they're joining forces with Dave Turin's crew at Indian River. Dave points out that the sluice box should not shut down, it has to run at all times, he needs truck drivers, and dozer operators, which he knows that the crew from Quartz can. All season "Big Red" has lead the way in gold recovery of the Hoffman Crew, it's been chewing through a total of 38,000 yards of pay dirt from their first cut, last week Dave raced to open up the cut on the upper bench, as cut number were about to run out of pay dirt, he indeed managed to open up the upper bench cut, right as cut one ran out of pay dirt. Now to keep their dream of 1000 ounces alive, the combined crew has to open up twice the ground and run double the amount of pay dirt through the washplant. With the washplant eating through 140 yards an hour, Andy, Mitch and Walt get busy ripping and stripping new ground. Suddenly, the feed con weigher grinds to a halt, forcing them to shut down the entire washplant. Dave suspects they've blown a seal in the hydraulic pump, which makes the belt go. Untill they can get a replacement part, the entire Hoffman operation is shut down.

Back at the Big Nugget Mine, Parker is out of ground, but he has persuaded the owner of the neighboring Discovery claim, to lease him some promising land. Parker has signed a contract with the claim owner, which gets him 10 acres for a 10% fee. He thinks bedrock is close, and he believes that the pay dirt is good, 50 yards back. Getting the pay dirt is not a problem, but getting it to the plant is, Parker is concerned about the road going down, the width of the road is only leaving a feet extra for the dumb truck. With Big Nugget dead in the water, Parker has no choice but to test the dirt road in a dumb truck, to see if it's possible. If Parker makes a mistake, it could cause the massive rock truck to fall 100's of feet down to the river below, there's no room for error. The rock truck can't make a tight turn up the road, for Parker to make serious money of the Discovery claim he'd have to do 100's of loads down the road, which obviously is too dangerous. 

At Porcupine Creek, less than a mile from Big Nugget. Dakota Fred and his team have suffered another major breakdown. A massive boulder has broken off the deck on the D-Rocker washplant. Fred plans to lift the 10,000 pound deck above the D-Rocker with the 340 excavator, while Melody pulls the other end of it in the loader, once in place Fred will attempt the weld the top back on. Dustin hooks up the loader to the end of the deck, and moves clear of the machines, where he can guide both Fred and Melody. Dustin, slow and steadily guides Melody in pulling back the deck, while Fred holds it up in the air, they successfully managed to get the deck back into the right position on the D-Rocker for Fred to weld in back into place. They turn the machine back on and it seems to work just fine, but the only way to test the fix, is to hit it with more boulders, to test weather it can take the hits. It can take the hits, and they've managed to fix the machine in the same day as it broke.

Back up at Indian River, the washplant is still not running, since the seal in the hydraulic pump has blown out, which stopped the feed con weigher from moving. Mitch has already ordered a new part for it, but it's anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks out, and that they can't wait for, Mitch though has an idea which might work. He plans to use the hydraulic system from Jack's beloved 400 excavator, Jack's had the excavator since their first mining season, it's his pride and joy. Mitch plans to connect the hydraulic hoses from the 400 to the washplant, he drives the excavator from Quartz Creek over to Indian River, placing it beside the washplant. He then connects the hoses to the washplant, but for it to work he has to get the hydraulic pressure just right, the washplant uses 2000 pounds per square inch, but the excavator is capable of up to 3200 pounds per square inch, if the washplant gets too much pressure, it could blow the system on the feeder, setting them back weeks. Mitch slowly fine tunes the pressure to just get the right amount, and eventually he gets the feed con weigher to run smoothly again. Indian River is running good pay dirt once again, Mitch's ingenuity has kept their dream of 1000 ounces alive.

Back down at the Big Nugget Mine, in Southeast Alaska. Parker has called in his father Roger, to help widen the road up to his new Discovery claim. Before they can start widening the old dirt road, they have to chop down some sixty foot trees. Roger gets to work on chopping down the trees, but he has some concern about some of them being rotten within, that might make them fall differently from what he wants. After chopping down the necessary amount of trees, Parker can finally get to digging into the mountain side, to widen the dirt road up to the Discovery claim. Parker makes it to the top, widening the entire stretch up there, he then heads on down to Big Nugget once again, to try to go up the road in a rock truck, testing weather he can get up there as the road is now more wide than before. Parker reaches the tight corner that stopped him in his first attempt in the rock truck, it's wider now but still sketchy, if his back tires slips it's a 300 foot drop down to Porcupine Creek. Parker manages to get around the corner and finally reaches the top in his rock truck, he finally has access to good quality pay dirt. Parker believes that this pay dirt will push them over their break even point, which is 190 ounces of gold.  

Back up at Indian River, Jack has found out that his 400 excavator which is his pride and joy, are missing from Quartz Creek, he eventually finds it at Indian River, where he discovers it besides the washplant. Mitch explains the situation to Jack.

Back down at Porcupine Creek in Alaska, the Dakota Boys and Melody has now run the rich grey material for about 25 hours, they start a full cleanup of the sluice boxes. As they clean the bottom sluice box, Fred and Dustin discover decent sized flakes at the end, which never should make it down there, suggesting that they might blow gold right out the end of their sluice box. Riffles are designed to trap the gold as it washes down the sluice box, but since the grey material is so fine, it has filled up the riffles, which hardens like concrete, the gold then just washes over the riffles and Fred and Dustin may have lost thousand of dollars in gold out of the end of their sluice box. Fred's running costs for the season are $150,000 or 93 ounces of gold, he only have 75 ounces so far, Fred needs a massive 18 ounces from this cleanup to break even for the season. Fred weighs the gold by himself inside the cabin, and heads outside to break the cleanup total to Dustin and Melody, they've pulled 28.4 ounces of gold out of the ground in just 25 hours, the cleanup total is also their biggest one yet. Fred has covered his costs for the season, and confidently rings the bell on the cabin, which signals that they've reached 100 ounces, they now have 104 ounces of gold for the season, which is worth $166,400. The rest of the gold they get, is profit straight into their own pockets.

    

Back up in the Klondike at the Indian River gold claim, the crew lost two days of sluicing due to the breakdown of the feed con weigher, but due to Mitch's ingenious fix, they've still managed to run 4,000 yards of pay dirt through the washplant this week. It's time for their first cleanout, since Todd combined the Quartz Creek and Indian River crews. Everybody from the team is hoping for a good cleanup. They finish up and Jack weighs the gold by himself, and returns to break the cleanup total to the entire Hoffman crew, Jack is presently surprised. In one week, even with a major breakdown, Todd and Dave has pulled 46 ounces worth $73,600 out of the ground at Indian River together. The Hoffman crew gold tally is now at total of 276 ounces worth over $440,000.

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Gold Rush, S03E11, Pink Slip

 

Audible Review

PINK SLIP

 

At Quartz Creek up in the Klondike, Todd's turbo trommel seems to be working perfectly, after about 3 months at a stand still. It appears to be washing the paydirt as it should, so Todd Hoffman hopes that he can keep his promise towards his investor. Three weeks ago, Jason which is Todd's investor, gave Todd an ultimatum, he wants to see a total 350 ounces of gold from the Hoffman Crew, when he returns in three weeks, Todd promised that they'd get 250 ounces from Indian River and that Quartz Creek would produce the remaining 100 ounces. Todd orders a clean up of the turbo trommel, which for the first time has been running without any problems, since it was fixed last week. Team Todd is positive that they'll see 100 ounces from the trommel this week, as their investor will arrive on site next week. And so they start by cleaning the sluice on the trommel, it's Todd and Jack's first cleanup of the season. Jack Hoffman cleans up the concentrated dirt in the gold recovery room by himself, while the rest to Team Todd predicts that they'll get atleast 15 ounces out of this cleanup. As Jack returns from the gold room, he breaks the cleanup total to the crew, which is a very disappointing cleanup, a total of 7.34 ounces, worth less than $12,000 is all they got out of the turbo trommel. They're 93 ounces short from the 100 ounces they need, to keep their investor off their back, as Jack Hoffman states, for the average person it would be a decent cleanup, but for them it's not even enough to buy them fuel. With their investor coming in just six days, Todd is 93 ounces short, he knowns something is wrong with the trommel, because the dirt he puts through it is good paydirt.

Down at the Big Nugget Mine, in South-East Alaska, Parker Schnabel has been digging towards bedrock on Emerson Trench for two weeks, and finally his seeing a change in the dirt. Glen, Parker's fine gold specialist gathers a test bucket of dirt from 20 feet down and processes it, but he has no good news for Parker as he shows him the test result, the material which is 20 feet deep near the bedrock, appears to be worse than the overburden above which got Big Nugget Mine 12 ounces last week. Parker decides that they keep digging the last 6 feet to bedrock, because he hopes that there's good gold down there.

Back up in the Klondike, at the Indian River claim, Team Turin is about to run out of paydirt from their first digsite, their washplant "Big Red" is chewing through the final 5000 yards fast, Greg Remsburg predicts that within five days, they'll be out of paydirt and if Dave Turin hasn't opened up their second digsite, then the washplant has to shot down, which would loose them time and money. Dave is currently half way with clearing the permafrost from the second cut, and he needs to clear the remaining 6 feet of melting permafrost before they run out of cut one paydirt. The permafrost is melting fast is the hot summer sun, making conditions tough, Dave plays it safe by only stripping a 200 foot area. Dave struggles with keep traction on the muddy deck and soon gets the D9 dozer stuck in the muck, on the upper bench. Dave radios Greg Remsburg for help, and Greg now has to climb a steep hill in the 460 excavator to reach the upper bench where Dave Turin is stuck with the dozer. Eventually he manages to get the excavator up in the bench, before the dozer slips over the ledge down 30 feet, he also manages to pull the dozer out of the melted permafrost. 

Down at Porcupine Creek in Alaska, the 270 excavator is still broken, the frame holding the idler wheel, which broke for the first time six weeks ago, where back then Fred Hurt made a new one from scrap metal, failed to hold. Dustin says that they've re-welded is several times, and that it wasn't meant to be a permanent fix, only a temporary one. Dustin tells Fred that they're spend about the same on repairing the frame, as it would've cost to just rent a brand new machine, Fred though has no money and decides to once again just to re-weld it. As they finish the fix, they put the frame back in and installs the 300 pound idler wheel onto the frame. With the 270 excavator back up and running again, the Dakota Boys rush back into the glory hole to make up for lost time, but just six hours after the fix, the frame breaks once again, at the same time, Dustin hears from Melody that their loader is spilling fluid, she suspects that it's transmission fluid. Dustin arrives to take a look, and indeed finds out that it's transmission fluid which is leaking, he states that they'd have to take the entire machine apart to fix it, which would be the end of the season for the broken loader. Fred arrives to discover the loader being broken, and eventually has to make a call that he's been avoiding. Fred calls for more credit on a loan. 

Across the creek from the Dakota Boys, at the Big Nugget Mine. Rick believes that they're moving close to 2000 yards a day out of the Emerson Trench digsite. In a race to get down to bedrock, Parker is running his washplant to the max, but running so much dirt in the washplant, has caused the tailing to back up into the machine, if the build up stops the trommel the motor on the washplant could burn out. At the time Glen was responsible for keeping an eye on the plant, so Parker confronts him with it, then Glen and Parker starts a fight about the issue. Parker apologizes to Glen moments later, for being so rough and aggressive towards him.

Back at Porcupine Creek, the Dakota Boys are dead in the water, both their 220 loader and the 270 excavator are still both broken down. But Fred has comes through, he's gotten more credit and comes back to the claim with two new rental machines, a loader and a brand new 340 excavator to replace the 20 year-old 270 which broke down. Both Dustin and Melody is happy about the new equipment. They can finally get back to chasing their 160 ounce goal for the season, with brand new equipment. Fred unloads the 340 excavator off the trailer and waste no time putting it to use back in the glory hole. The Dakota Boys finally have the right equipment and their washplant is processing good material, they're back in the hunt for the 160 ounces of glory hole gold.

Back up at Quartz Creek, Team Todd tries to determine what lead to their disappointing cleanup of 7 ounces. They fire up the turbo trommel and Todd had Jim Thurber panning the tailings that the trommel dicards. Mitch their team mechanic spots something hanging down within the trommel. As Thurber finishes panning the tailings, he sees gold in the pan, which means that they're loosing gold out the back of the trommel, there's 14 visible colors in the pan. They shut down the trommel to inspect what Mitch discovered hanging down from the trommel, right off as Mitch enters the trommel, he sees daylight through coming in, between the spiral and the drum, he also finds the object which was hanging down. It appears to be urethane, which seals between the spiral and the drum, it's come loose which allows fine gold to slip down into the tailings. Mitch says that he can weld it instead of replacing the urethane, but it has to be grinding smooth, he estimates that it would take over 400 feet of welding and that it would take about two weeks to do it. Todd decides to call it quits on the trommel costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, shutting it down for the rest of the season. Without a washplant, it is game over for Quartz Creek. The team is clearly frustrated and Todd admits that he failed this summer with Quartz Creek.

Less than two miles from Quartz Creek, over at Indian River, Dave Turin is racing to get down to pay gravel in the second digsite, their washplant is getting through their stockpiled dirt fast. If Dave can't get down to paydirt and soon, they'll have to shut off their washplant for the time being, costing them over $10,000 a day in lost gold. As they're one bucket away from finishing their stockpiled paydirt, Dave hits paydirt in cut number two.

Back in Alaska at the Big Nugget Mine, Parker is nearing the end of a two week dig down to bedrock at Emerson Trench and they shortly hit bedrock down in the pit. Parker has Glen test the bedrock dirt, but the results are disappointing, the test shows no gold in the pan. 3 weeks, $30,000 and over 700 man hours, digging down at Emerson Trench, just to find nothing.

Across the creek from Big Nugget, at the Porcupine creek claim, the Dakota Boys have been running their washplant for 3 straight days. Fred shuts down the washplant, but to have any chance at hitting their 160 ounce goal for the season, they need atleast 2 ounces per day, or 6 ounces total from the last 3 days of running. They pan the concentrate from the cleanup and heads inside to weigh the gold. After running the plant for 20 hours over 3 days, they pull in 14 ounces or $22,400, which is more than double the amount they needed to stay on track towards their 160 ounce goal, the Dakota Boys are now at a total of 75 ounces for the season.

At Indian River, back up in the Klondike. The con weigher belt which discards the tailing has stopped moving, Dave Turin acts fast and has Chris cut the power to the washplant, as the belt is moving it creates heat and shuts of the electrical safeguard. They reset it the safegaurd and fixes the problem quickly. They start their final cut one cleanup and right of the batch they find their first Indian River nugget. They take all the miners moss which traps the gold over to the gold recovery tent at Quartz Creek, as Jack extracts the gold from the concentrate. He weighs the last Indian River cut one gold, and heads over to Idian River, to break the cleanup total to Team Turin, which is 53.78 ounces worth a staggering $86,400. Which brings Indian River's total gold tally so far up to 223 ounces, worth about $356,800, they're almost only responsible for all the Hoffman gold so far this season. With 6 weeks to go they're well on their way to hit their 501 ounce goal for the season.

Back over at Quartz Creek, things are far more different, with only 7.34 ounces worth less than $12,000. Todd has pulled the plug on his hightech trommel, and investor Jason is about to shown up at Quartz Creek, where Todd Hoffman is way short of his 350 ounce promise to Jason. Todd breaks the bad news about the shutdown of the trommel to Jason. Jason is not happy for Todd to miss his promise and pulls Todd over to the side. Jason suggests that Todd lets go of some people, if he can't keep production up and costs down. Todd doesn't want to send anybody home as the blame for the failure of Quartz Creek falls on him.

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