- 6/21/2025
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00:00I love gold. Always have. And it's the most recycled element on earth. What we've got here
00:14is 10 ounces of really fine placer gold. Right now we're just gonna melt it down and make it
00:21into a bar before it's sent off to the refiner. Gold is addictive. More miners than ever jump in
00:28head first, no experience, no knowledge. But what people need to remember is there's
00:33a lot of pitfalls to look out for along the way. Well let's hope we've got a
00:38beautiful bar here. There's Juan-o. How's it going Juan? Come on buddy. Melting a little gold?
00:47Here's what I was doing Juan. Whoa let me see that guy. It's a good-looking bar Fred. Even ugly gold's pretty.
00:53It still doesn't matter. Yeah gold's gold. Beautiful either way. Gold has always been a
00:57motivator to make people do extreme things that's made a lot of people a lot
01:03of money and it's taken a lot of money away from a lot of people.
01:07How's it going? Freddy. Cory. Every year expert miner Freddy Dodge. You pan this one. See what we find.
01:15And master fabricator Juan Ibarra. I'm gonna spin it. Heed the distress calls of
01:21miners struggling to find gold. Oh hey. And the numbers of them are growing. Oh oh oh shut it down.
01:28As the price of gold soars to new highs. It's better than anything we could have hoped for.
01:32Fever-filled fortune seekers take bigger risks. We gotta go. And face much less reward. Nobody's getting a paycheck
01:39unless we see some gold. On this episode of Mine Rescue. Don't dig where they tell you to dig.
01:46Been there done that. Yeah been there. We both have. Freddy and Juan reveal the pitfalls of gold-addicted
01:52miners. I know there's big big gold in here. I know it. Whether it's hot. Whether it's cold.
01:57Gold defines on where you're gonna mine for gold. How to overcome the traps of the trade. There's so
02:04much that needs to be done here. Holy cow. Just the amount of labor that's going into it. And uncover
02:08a golden pagan. Right now Fred you know gold's at an all-time high. Yeah it's way up there. Yeah it is.
02:232,300 bucks plus an ounce. Yeah. You know that's gonna drive a lot of people to go out and try to do a
02:29more mining. Gold is one of the most valuable commodities on earth. In the last 30 years its
02:37value has risen over 400%. And experts predict that gold could reach as high as $3,000 per ounce in the
02:47next five years. This means more amateur miners than ever will flood gold regions looking to strike
02:54get rich quick. But most will fail if they don't heed the hazards. There's a lot of pitfalls when
03:01you get into the mining industry. People may think that gold mining it's a get rich
03:05quick scheme. It's not. You got to work hard to be able to make it profitable for yourself.
03:09Well what do you think one of the biggest pitfalls is Juan? Really the biggest pitfall Fred's gonna be
03:14location. Agreed. The actual mine, what you're mining, the material you have there. Because if
03:19there's not enough gold in the ground, they're going broke fast.
03:26Fundamental to any miner's success is the ground they mine. The material that he's
03:31running is super sticky. And with over 50 years of combined gold mining experience,
03:36Freddie and Juan have seen it all. That clay layer there, if gold mining doesn't work out
03:41far you could start a pottery store. From ancient river gravels. This whole pit right here in my eyes
03:47is played out. To hard rock deposits. Hey guys, don't take any of the film crew any farther than
03:53that. Making sure there's enough gold on your claim can make or break an operation. Location,
04:00location, location. It's a tough one. The pitfall is people go to a new mine site,
04:06they see one or two flakes in the pan and they get excited. And they think it's going to carry
04:10through the whole area. They keep thinking that they're going to strike it rich and that point never
04:15comes. One of the situations we ran into last year were Ryan and Nolan Merritt. Yep. You know,
04:19they had all the intentions, but unfortunately on their property they didn't have enough gold.
04:23At the Mammoth Mine in Oregon, Freddie and Juan answered a call from father and son miners,
04:29Ryan and Nolan Merritt. What I do know about gold is it's in the ground, but I'm having a hard time
04:35getting it out. If we can't make something happen this year, then it's probably be the last season we
04:40mine. To identify Ryan's problem, Freddie and Juan test the pay from the cut. Oh God,
04:48Juan's got a gold pan in his hand. That makes me nervous. Let's see what you get in this pan.
04:53Not a speck. Nothing. This creek's completely mined out. This is all tailings. Every bit of it's
04:59tailings. Tailings are waste rocks previously mined. I always wanted to buy a mine and ended up up here
05:06with the realtor and they said, this is for sale. And there's rumors that there's really good gold.
05:12So we jumped on it. Pretty consistent ground. Pretty consistent garbage. Well, I've seen claims
05:19for sale selling because of health reasons. Yeah. The lack of gold's got your blood pressure high
05:24probably is the health reason there. Well, you hope people have the best of intentions,
05:28but sometimes they're just trying to drop it on you and get their investment back. Yeah. And gold
05:31mining. There's been more scams than maybe any other industry. And we've seen them with our own eyes
05:37over the years. One big deal is you need to do some testing on your own. Let's say you want to buy
05:43this piece of property. The owner's got all this paperwork from years past. From the 1800s. Yeah.
05:50Don't trust what they've got wrote down unless you really know the people. Trust what your own eyes
05:54tell you as far as testing that ground. Get in there and do some sampling.
05:59I think you shut them down. Shut them down. And it's just burning fuel. I think the old timers
06:04hit it, hydraulicked it, and it was probably mined in the 1930s and then probably in the 80s.
06:11Only halfway through the test, Freddie and Juan called time on the run.
06:16Everything here is tailings, but not virgin. It's been run multiple times.
06:20This whole 13 acres, as far as placer goes. Dead. It's dead.
06:24In Ryan's defense, you know, unless you're really experienced at it, you've seen it a lot.
06:29Sometimes it's hard to differentiate what's tailings and what could actually be pay.
06:32And unfortunately, he thought it was pay.
06:34It was pay 100 years ago.
06:38Nolan!
06:39In a bid to give Nolan a master class in prospecting,
06:43Freddie takes him to the edge of the claim.
06:46You guys thought it was virgin ground.
06:47Up here, right.
06:48Right. So if it was virgin material, you'd have layers of material, right, that have rhyme and reason to them.
06:54And reading the vegetation.
06:56Yeah.
06:56There's more clues than that, too.
06:58How old the trees are.
07:00Yeah.
07:00That let you know when that hole was dug.
07:03Looking at the tree growth, everything we're walking on, everything you see here has been ran.
07:07Well, how can you tell by the tree growth that it's been mined?
07:10Because all the trees in the valley here, where the placer gold was, they're all younger trees.
07:16You know, 30, 40 years old.
07:17Right.
07:18You got old growth up on the hill where they didn't mine the gold, right?
07:21Right.
07:22It's always a fear for both of us, right?
07:24That whole area had been gutted out.
07:26There's still some good gold here.
07:28You just got to search for it.
07:30To keep the Merritt's gold mining dream alive, Freddie goes in search of mineable ground.
07:36The old-timers hit this.
07:39But coming up dead...
07:40You can see all the tailings here.
07:42Right.
07:43Freddie has a radical solution.
07:45How's it going?
07:46Good. How you doing?
07:47Doing all right?
07:47Jim, how you doing today?
07:49Jim, Jim.
07:50Downstream from the Merritt's claim, he finds a farmer who has some land he'd like to lease
07:55for a royalty.
07:57So how deep's the bedrock under here, Jim?
07:59It's about probably another four foot farther down.
08:03Okay.
08:03So most of this up here probably won't contain much gold.
08:08Now we get farther down, you see how we got tight material, right?
08:12Yeah, compact.
08:13So this is a whole different ballgame compared to what you got.
08:16This is all virgin.
08:17Yeah, after looking at this...
08:18Yeah, after looking at this...
08:19Completely different.
08:20Completely different.
08:21Yep.
08:21Mine's man-made, and I'm seeing it now.
08:24But if there's good gold here, it's a second chance.
08:28Proof's in the pan, right?
08:30You guys were able to go out and find a different piece of property that was a little bit better
08:33for him.
08:34That it was going to be profitable.
08:35It had gold left in it.
08:36Yeah.
08:37It hadn't been mined.
08:38Well, I've seen a piece of gold there.
08:40Look at that.
08:42And a couple of them are decent size, too.
08:44What's that mean, Freddy?
08:45That means f***ing mine it.
08:47All right.
08:48Live and learn, right?
08:49We got them at least headed in a direction where they have a chance to succeed now.
08:55Ryan and Nolan run a two-hour test with the new ground.
08:59Packed, packed, packed, packed.
09:02Nice.
09:02That's a nice lake.
09:04Really nice little flake.
09:04I think we found the silver lining, you know, at the end of the tunnel.
09:08In our case, the gold lining.
09:10You know, it just shows that the merits, they didn't have the experience that they needed
09:15to read the ground that they were on.
09:17Yeah.
09:18Well, the simplest way to not go broke, gold mining, is a gold pan and a lot of testing.
09:24Yeah.
09:25If you're going to mine, make sure you test, test, test, test.
09:28And keep track of that material so you know it's a ton or a yard.
09:32Where it came from and everything else.
09:34You want to flag it.
09:34You want to make sure that the ground's going to be able to sustain that operation.
09:37So do your own testing.
09:39Trust your own eyes.
09:40And don't dig where they tell you to dig.
09:42Been there, done done.
09:43Yeah, been there.
09:44We both have.
09:46Oh, yeah.
09:46We'll dig right there.
09:48Coming up.
09:49you.
09:50you.
09:51He didn't want his son to mess up.
09:53How many times have I ran all the way from the conduct?
09:56You've got to give him enough rope to be able to go out and try things himself.
09:59Back to the fork.
10:00Back to the fork.
10:00He may hang himself, but you've got to give him the rope.
10:03For you.
10:03Smart dog.
10:15With mining season ramping up.
10:17He's a good dog.
10:18He's only 10 months old.
10:20Freddy and Juan reveal the traps of the trade and how to avoid them with some extra encouragement
10:26from Doc the dog.
10:29Pretty amazing.
10:29Just the other day it was snowing.
10:30Now look at the weather.
10:31Yeah.
10:31It's just beautiful weather.
10:32It is.
10:33And it's supposed to maybe snow tonight and tomorrow night.
10:35Really?
10:35Yeah.
10:36It's just like mining.
10:36You don't know what the weather's going to be.
10:38No.
10:38It changes on us all the time.
10:39Yep.
10:40Fetch it up.
10:44Gold defines where you're going to mine.
10:46The weather's going to have a large input on that.
10:50Some of the best gold deposits left on the planet are in the most inhospitable places.
10:59We've got an awful lot of rain that's coming down with this storm.
11:03Tricky access.
11:04Come on.
11:05Extreme temperatures or unpredictable weather.
11:09I'd rather be snowing than raining.
11:11This is one of the wettest springs that I ever remember and we're already a month behind
11:15schedule in mining.
11:16To know the impact the environment has on the mining season.
11:20The weather sucks.
11:21It's hard to weld in the rain.
11:22Or its destructive power over a claim.
11:25We need to go.
11:26We need to go.
11:26Is everyday life for a miner.
11:30You all right, man?
11:31Yeah, I'm not feeling real good.
11:32I'm dizzy and I have a bad headache.
11:34That's the first sign of a huge exhaustion out here, man.
11:40It's f***ing hot.
11:42You know, some of the pitfalls that you can't navigate, Fred, are one of them being weather.
11:46Oof.
11:47Planning your operation.
11:48It's going to have a large input on your mining season.
11:50You know, we've seen it in Arizona where, you know, you have to truck water in.
11:54It gets too hot, you evaporate all your water.
11:56Yep.
11:56Or if in July, it's way too damn hot to run, maybe you wait for the months where it's
12:01a little cooler.
12:01And in colder climates with plaster mining, 99% of everything you do is with water.
12:06Yeah.
12:06So when it starts going below freezing, you know, 1st of October.
12:10You're done.
12:11Yep.
12:11Then maybe you've got to figure out what your season looks like.
12:14Maybe try to plan your season accordingly.
12:16One that really stands out that we had an issue with the weather was the nightbergs.
12:20Yeah.
12:20Healy, Alaska.
12:21Yeah.
12:21Man, that mountain beat us.
12:23It did.
12:23Three years ago, three generations of Nybergs were battling the thawed-out mountains of
12:30Denali, central Alaska in the hopes of a huge payday.
12:35Guys, what's going on?
12:36What's going on?
12:36Paul.
12:36Freddie.
12:37Paul.
12:38This is my dad, Beetle.
12:40The weather is our biggest time constraint.
12:42It's a battle against the clock in the elements.
12:44This remote area of Alaska is frozen solid for six months.
12:49As it thaws, the family strip topsoil, known as overburden, to reach a pay layer below.
12:57The overburden's either frozen or mud.
13:00It takes so long to strip it.
13:02The season usually ends up being weeks long.
13:04Well, in the Nyberg situation, their pay was extremely sloppy, Freddie.
13:07Oh, the sloppiest I've ever seen.
13:09When you have mountains, you have difficult weather, you know, it makes it harder to mine.
13:15I want to go up on the hill and see into that hopper a little bit.
13:19You almost always never want to run wet pay.
13:22Well, you know, every time you grab a bucket full, you're agitating that material, and that
13:26gold is sinking further and further down.
13:27When you're digging it, too, gold's falling out because gold's heavy, right?
13:30Gold always wants to try to get back to the center of the earth.
13:33It thinks that's its home.
13:34Freddie and Juan are no strangers to wet pay.
13:39Sounds like a little thing.
13:41So your dirt's got water in it.
13:43Well, it's a huge thing.
13:45They solved this problem in British Columbia by letting it dry in the sun.
13:49Sometimes it's the little things.
13:51If we can keep the material dry, it's going to make a huge difference here.
13:54Or drying damp pay in Arizona with a heated trommel.
13:59Holy crap, that's hot.
14:01Frickin' hot, boy.
14:04But a fix like that would be in vain in Alaska's unpredictable climate.
14:10You want to pile it up, let it dry if it's wet, right?
14:13But in that situation, there was no choice.
14:15They had to run it that way.
14:18They're getting all that material brought down here, and they're losing good pay material
14:21off the side of that hopper.
14:23Sure slopping a lot of material on the ground, like feeding a milkshake.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Poor PJ's in there, you know, in six foot of muck, putting in the hopper.
14:32And the hopper was just way too tiny for what they were doing.
14:35They weren't lying about this weather changing quick.
14:37Man.
14:39Hey, PJ!
14:41Last bucket!
14:44Talk about a mud hole, huh?
14:46Yeah.
14:46Holy cow.
14:47In the boggy pay dirt, the Nybergs run 65 yards an hour less than they need to turn a profit.
14:55The environment they were working in was extreme.
14:58Between the storms that were coming in to the hard access, it was really a tough situation.
15:03Well, let's see your gold.
15:05Here we go.
15:06Exactly a half an ounce, 0.50.
15:12I think we need a lot more than that.
15:14There's room for improvement, I'm sure.
15:16As far as the repairs of the plant, we want to redo that hopper, put some real grizzlies
15:20on it, make it a little wider and a little longer.
15:22We're going to be a little limited on the time it takes us to get in here.
15:25And if it keeps raining like this, we've got a problem.
15:30Winter's coming, you know.
15:31We've got a lot of dirt to move in a short amount of time, and hopefully they can help
15:35us get it through with better recovery.
15:37To increase the yardage of the sloppy pay to the plant, a new four-foot steel hopper will
15:43need to be fabricated.
15:48We can go ahead and start cutting.
15:50But with the plasma cutting trailer unable to ascend the mountain, Juan and PJ will build
15:55the bigger hopper in the boneyard below.
16:01Day three of the build, and in true Alaskan style, the weather goes from bad to worse.
16:12We got snow today.
16:14Just going to add that much more work to everything we already got going on.
16:18It was a snowstorm in the middle of the summer that popped up.
16:21Snow and rain.
16:22Yeah, snow and rain, and it just totally screwed up our passage to the mine site, and there
16:26was no way we could get our trucks in there.
16:28But the bad weather conditions cause more problems than just soggy pay.
16:35We're not crossing the creek, we're driving in the creek.
16:41Whoa!
16:42Whoa!
16:44Got a little sideways?
16:45Yeah.
16:46That's a horrible road.
16:47It is wet, yeah.
16:50If Mother Nature says, hey, I'm going to dump snow on you tomorrow, we can't control that.
16:53Just got to live with it.
16:54Mountain road scaled.
16:57Made it.
16:58Freddy and Juan set to work installing the bigger hopper to process the sloppy pay.
17:03Am I good over there, Juan?
17:05Hoping to increase production by 100%.
17:09Just keep our fingers crossed that there's lots of gold in this next four-hour run.
17:14First bucket, Freddy.
17:14I love this new hopper that Juan built me.
17:18It's catching all the big rocks that aren't supposed to go through there, and I'm not spilling any.
17:22He's got such a big area now, he's getting every bit in the hopper.
17:25That's a lot more efficient, so it might just get to win.
17:29Hey, PJ!
17:30How many buckets?
17:31125 buckets in 45 minutes.
17:34106 yards an hour.
17:37That's awesome.
17:37It was a really tough situation, but considering all, I'm really happy with what we were able to do.
17:42You know, and from what I remember, it was a pretty decent increase.
17:45How's it look?
17:46Looks better.
17:47Well, let's weigh it up.
17:48It's a half ounce last time.
17:51There you go.
17:521.07.
17:54Over a 100% increase on the first test, worth roughly $1,800.
18:01That's great.
18:02That's great.
18:02There wasn't much we could do to their pay.
18:04I think a lot of it had to do with now we were able to put that much more material through the planet.
18:08That's exactly right.
18:09You know, I can see how you guys have a really short season out here, so now it's not time to play around.
18:14It's game time.
18:14Oh, yeah.
18:15We've got to watch as much as we can, as fast as we can.
18:18If you're looking at a mine site, you know, obviously you're going to want to try to find something with the best weather,
18:22but you can't let that be your business plan because you need to go where the gold is.
18:26Whether it's hot, whether it's cold, gold defines on where you're going to mine for gold.
18:40Well, I want to show you something pretty cool.
18:42Want a hunting blind?
18:44Yeah.
18:44On a scissor assembly.
18:50Perfect.
18:51That thing is awesome, Fred.
18:52It's one of a kind.
18:56Very cool.
18:57Instead of taking days to set up a blind, it takes you minutes.
19:00This is a perfect example of efficiency, Freddy.
19:02Even in hunting or in mining, try to keep it simple, try to keep it efficient.
19:06Yeah.
19:07Unfortunately, we've been around wash plants over the years that really weren't planned very well.
19:11Mm-hmm.
19:11From the spring decks and trummels.
19:19My electric motor's kind of worn out.
19:22To bulls and the sluice.
19:24These are worthless ripples.
19:26The equipment miners use.
19:28The spray bar broke off 11 seconds in.
19:31And how they use it.
19:33All right, Miss Kitty.
19:34Forward, ho.
19:37To make or break an operation.
19:39Don't start the conveyor.
19:40It's bound up.
19:41An easy pitfall to fall into, Freddy, is buying too much equipment.
19:49Overthinking a plant.
19:51And we've seen that.
19:52A lot of times.
19:53If you see a plant that has sluices, then jigs, and then spirals, and then this and that and the other,
19:59usually it wasn't because they were losing that much gold, but they think they are.
20:04Yeah.
20:05But sometimes simplicity is actually the key.
20:08Remember in California?
20:09The Gretzners.
20:10That hard rock mine.
20:11They fall into that pitfall of plan your plant.
20:14Yep.
20:14Two years ago, Freddy and Juan ventured to the Mojave Desert, California,
20:20in a bid to rescue a failing hard rock mining operation.
20:24When it comes to liberating gold from hard rock, do you have to be crazy enough to go and get it?
20:28Yes.
20:29You guys want to fire up your mill?
20:31Let's do it.
20:32Let's do it.
20:32Chad and Dad Greg, along with a crew of part-time weekend warriors,
20:37operate a huge mill which frees gold trapped in rock by crushing to a powder.
20:43We'll remember when we first showed up at the Gretzners.
20:46I'm like, holy cow.
20:47You know, just the amount of labor that's going into it.
20:50I hate those chain falls.
20:53Those are painfully slow.
20:54Four and a half minutes to pick the first bag up and dump it in the hopper.
20:58Right now, it's not really efficient.
21:00It takes four guys to load the plant.
21:02When you set up a plant like that, every time you got to touch it, it costs you money.
21:05Yeah.
21:06You know, so they were having to manually lift up those bags with a chain hoist, which took time.
21:10You just have to feed it by hand with a shovel up there.
21:15There's a lot of waste of time right there, Freddy.
21:17A lot of waste of time.
21:18Then it gets into the hopper.
21:20The hopper should be able to feed by itself.
21:22That's the whole point of having a hopper.
21:23It didn't.
21:26Is that on?
21:28It does nothing.
21:30We've got a bunch of issues going on here.
21:33It was a little overwhelming, honestly, just because they didn't plant their plant.
21:36That screen right there, we need to do something better about that.
21:39The vibrating screen that sorts the rot lacks enough power.
21:43I know he's down there with a hammer.
21:45So Chad's crew must do it by hand.
21:48You could hire a trained monkey to do that one, though.
21:50Essentially, it's become a manual screen, even though he has a vibrator on it.
21:54They got time killers all down the line.
21:56Unfortunately, every step of their process had a bottleneck.
21:59It's a bottleneck.
22:00It was.
22:00They should have called that the bottleneck plant.
22:04Let's weigh it up.
22:05Yeah.
22:07All right.
22:08Here we go.
22:09Chad and his team need to make $700 a day to break even.
22:150.03.
22:160.03, yep.
22:18Nine-tenths of a gram.
22:20Almost a gram.
22:21Almost a gram from one ton of ore.
22:24That's a tremendous amount of work for that small of a payday.
22:28Yeah.
22:30They were working their butts off, but work smarter, not harder sometimes.
22:35It needs to be all the time.
22:36Freddie and Juan, with the crew's help, set to work to make the plant less labor-intensive
22:42and more efficient.
22:44I'm just setting up this new hoist, electric hoist.
22:48It's a hell of a lot easier than pulling on that chain.
22:51We were able to put airbags under their hopper to be able to get that material to feed properly.
22:56These are just really simple.
22:57They're actually an automotive airbag, and they work good.
23:00Well, awesome.
23:01Very, very cool.
23:02It'll work.
23:03Before, they had a little tiny vibrator on the back here that wasn't doing anything,
23:06but we're actually doing an eccentric.
23:08By spinning heavy weights on a bar below the hopper,
23:12the eccentric vibrator will pulsate a steady supply of rocks into the jaw crusher.
23:17It took five guys to feed this, so what we're trying to do is trying to eliminate all that extra labor to make it one smooth transition
23:24where it feeds itself into the jaw, and you catch it on the other side.
23:27That screen that you built on top of that conveyor dropping into the second feeder,
23:34you were able to build that to be able to get it back into a wheelbarrow so they could rerun it.
23:39Before, oversized rock collected under the hopper and had to be removed by hand.
23:45Now, Freddy's new screen will divert oversized rock down a chute ready to be rerun through the crusher.
23:52It's getting the rocks screened out where all the material going into the surge hopper is the size it needs to be,
23:58and it allows them to re-crush that material on the same circuit with the same ore
24:02so they aren't watering down another batch of material.
24:06It ought to work, huh?
24:07Really, there was a lot of fixes we did there, and every one of them sped up their process.
24:12Every fix we did made a difference there.
24:16I'll set a timer.
24:17Yeah.
24:18The fix is complete, but Gretzner crew run another two-hour test.
24:24First bag!
24:30Freddy, it's working good.
24:32I don't have to break anymore.
24:34But the real measure of their fixes is the second gold way.
24:39You're a mine. You do the honors.
24:41To make the mine viable, Chad must produce at least a quarter of an ounce of gold.
24:46Point two-six.
24:48Point two-six.
24:49Woo-hoo!
24:50Just over a quarter of an ounce.
24:52That's awesome.
24:53So it's dang near ten times the amount of gold in that pan with a lot less work.
24:58Whether it's placer or hard rock, really it boils down to you've got to have the right equipment.
25:04You've got to plan your plant.
25:05Yep.
25:05Just like any other thing, you've got to have the right tool for the job.
25:09Yep.
25:09You know, I've worked underground, not as much as you, but I think I'll stick with the placer gold one.
25:14Yeah.
25:15Yeah.
25:15Yeah.
25:16Boom out.
25:29Boom out.
25:30Boom out and boom down.
25:32Okay, coming straight down, Juan.
25:34At his home in Colorado.
25:37Coming down.
25:38Freddy and Juan reflect on the mining traps of the trade and how to avoid them.
25:43Perfect.
25:44It's all yours, buddy.
25:47Thank you, Juan.
25:48No problem.
25:49You guys want to bolter in and we'll finish it up and get on the road with it.
25:55Well, you know, something as simple as this.
25:57With the wrong crew would have been a nightmare, Freddy.
25:59It takes a team to do things.
26:01It takes the right team, like Mitch and Cameron.
26:04You can jump in there and do anything we just did.
26:06Yep.
26:06You know, the right crew of guys.
26:13How's it going, Tate?
26:15Terrible.
26:15In mining, you need more than rich ground and sturdy equipment.
26:20I'm not a psychiatrist, just so you know.
26:23I don't expect you to be, but if you could do some work between me and my brother, it would
26:27be great.
26:27That's only half the battle.
26:29Stress levels are high.
26:30I mean, I know them.
26:31I raised them, right?
26:33True success comes with picking the right crew.
26:36Somehow, I got to get my bucket in that feeder.
26:39I am a bit nervous about that.
26:42Who have the right skills.
26:44The guys are behind on their wages, so they're going to be wanting some cash soon.
26:49They're going to be screaming, yep.
26:49For the job.
26:51I feel like I'm obligated to have to come out here.
26:57If you're going to run a successful mining operation, you've got to choose your crew properly.
27:02If you don't have a welder and a fabricator and a mechanic on site, you don't have a mine.
27:06Because really, that's what it boils down to.
27:08It's the right people for the job.
27:10Yeah, yeah.
27:11Me and you get along well, right?
27:13We work good together, but there's a lot of people that butt heads.
27:16And that can be a huge distraction on a mine.
27:20Remember the Morels?
27:22Oh, Greg.
27:22What a family affair that was, huh?
27:26Five years ago, Freddy and Juan head to the western slopes of Colorado to a struggling
27:32operation run by father and son, Greg and Trevor Morel.
27:37And I've always told my wife when I retire, I'm going to have a gold mine with the equipment.
27:43Gold will always be worth the money.
27:44So the main motivation is my family.
27:47The relationship between me and my dad is pretty good.
27:50When we're working together, that's when it gets hard.
27:53You can't tell him that he's wrong.
27:55So you just kind of sit back and let him go with it.
27:58Well, one of the biggest things, you know, is taking them around four days to clean up
28:03their gold after they ran the plant for one day.
28:05Yeah.
28:05Right?
28:06And if they do that every week, you know, basically they run two days a week.
28:09Yep.
28:09Would you run down in my trailer and grab a bunch of my gold pins?
28:13Okay.
28:14Thanks, Greg.
28:15Uh-huh.
28:15So we'll just take a break for a second.
28:17It's a lot easier using the snuffer bottle.
28:19You move all the black sands up.
28:21That's why I carry it with me right there.
28:23You didn't grab a bunch of them?
28:25Oh, you said give me a gold pin.
28:27I thought you were...
28:27No, some gold pins.
28:28Some gold pins.
28:29A bunch of gold pins.
28:30Your turn.
28:31I've missed enough of this.
28:33I am the mine owner.
28:34I need to know.
28:34No, we stopped.
28:35We didn't do anything.
28:36Yeah, we stopped.
28:36This is a break.
28:37Why'd you always go down there for one?
28:41You'd chew my ass for that.
28:43The tension between those two, it was stiff while we were there, boy.
28:47That was a tough situation.
28:48You know, me personally, I don't necessarily mind having family work with us.
28:52If they got a good attitude and willing to learn and a good work ethic.
28:55Yep.
28:56I don't pick sides, but, you know, they both have faults.
29:00Never seen that technique of you.
29:02I like that.
29:02The same way that I do it, you keep telling me that I'm losing gold that way.
29:05Pull.
29:08Okay.
29:12Hold it just a second.
29:13Don't you forget who owns this mine, who invested every penny in this mine.
29:17You are a hired hand at this point.
29:19I should be learning it from him.
29:21You may want to learn what Freddy has to teach.
29:23I have to if this is going to survive.
29:26Don't overstep your position, son.
29:28I don't know what's going on between them personally.
29:30I'm hoping they can work past it.
29:32The biggest logistical challenge to this is putting up with my dad.
29:37I am in charge here.
29:38It's my money.
29:39It's my investment.
29:40He can have his way when the day comes.
29:42Right now, I'm just concentrating on getting this thing going so there will be a someday for him.
29:47I understand where Greg was coming from.
29:50He didn't want his son to mess up.
29:51Yeah.
29:51And I get that.
29:52But you got to give him enough rope to be able to go out and try things themselves.
29:56He may hang himself, but you got to give him the rope.
30:00So what's the biggest problem you have with your dad?
30:02His lack of trust in me.
30:04I think my dad has a little bit of that, too.
30:05You know, in his eyes, I'm still his little boy, and he's the one that taught me everything.
30:09That's exactly right.
30:10And if he didn't teach it to you, you don't know what the hell you're doing.
30:13Yeah.
30:14My dad and I get along great, as long as we're not working together.
30:17Exactly.
30:17It's the same with my dad.
30:19Just don't give up, man.
30:20You guys have a great thing going here.
30:21Greg really needed to kind of let go of the reins.
30:23Trevor might screw up.
30:24He's probably going to screw up.
30:26Every one of us, you know, has failed, you know, multiple times.
30:30And it'll happen again.
30:30Yeah, but that's all the part of the learning curve.
30:35But sometimes, if personalities clash, it runs the risk of ending in disaster.
30:41I know that the sound is you.
30:45How many times have I ran all the away from the conduct and then backed the up?
30:51How many times have I done that?
30:54Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
30:58For you.
30:59They're just not meant to be together working.
31:02When they're not working together, the family and life will probably be good.
31:05Yeah.
31:06Or better anyway.
31:07Yeah, hopefully.
31:08Intervention needed.
31:10Freddie and Juan clean house.
31:12What happened yesterday, it's not good.
31:15But we want to make sure you guys are okay.
31:17Is there anything we can do to help you guys out?
31:20Throw a rock at me once in a while.
31:22Just do a full time out.
31:24Figure out what the main issue is.
31:26And I'm no therapist, and that's all I'm going to say about it.
31:29I'm done.
31:33Good morning.
31:34Good morning.
31:36How you doing?
31:37Good.
31:38Do me a favor.
31:39Since you already know how to do all this, stand back and just let me do all this stuff.
31:43You're going to have the freedom to learn.
31:44It's not in my nature to just give someone free reign, but I need to just quit micromanaging,
31:51and I'll intervene when he needs help.
31:54Feud resolved.
31:55Greg and Trevor get to work helping Freddie and Juan complete the fixes on their plant.
32:00How's the welds look, Greg?
32:02Looks good to me.
32:08After an overhaul on the wash plant...
32:10Here we go!
32:12...Freddie and Juan run a second four-hour test.
32:17There's a lot of repairs there.
32:18Yeah, that's something to be proud of.
32:21Well, dump her in there, Juan.
32:23Freddie and Juan's fixes increased the Murils' gold haul by over 60%.
32:28I'm very happy with that.
32:33You know, if they could just get along, it'd be better.
32:35You know, having family work for you, it can be a good thing, because you know them, but it can also be...
32:41It'd be a bad thing, too.
32:42A bad thing, like if you have to let somebody go or...
32:45Makes it really awkward for Thanksgiving dinner, huh?
32:48Yeah.
32:48Sorry, Grandpa!
32:55Coming up.
32:56Where is gold and not bucket?
32:58Freddie and Juan revealed the biggest trap of the trade rookie miners can face.
33:04There was a rumor to be a 36-ounce nugget found up here back in the day.
33:07What is the chances that that was the only one?
33:13Holy cow, Fred, I can see your new head frame from here.
33:16It's massive.
33:17If you look on the corners, the corner gussets are my dad's old brand.
33:20That's pretty neat.
33:22What size pipe is that?
33:23It's 36-inch.
33:24Yeah, that'd do me, huh?
33:25Yeah.
33:25I got a little bit of entrance envy now.
33:28Entrance envy?
33:29Yeah.
33:30It's not really a ranch, but I grew up on the Dodge Ranch.
33:32I don't have enough acreage to be a ranch.
33:35Neither do I.
33:36We call it the IFR Ranch, but it's not.
33:38Yeah.
33:38I got wild kids and chickens.
33:39That's what we got.
33:40That's right.
33:41Yeah.
33:49Well, Juan-o, that's where the magic happens.
33:52In Colorado.
33:54Get those fines, Fred.
33:55At Freddy's mining operation, Freddy and Juan reflect on the traps of the trade from miners
34:01and how to avoid them.
34:03Looks pretty good, Topher.
34:05Yeah, very good.
34:06Beautiful yellow gold.
34:08The stuff dreams are made of.
34:09Or nightmares.
34:11That little gold adds up, though.
34:13Can't sacrifice that to go after big gold.
34:15No.
34:16People get so focused on nuggets, and that's all they think about.
34:18We've seen that before.
34:20Yeah.
34:20Yeah.
34:20Come on, big gold.
34:28For gold miners, a nugget can give them the fever.
34:31The nugget factor up here is the real deal.
34:34Look at that.
34:35There's a $3,000 nugget right there.
34:38Easy.
34:39But if you forget to mine the fines...
34:42I got a color red nugget over here.
34:44Right there.
34:45A few million more of those, and we're in good shape.
34:47You can end up in trouble.
34:49Are you sure you don't have gold fever?
34:51Your eyes haven't lost those nuggets.
34:54Generally speaking, gold fever's a real thing,
34:57but I think it gets even worse when people get...
34:59With nuggets.
34:59Yeah.
34:59You know, over the years, we've seen several different people
35:02that have that same situation going on.
35:04A few.
35:04Yeah.
35:05They focus entirely on the nuggets,
35:07and then they sacrifice the fine gold.
35:08Yep.
35:10Five years ago, Freddie and Juan traveled deep
35:13into the Kootenay Rockies in British Columbia
35:16to the Nip and Tuck claim.
35:19Owned by reclusive miner Stephen Latham.
35:22I know there's big, big, big gold in here.
35:24I know it.
35:26Stephen Latham was a funny guy.
35:27He was a character.
35:28He is a character, all right?
35:29When we drove up to Steve's place,
35:31we could see from a mile away the size of, you know,
35:34the holes on the side of the trommel.
35:35You're being literal there.
35:36Yeah, from a mile away.
35:38From a mile away, you could see the holes.
35:40I'm looking at two-and-a-half-inch holes in your trommel over there.
35:42Yeah, and I am glad that they are that big
35:44because there was a rumor to be a 36-ounce nugget found up here back in the day.
35:48What is the chances that that was the only one?
35:51I think slim.
35:53He based his entire mining plan on that story.
35:56That's right.
35:58First bucket, Juan.
35:59To assess the operation,
36:02Freddie and Juan watch a four-hour test run.
36:05Swear there's gold in that bucket.
36:08This guy's definitely got gold fever.
36:10Swear there's gold in this bucket.
36:14Look how dirty those rocks are.
36:15I bet you were losing 15, 20% of the fines out of the end of that.
36:19He was hoping to hit the jackpot with one piece of gold.
36:22Done. Retired, boys.
36:24I'm going to buy Bezos out.
36:26Yeah, 35 ounces.
36:29I hit it, Ridge, boys.
36:30No, not quite.
36:31It costs you triple to make that.
36:33Every bit of that should have gone right through that trommel.
36:35Yep.
36:36That should have been smooth.
36:37Yep.
36:39There's one, two, three, four pieces there.
36:41That's not good, Freddie.
36:42That wasn't even a full pan.
36:43No, it wasn't.
36:44He's throwing a lot of gold out at the end of that trommel.
36:47You got a piece of gold that you can barely see
36:49trying to compete against a two-inch rock.
36:51Who's going to win?
36:52Yeah.
36:52The rock's going to win every time.
36:55Test run complete.
36:57Steven begins to clean the box.
37:00I was hoping to see a couple 30-ouncers in there.
37:02Oh, you and me both.
37:03That's a little cutie.
37:04It's not the 30-ouncer I wanted to see.
37:07I guess if we're to learn from that,
37:09don't base your mining plan solely on nuggets.
37:11Might as well get the small gold out, too.
37:13Yep, exactly right.
37:14Get it all.
37:15You totally get why you want a screen so big, you know,
37:18the chance of being able to catch that bigger nugget,
37:20but we're really worried that you're losing a lot of that finer gold.
37:23To modify Steven's plan to capture fine gold as well as nuggets,
37:28Freddie gets to work on a secondary circuit.
37:31We're going to try to get that smaller material going down this sluice box
37:34instead of trying to compete with those monster boulders
37:37that are going down the other sluice box.
37:39Meanwhile, Juan's priority is to adapt the trommel.
37:43We're going to cut a series of slots here,
37:46and what those slots are going to do is going to allow that fine material
37:48to drop through the trommel into the new sluice.
37:51We didn't want to take away his dream of catching that big nugget.
37:54But he's also catching his fine gold now.
37:57Time to put our money where our mouth is.
37:59Don't want to?
37:59That's it.
38:00The fix is complete.
38:02Steven with friend James run a second test.
38:05Eat the beast, Steve.
38:07First scoop in the new system.
38:15You can see it, Freddie.
38:16Look at the difference.
38:18No water coming out the end.
38:20That's pretty awesome.
38:21I'm happy with that.
38:23If there is fine gold,
38:25it should be dropping through one slits
38:28and catching in the new sluice.
38:30Bigger nuggets can still come through the two-inch punch plate
38:33and collect in Steve's old sluice.
38:36Those sluices are both running extremely well.
38:39And we've got those slit cuts for the finer gold and the smaller pieces.
38:42Now they don't have to compete with those big-ass rocks going down that other sluice box.
38:46I know we've improved this gold recovery.
38:48How much, I don't know.
38:49Check that out, Freddie.
38:51It's a lot cleaner.
38:53I mean a lot cleaner.
38:54I'm happy with that.
38:56One's baffles have slowed the water enough to clean the gold off the rocks.
39:02Freddie, look at that.
39:04None of these are smaller than two inches.
39:06Yep.
39:07So everything two-inch and smaller is making it to the sluice run.
39:10I'm happy with that.
39:11Nice.
39:11I'm happy with that.
39:13It's awesome.
39:14After four hours...
39:15Hey, Steve!
39:17Last bucket!
39:18Last one!
39:19They call time on the final run.
39:30Hey, Steve!
39:31Hey!
39:32So what do you think?
39:33See anything in there?
39:34This box is running awesome.
39:35Yeah, oh, look at all...
39:36Oh, yeah.
39:37Those riffles are doing exactly what they're supposed to.
39:39Yeah.
39:40They're running good.
39:40Beautiful!
39:40You know that if there's any great big nuggets, they're going to fall right in off the...
39:44Probably be in the top mat there.
39:45Now you actually have the chance of catching that 35-ounce nugget you've been bragging about.
39:49Dude, I don't know what to say, guys.
39:51It looks good.
39:52I'm happy about it.
39:53I think at the end, he was kind of impressed with how much that small sluice picked up
39:56because it actually recovered quite a bit.
39:58More than he was expecting, for sure.
40:01Anything over 0.15 ounces will be a success.
40:06Look at that.
40:070.22.
40:080.22.
40:09Nice!
40:10That's awesome.
40:10Proud of that, bud.
40:11Yeah, me too.
40:11Wow, I cannot believe that, guys.
40:14And look at all the fine gold in there, too.
40:17Damn!
40:17A massive increase of 70%.
40:20I knew I was losing gold, but I never knew it was that much.
40:24Gold's at a high.
40:25More than ever, it's important for everyone that is mining to focus on all gold,
40:29whether it's nuggets or fine gold.
40:31Don't sacrifice that fine gold.
40:33Catch all.
40:33Make sure you catch it all.
40:34You know, to sum it all up for new miners out there,
40:36to me, the number one thing they need to do is do their homework.
40:40Yep.
40:40Do their homework on the ground before you throw all your money at it.
40:44Agreed.
40:45For years, I didn't really like putting out my, you know, secrets or tricks.
40:50Yeah.
40:51But, you know, the older you get, that's what you do is you pass on...
40:55Knowledge.
40:56Knowledge from one generation to the next, right?
40:58So...
40:59So it's not lost.
41:00I feel the same way, you know.
41:01I've, throughout the years with my business and everything else I've done,
41:05I've gotten a lot of help.
41:06So it really does feel like it's a chance for us to give back
41:10and help people avoid the pitfalls that we've encountered.
41:13I think it's our responsibility to do that.
41:16It's a lot easier to learn off other people's mistakes.
41:20That's for sure.
41:21Well, Freddie, gold's through the roof right now and there's a fortune to be made.
41:23So let's go help some miners.
41:25Let's do it, buddy.
41:25All right.
41:25All right.
41:26All right.
41:26All right.
41:26All right.
41:26All right.
41:26All right.
41:28All right.
41:30All right.
41:31All right.
41:32All right.
41:33All right.
41:34All right.
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