Gold Rush Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan Season 5 Episode 1

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Gold Rush Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan Season 5 Episode 1   #GoldRush  #PrimeUSTV   🎞 Please join  https://t.me/CinemaSeriesUSFilm

Transcript

00:00:00a lot of people have done this and a lot of people have lost everything and I

00:00:06definitely don't want to be one of those people this is the make or break year for us

00:00:13it's difficult because of how steep it is up here on the mountain we're just not able to

00:00:21remove a lot of material so much deeper than it looks the amount of gold that we typically get

00:00:28it just isn't cutting it we know it's in there I have got every dollar invested in this and it's

00:00:36not sustainable without that volume increase I'm gonna have to just call it quits that's a scary

00:00:42thought Freddie and Juan I desperately need your help on this Freddie Dodge I'd rather have gold in

00:00:53bank than gold in the mountain and Juan Ibarra not bad for built in the field want to make you rich

00:00:59it turns your dream out here into a reality in the past five years the value of gold has doubled

00:01:08there's a $3,000 nugget right there but rookie miners find it more elusive than ever if we

00:01:16don't recover more gold and we could lose everything but there is hope miracles they

00:01:22do happen to turn desperation into fortune Freddie and Juan have one week what you just did this

00:01:30genius to deliver a golden payday they have a future and they know what they need to do

00:01:35we've been on some pretty terrible roads over the years but this is pretty bad more of a fuel

00:01:50trail than a mining road one we felt miners recover gold lots of states but this is our first time in

00:01:57Washington model in mine rescues first ever visit to Washington State Freddie and Juan are en route to

00:02:06the butt tree mine owned by Levi butt tree the five acre hard rock claim is set up over three different

00:02:13levels on a steep 50 degree mountain slope patented by President Roosevelt in 1904 the claim sits in the

00:02:25heart of Shulon County mining hopefuls first flocked here in 1860 when placer in the creeks played out

00:02:34prospectors found gold rich veins in the mountains and hard rock mining in the county began miners who

00:02:41held and worked these claims for five years could file for a patent if granted by the government the

00:02:48miner then owned the land and minerals underneath with the title signed by the president of the time

00:02:55nothing about this mountain is friendly no it's steep boy it's a steep son of a gun what do we know

00:03:02about Levi he's got his best friend out here with him so hopefully there's enough gold because lack of gold can

00:03:08end friendships looks like we're here at his plant long ways up here your ears popping yeah

00:03:17Levi I assume Freddie good morning how are you doing story it's my partner yeah nice to meet you

00:03:26Corey Juan pleasure to meet you likewise we're definitely gonna be limited on what we can do

00:03:30just because we can't get our trucks exactly so how long have you guys been mining out here this

00:03:34will be my fourth year I'm owning the property and last summer was the first time we actually had an

00:03:40operation set up it started with a gold pan when I first saw that flake of gold in that pan I knew

00:03:50that my life was going to change and knowing that this piece of property had not been mined yet and

00:03:56there's been eight hundred and fifty one thousand ounces taken off this mountain I just knew that this

00:04:01was the property that I needed to buy Levi bought the property after hearing stories of a legendary vein on the

00:04:09mountain missed by the old timers they knew if they cross cut into the hillside eventually they

00:04:14were gonna hit the vein but they went in about 150 feet didn't find it and for whatever reasons they

00:04:20gave up and I just knew that if you worked hard you were gonna find it I came up here and discovered

00:04:27they missed it by 30 feet I'm sure we've all seen the old videos of the old gold jig that's exactly

00:04:33what I was doing when I found it but part-time firefighter Levi has found man versus mountain

00:04:40a struggle hard rock mining is much tougher everything is intensive manual labor a lot of

00:04:47blood and sweat our biggest hold up right now is moving material up and down the mountain because of

00:04:54the steepness and the terrain Levi's obsession with gold has cost him more than money I've lost friends and

00:05:02I've got a lot of family they don't even talk to me anymore you know you get a lot of naysayers but

00:05:06my mom she's kind of been my rock with this she could see it in me that I wanted to do this and this

00:05:12was going to be my future and she made sure you're not giving up catching Levi's gold bug best buddy and

00:05:20father of seven Cory quit a steady job to join Levi on his dream his gold fever is is contagious

00:05:28him and I work really really well together so it's easy to enjoy time with Levi even if it

00:05:33is hard work it's a lot of pressure being up here especially with my large family of seven kids that's a

00:05:41lot of bills to pay I can't imagine how stressful it can be having seven children and then give up

00:05:49what you do to make money to come up here to hope to make more money you know that's a lot more burden

00:05:56on my shoulders and telling him at the end that we can't do it anymore I don't want to do that to him

00:06:02so I want this to work out for him just as much as I want it to work out for me

00:06:06you got any gold yeah there's a gram of gold there maybe yeah super fine I started out using

00:06:15a sluice and I was losing gold in my tailings so I brought up a shaker table to try that out and

00:06:22that's what we're running it on now okay how much gold was you losing though with a sluice

00:06:27probably 30 percent okay yeah how much does it slow you down the way you're doing it now though

00:06:32slows us down considerably slow you down 300 pretty close yes because with the shaker table

00:06:39we can't run volume the position that you're in you need to run volume there has to be an

00:06:44acceptable loss but if you can run 300 faster but lose 20 30 you know and maybe we're ahead

00:06:50yeah exactly you know we're having to manhandle everything by moving by buckets and going down to

00:06:56our other process in there yet it's a long process exactly you know if we're only running

00:07:01a minimal amount a day then what are we doing yeah we're just peeing in the wind then exactly yeah

00:07:07what's it take for you to make money this year to make it viable we're going to need like three

00:07:12ounces a week to continue doing this seven thousand dollars a week what were you able to recover last

00:07:18year you know ounce and a half a month

00:07:21going from an ounce and a half in a month to hoping to get three ounces a week you know that's a big jump

00:07:28whether that can be done or not i don't know

00:07:31at the point you're at you know with that kind of money invested it's not good enough just to get

00:07:36your investment back you got to make more and be able to help help him out well if we keep yakking

00:07:41here we won't run a plant so what do you guys think let's fire it up let's get it fired up that sounds

00:07:46good

00:07:47come on fire up

00:07:52we do a two-hour test run yeah two hours will provide a baseline for the amount of gold the

00:08:02plant is recovering there it is a couple hour run and let freddie and one eyeball potential fixes

00:08:09you got your time started daughter okay time we're going millions of years ago the buttry mine

00:08:17mountain formed when thick volcanic magma slowly cooled deep underground pressurized boiling water

00:08:24from the earth's core distributes gold and other minerals in thin quartz veins which slowly crystallize

00:08:31into granite over time seismic activity brings this rock to the surface and the veins of gold rich

00:08:38quartz are exposed

00:08:39how's it going levi strenuous hard labor intensive but i don't mind keep pushing into it right here

00:08:50on the surface it's pretty soft but getting down deeper that quartz is getting harder looks like a

00:08:54pretty slow way to make a living with that cordless hammer and it's going to get harder yeah as it gets

00:09:00harder that little cordless hammer ain't going to do it for you no it's like bringing a spoon to a

00:09:05gunfight it's good to see gold in the ore right away you can actually see some of the gold in there

00:09:12some of that three million gold freddie little flake a little tiny flake right there there's one

00:09:17for sure right there

00:09:17we little guy but it's there yeah it's a good start well we'll see in a little bit all right sounds

00:09:25good they picked up a piece of my ore and was able to see visible gold in it so that's hard to do in

00:09:31itself with gold ore unless you're in some of the richest places in the world but that kind of got me

00:09:36perked up a little bit the gold bearing ore is carried along level three to a jaw crusher that

00:09:49was for making small rocks into smaller rocks the crushed ore is trucked down to the wash plant 200

00:09:58feet below every bit of material that they're going to run down below they have to load it up

00:10:03in a tote get it in the back of the pickup drive it down unload it unload it then shovel it into the

00:10:11top of that hammer mill now i see why he's only producing what he's producing you know i know it's

00:10:17really good ore coming out of there but you got to be able to get the gold out of it and get it in

00:10:21your pocket's a problem you know and it's a slow process very slow but i imagine the second part of

00:10:26this is even slower let's go have a look at it

00:10:29the wash plant on level two hey holler at me when you see it up here draws water from a creek another

00:10:43200 feet further down the mountain well he's actually going down there to start the pump huh

00:10:48freddy he's got quite a trek keep you in shape yeah but every minute he's doing that he's not making gold

00:10:55yeah

00:10:58the ore is hand fed into a hammer mill which crushes material even finer before running it across the

00:11:09shaker table right now with the feed rate the gold is so fine it's small but this is the only way i can

00:11:15run it get a good capture rate pretty excited to see what they think about this table cory and i put a

00:11:20lot of work into this whole station and we got a lot of pride into it so hopefully it'll tear it down

00:11:25too much

00:11:26can we adjust this table on the fly let's try something let's tip that down hard all right

00:11:35all right okay i can do that

00:11:36you lowering it or raising it because nothing's moved yet so it's not actually dropping the table

00:11:45down oh well that's no good so you can't adjust this table then for the most part

00:11:49so right now he's got that table set in one position he can't adjust it so if your material

00:11:59changes let's say you get more heavies you got to be able to adjust that the pitch to be able to cut

00:12:04to make that material move where you want it to move you have to take control of the material

00:12:08you make it go where you want it to go not where it wants to go like a bad dog yeah

00:12:14well let's call it there for over two hours right there all right

00:12:19they seem like great guys yeah levi's wound tighter in the spring that's an understatement

00:12:31they're motivated they are motivated you know and if you're going to be hard rock mining you got

00:12:34to be motivated my passion and my heart is in this and i've always told cory this there's something

00:12:41in my bones that has been screaming that i was meant for something and finding the vein that

00:12:46nobody's found till i got here i feel like this is it and so if it doesn't work out i just feel like

00:12:52it's going to crush me see a little bit of gold in there yeah i see some colors in there as well

00:12:59there's the odd piece up on top of there a lot of myself have a lot to think about i don't want

00:13:06yeah you guys want to get it cleaned up and we'll see you in the morning yeah it sounds like a plan

00:13:11so what are your thoughts on all that fred a lot of the mines we help we're going to say

00:13:19we go priority right this is the most important that's the second most this one they're all important

00:13:24every bit of it everything all the way down the line on this one's got to be reworked

00:13:29yeah yeah from the recovery side to the mining side and the transport

00:13:33i honestly i'm a little worried freddy that we don't have enough time to get it all done

00:13:37yeah i am as well oh man this is going to be a lot of work one

00:13:43good morning good morning gentlemen good morning guys how are you doing how are we looking

00:14:024 000 feet up the mountain it's the moment of truth oh there is gold in there i can see from

00:14:11here but man it's a little bit in there on one yeah there's a bit fred a couple bigger pieces but

00:14:17that's not enough to weigh though

00:14:19well the good news is there is gold in it you know we can see a few flakes so

00:14:25the bad news is you're just not getting enough material you know through the circuit

00:14:29the more material you get down to your plant get it washed and across that table the more you're

00:14:33going to be able to recover almost every single step of your process there's something we can do to

00:14:37help you guys kind of streamline it what freddy and i want to do is kind of go back and put our

00:14:41heads put our heads together and see what we can't come up with okay perfect all right take care guys

00:14:45well that wasn't a very impressive uh run couldn't even weigh the gold that's probably one of the

00:14:54worst that we've ever seen it probably is the worst but in levi's vein up there we know there's good

00:14:59gold in that vein because we looked at some of it he's getting gold out of a vein but the hard part

00:15:04is freddy in a two-hour run they were only able to run 150 pounds maybe not even that that's not

00:15:09going to work no in order for them to make this a feasible mine they have to get production up and

00:15:13right now it's not possible i think if levi and corey can run more material the sky's the limit for

00:15:24him freddy and juan have one week to turn around levi's operation eventually he's going to get into

00:15:32that harder rock in that vein right now he doesn't have equipment big enough to get that rock broken

00:15:37up without a license we should probably help him using the sierra blaster yeah it's actually a safe way

00:15:42where you don't need licensing to get some of that rock broke up well right now we're here yeah

00:15:47and here's the mountain going down and then his other pads down here so if we put a pipe down

00:15:53i like it that in itself is going to save a ton of time you know right now he's having to get it out

00:15:59of the vein get it over here to the crusher get it into a bucket take it down and then lift it on top

00:16:04of the hammer mill it's a long process that's going to save a ton of time it's going to allow him to

00:16:08be able to run a lot more material yeah pipe that material all the way down what do you think

00:16:14about eliminating the table let's put a sluice i agree and bring in some concentrating spirals

00:16:22might actually help him out we'll be able to recover it whatever gold gets past the sluice box

00:16:26the spirals are actually kind of cool fred yeah and it's something most people haven't even heard

00:16:30of actually by the time we do that and try to move material i mean we're limited on time well it's just

00:16:35two of us all of it's going to be a lot of work you know with the logistical nightmare of getting

00:16:38stuff up here what do you think about maybe bringing alex and travis in to help us out

00:16:42yeah alex is what six eight yeah so he can help us with that pipe yeah he can just hold it up

00:16:48and travis is very well versed with the blaster he can come out here and kind of show levi how to do

00:16:53it and then levi's got that knowledge for the exactly what do you think as far as material and cost

00:16:58six grand so i'm gonna say seven labor you know two ounces a piece i think that's fair freddie

00:17:05seven thousand dollars for material and uh four ounces for labor that'll work all right sounds

00:17:10good well it's gonna be a different one that's for sure one it is in one of their most ambitious

00:17:15fixes to date freddie and one will transform levi's mind with a high velocity electronic blasting

00:17:22system to break up gold bearing ore from his vein instead of driving material down a hazardous road

00:17:30a 180 foot long pipe means they can send it straight from the jaw crusher on level three

00:17:37to the mill on level two

00:17:39juan will build a bespoke sluice to catch the first of the free gold

00:17:46finally to increase production they will add a concentrating spiral to process any remaining

00:17:53material and separate leftover gold that escapes the sluice

00:17:57how's it going guys going how are you doing doing all right excellent we kind of came up with some

00:18:09ideas um we want to run them past you guys and see what you think gotcha we want to run a four inch

00:18:14pipe all the way from the top down here and we'll have it suspended that's going to streamline that

00:18:18whole process we're looking at the spiral concentrating spiral oh so put it in place

00:18:24put a sluice box in in place of the table and then out of the end goes into a catch bin pump that

00:18:30material up to the top of the spiral cut the heavies out of the spiral we know you ran a sluice box before

00:18:36you were getting a little bit of uh you know loss very over yeah and that's fine but if we can get

00:18:40your production up by two three four hundred percent exactly that that 10 15 percent loss

00:18:45really it's not a big deal when you're running that much more material and then on top of that

00:18:49you know you're going to get to a point where you're going to have a hard time with that vein

00:18:53with that little roto hammer so uh we got a guy back home that actually does a lot of blasting with

00:18:58us with that little blaster oh and we're going to get him up here and he's going to teach you guys

00:19:02how to use it properly that's awesome well what we came up with as far as costs go uh we're thinking

00:19:09it's going to be around 7 000 in materials for the labor we're thinking about four ounces at the

00:19:14end of the season you don't need to pay it now but at the end of the season that is not going to be

00:19:18an issue with the production goes up and we can get the gold we can make it work okay yeah yeah i

00:19:22think we can we have to yeah you like it then yes i absolutely love it well let's go start getting

00:19:29material huh yeah let's make phone calls sound great guys thank you all hey no problem thank you

00:19:33no problem talk to you guys in a bit all right sounds good

00:19:36kiss me

00:19:39the amount of work that they have to do it seems pretty big fingers crossed that with these ideas

00:19:51we can get them all completed and checked off and get a gold way at the end that we could actually weigh

00:19:56let's get a rough guess on how far it is down there first job measure how much pipe they'll need to

00:20:07carry ore from level three down to level two and freddy has some tech to help yeah if you can range down

00:20:14to that road fred will kind of give us an idea primarily used for hunting freddy's rangefinder scope

00:20:21uses a laser beam to measure distances accurately what are we to the road 33 yards to the center of

00:20:28the road 100 feet yeah what do you think another 50 60 yeah let's go 80 just to be sure yeah so we'll

00:20:36string a cable from up here get it down and then we'll actually start here and start sliding our pipe

00:20:41down then raise it yep i like it and pull it tight that'll work well i guess it's a better idea what's

00:20:47going on rangefinder beats the heck out of climbing down that cliff i didn't want to go down

00:20:51all right the tape measure

00:20:53unable to get his truck up to the claim juan sets up base at the foot of the mountain

00:21:02i'm here in uh leavenworth washington and calls local boneyards for a critical piece of kit we have

00:21:09a little bit of a project going on and i need some help okay here's the deal we're going to need

00:21:14some concentrating spirals okay so i'm really hoping that you guys have some there uh i'm not

00:21:19sure right now uh let me check with annie my mom okay can you come in tomorrow yeah okay i'll see

00:21:24you in the morning then thank you okay bye

00:21:26hello as freddy and one begin the last ditch fixes to save levi's dreams

00:21:37how are you doing levi's mom mary makes a surprise visit come to see you how are you i'm good how are

00:21:47you good my mom is my best friend she's been at my side this whole time being up here she knows that

00:21:55it's a dream of mine and she has just pushed me forward to keep going for it i brought my little

00:22:01picker upper is that okay yeah we've been trying to keep up as much as possible i know you do a good

00:22:06job i just love him being up here and doing what he wants to do and sometimes he might feel down a

00:22:15little because he is investing everything that he has practically but it doesn't bother me because i

00:22:20know he's going to pop right back up he's such a hard worker he will make it work i also bought a

00:22:26surprise for you what's that well i was digging through some stuff and you haven't seen this since

00:22:33you were like seven oh you're gonna be so excited look at that i wrote this yes it says if i made a

00:22:44million i would spend it because i want to have lots of toys then i would buy a hundred pieces of gold

00:22:51then i'd give some to my family where did you find this my stuff my stuff look at this look at that

00:23:00gold card it's i buy a hundred pieces of gold i know exactly what you're doing today you're not

00:23:07buying it though isn't that precious okay did i ever talk about gold growing up you did have a shovel

00:23:14to dig every time we went to a river looking for gold impressive wow it shows that i've had this

00:23:23infatuation with gold ever since i could write and it made me go well i i've been having this dream

00:23:30for a very long time and i'm finally doing it i have all the faith in the world that he can do it

00:23:36you know he's always called it his dream i don't think it's any longer a dream i think that dream is

00:23:42here coming up all those coming off good so far oh i hope there's still gold in here freddie

00:23:54sends levi on a treasure hunt all right get in there oh wow

00:24:13so this is a mine rescue first i'm a little nervous but it's worth a shot in washington state

00:24:19one follows up his lead for some equipment that could be a game changer for levi's mind we've never

00:24:26used a spiral concentrator before we're really hoping it's going to give them that edge that they

00:24:32need to be able to run more material invented by ira b humphries in 1943 the concentrating spiral was a

00:24:41common sight on wash plants in the 40s and 50s it uses gravity and water to separate heavy gold from

00:24:49lighter waste material pay dirt pumped to the top of the spiral descends down the chute as pay swirls

00:24:58to the ground the centrifugal force created by the spiral pushes the lighter waste material up to the

00:25:05outer edges while heavier gold clings to the inside before dropping into a series of ports to carry the

00:25:13gold away from processing you know unless they can actually get their throughput up they're going to

00:25:18have a hard time making it out there 20 miles from the claim one inspects the 80 year old spirals to

00:25:27make sure they are still usable that's them huh these are pretty cool they're cast iron they're going

00:25:33to be heavy but i'm just going to use the one so i'll use the better of the bunch we can refinish that

00:25:39so i'm probably going to clean it and repaint them recode them yeah because you want it as smooth as

00:25:43possible but really they're in good shape we'll take them thank you andy my pleasure awesome

00:25:49they're heavy a little more perfect

00:26:01that's good so there's actually three on this stand uh but really we only need the one so we'll get this

00:26:07one cut off finish the stand for it and we'll just use the one we want to make sure that this thing is

00:26:17strapped down right to the trailer so we don't lose it it's a beautiful piece though it really is

00:26:23i'm sure collected a lot of gold over the years either way it's you know it's a piece of history

00:26:27that's going to get put back into play we don't know how it's going to work until we get it in place

00:26:32and actually run it i'm hoping that we'll be able to run more material ultimately getting more gold for

00:26:47back at the claim freddie and levi start their investigation into the ground definitely you've

00:26:54got to go down here and meet clint black so he knows a lot of the history of the area here then

00:26:59yeah he taught me a lot about the stuff up in here afternoon glint how's it going good how you

00:27:06doing well thanks for letting me pick your brain thanks for coming how long you been up here

00:27:14i first came up in 1990 got my first claim in 94. so when was gold first discovered in the area clint

00:27:22well the first quartz vein was found by a soldier in 1854 but in 1874 the first mining claim at the

00:27:30top was put in so have they pulled quite a bit of gold off this mountain here the total is 851

00:27:36thousand ounces about so that's a lot of gold they could open pit this whole hill and it'd be half

00:27:41an ounce to the ton average so when you look at the equipment that's been brought up here you know

00:27:47that's always been that telltale to me that that was the vein that all the people wanted to mine

00:27:52you're telling me a story clint about that ball mill up there we've been talking about that because

00:27:57they supposedly produce 48 000 ounces of gold halfway up the mountain on levi's property is a 25 ton ball

00:28:06mill from the 1940s used to bulk crush material into a fine powder before being run over a table

00:28:15ball mills were introduced in the 1930s to process huge volumes of ore with steel balls pulverizing

00:28:22ore as the drum rotates how long has it been since that ball mill ran 1985 ran 25 ton a day

00:28:32you're kind of curious to see if that ball mill still works i don't know but maybe if levi and cory can

00:28:39get the ball mill working the sky's the limit for them that's exactly it i have to crawl in there and look

00:28:44around i guess i think the future for levi is pretty bright here because you know it's never really

00:28:49been taken advantage of all the way thank you very much for your time sir oh yeah it's been a pleasure

00:28:57good seeing you yep same here good luck up there all right thank you with freddy talking to clint

00:29:04we're hoping he's got a lot better insight about the area and the records and the past production

00:29:10showing that the values are here and that it is very possible to make this a very good lucrative

00:29:16operation at the bottom of the mountain why hello oh hey guys happy to see you guys

00:29:29alex and travis arrived to help now that you guys are here we got a lot of work to do

00:29:34first job oh yeah she's good she's happy one's 10 foot tall spiral gold catchers need to be

00:29:46customized for levi's plant all right coming down all we need is one spiral so we're going to use

00:29:53this bowl this one's in the best shape of the bunch but let's get everything unbolted here cut it right

00:29:57there and we'll cut it down here on the c as well on the bottom frame so this will be a standalone unit

00:30:04only one spiral is required so first task is to separate it from the main unit

00:30:19all right guys

00:30:23perfect so now that we got this cut off we're actually make a little wider base for

00:30:27it so we can get it up to the mine site without losing it

00:30:34so this is the ball mill yeah i'm not too uh up on the information on them you know

00:30:45you know i know they uh processed a lot of ore out of it fingers crossed hot on the trail of the old

00:30:51timers freddie checks the viability of the old ball mill for levi's operation yeah so here it is

00:30:59is yep ball mill yeah rusty and rat piece known as ever probably took them a year to get it in here

00:31:07yeah i'm just thinking the mules feeling bad for them

00:31:10the ball mill requires too much work to bring back online for levi's operation we're definitely

00:31:26not going to be able to move this or fix it in the time we're here what you might do though is pull

00:31:32the liners out inside and uh see if there's gold behind them i've done that before inside the drum

00:31:39there yeah i pulled 40 ounces from winers one time underneath there's small enough cracks that fine

00:31:45gold can get in behind them and just keep rocks hammer it makes sense pressing it in there oh yeah

00:31:51i mean the gold's gonna find those cracks and drop it in right yeah so see what lives behind them i think

00:31:55corey i will definitely like doing that you just kind of just sparked a little adventure in me so

00:32:00yeah see how much gold's behind them but it should have some we looked at the ball mill

00:32:07it's a dead end but it's got liners in it right and there's gaps between the liners so what's gold do

00:32:13it wants to fall to the lowest place right who knows what's in there

00:32:17it could be a bonanza it could be a dead end but there's only one way to find out and that's pull

00:32:24one of those liners and see what lives in there that ball mill hasn't been opened up since the 80s

00:32:29so you never know it could be empty it could be cleaned out but there may be some gold that are

00:32:34still left in there for us gold fever makes you chase things so we're gonna go for it

00:32:47the vein's pretty oxidized so it's softer up the mountain levi gets gold bearing surface ore

00:32:58ready for the second test i mean a lot of this stuff you can break up in your hands it falls apart

00:33:04but he faces a real problem you know as he gets further and further into that vein it's going to

00:33:09get harder and harder so i brought travis up travis is going to help him out we're going to teach him

00:33:13together how to use this blasting system you don't need special licensing and you can just get it

00:33:18online the sierra blaster uses electronic ignition rather than dynamite which is banned in washington

00:33:25state high velocity cartridges placed deep within the rock shatter it from inside so levi you know

00:33:32travis actually before working for us this is what he did for a living he was working underground blasting

00:33:37rock we actually have a system that's a little different it uses a really small electrical charge

00:33:42and that small electrical charge ignites boosters as you can see you know these are no bigger than

00:33:46a firework but they're pretty effective with the hard quartz yet to be exposed in levi's vein

00:33:54how far are you going to go in with your drill maybe 17 inches yeah okay one uses a boulder on the

00:33:59claim to teach levi the ropes how do you know where to start your holes with your explosion if

00:34:05you drill right on the fracture it'll actually absorb some of that that makes sense so if you go

00:34:09in solid material it actually has nowhere to go okay so it has to split the rock gotcha

00:34:15inserting the cartridge into solid rock maximizes the force of the blast so what we do is we put

00:34:21your boosters in first and then you use your cartridge here and then you actually have to run

00:34:26his generator to be able to run his igniter a real simple system but pretty effective yeah i'm going to

00:34:32put two boosters in

00:34:36and a cap you know levi this is really going to help you out in the future when you get into the vein

00:34:41and it gets harder and harder that's true that little chipping hammer is not going to be enough

00:34:45exactly so that's the important part there to make sure that wire is in the groove

00:34:49we come in and we make our connection then you put your blast shield back over the top of that

00:35:00i'm excited to watch this go down all the way down the juice in the back of the hole

00:35:06so right now everything's all loaded in the hole almost ready to tie in and let it rip in less than 10

00:35:13minutes the blasting system is primed i got one question you're gonna let me fire it right sure

00:35:21it's your mind sight

00:35:27well you guys since there is no timing in this setup you just plug it in

00:35:31bring your core back and hit the button

00:35:38fire it in three two one

00:35:44nice

00:35:48that looks really good trap put a good size crack in her yeah well levi you can actually see right

00:35:52here this crack that developed right through where we blasted all the way up all the way up yeah right

00:35:57around the holes so it actually did really well it did there's a lot of fractures in there you can see

00:36:02them well it's gonna be a game changer for you now that you know how to use this you know the sky's

00:36:05the limit the blaster gives levi a shortcut to the deeper gold veins on the mountain that's amazing i

00:36:13i appreciate that yeah no problem your arms get tired with the roto hammer yeah they do

00:36:18thank you travis thank you travis

00:36:22i know that the quartz vein is going to get a lot harder as i progress into the mountain

00:36:26right now it's pretty soft and so i would say within the next couple of feet as we work it

00:36:32i won't be able to operate with the tools that i have and what they brought up for me is really

00:36:36going to help us out with our operation now

00:36:50coming down fingers and toes back at fix headquarters the team get to work on the 10-foot spiral

00:36:57we're making a flat form it's going to stabilize it so it can't tip over nearly as easy and at the same

00:37:05time makes it taller so our discharge has more elevation you mind lined up for your liking i think

00:37:13so i'm gonna drill some holes in the bottom and then put some lag bolts in

00:37:18gonna use this soap so we don't split that wood

00:37:28gotta have some fun along the way though lubricating the bolts with soapy liquid

00:37:34helps prevent damage to the wooden frame last mold alex nice

00:37:48so what do we got here it's the camp huh yeah it's a minor standard of living

00:37:55blasting lesson complete one checks in with cory at their mine campsite their mountain home four

00:38:01nights a week from april to october it's crazy but you guys are really living life kind of like the

00:38:06old timers did what better life than to be up here in the woods digging gold out of the ground

00:38:12it shows the length that a man will go to to be able to provide for his family that that's for sure

00:38:17you know i mean uh being away from the wife and kids and stuff it's really tough

00:38:23for levi and i this could definitely be life-changing for both of us

00:38:28we've had a lot of plans but i'm not getting paid while i'm up here

00:38:31got a nest egg at home to help pay the bills while i'm here but if this doesn't work i'll be starting

00:38:37back at ground zero again counting on the claim's success is cory's son brennan

00:38:43he can't wait to get up here and uh keeping it within the family would be amazing

00:38:51brennan was three when uh when i came into his life uh amazing little kid

00:38:58i met his mother when i was 23 really the the girl of my dreams

00:39:04in 2016 she had a brain aneurysm and uh she was within two and a half days uh she had passed

00:39:17it's something that's made us stronger having to pull together you know

00:39:22raising brennan and his sister single-handed cory's luck turned when he met his second wife who he married

00:39:29in 2022. it's hard to strike gold twice as they say you know but i've been very very fortunate with uh

00:39:38the the two women that were a part of my life and ultimately i want to be a good dad and be able to

00:39:45be there for my kids and and be a good role model at the same time

00:39:49i'm super proud of britain because

00:39:57sorry it's all right i've had the pleasure and honor of being his dad

00:40:04and he's made me so damn proud he can't wait to get up here and uh if this works he will be able to be

00:40:13up here and work with me you know more quality time together that's one of my dreams you know one day

00:40:20have my children you know with me well i'm hoping that you got years to come to be able to be out

00:40:26here with brennan and be able to do this and they make a good living thank you all our brother

00:40:31you know coming down here and talking to cory a little bit uh kind of puts a lot of things in

00:40:42perspective it means the world to him to be out here wanting to capitalize on the time that he can

00:40:47spend with his son and and just to keep on growing that bond um and to remember his wife at the end of

00:40:54the day i'm a father i'm a husband and you know to see someone going through those struggles and i can't

00:41:00imagine that for myself to me it makes us want to work even harder for him and help him out

00:41:23part of another day there's not enough room on that mountain to work and that's really making it a

00:41:28hindrance and everything here is time consuming because of the logistics of it but we'll just

00:41:33keep plugging along here and keep building stuff 4 000 feet below the buttry claim while freddie works

00:41:40on the spirals one begins the centerpiece of levi's modified wash plan i'm just getting the pieces uh

00:41:48lined up for the sluice box it's going to be 12 inches wide six inches tall by almost eight foot long

00:41:54um the reason we're going 12 inches wide based on the material that he's got coming out of that hammer

00:41:59mill with a 12 inch wide sluice we should be able to handle all the material right now the way he has

00:42:03his system set up it only allows him to be able to run less than 100 pounds an hour we're hoping by

00:42:08adding the sluice and then using the concentrating spirals uh we should be able to double triple or even

00:42:13quadruple that so uh it should be a big increase for him so we're cutting all the pieces out for the

00:42:23sluice box you know when we travel we travel with a little bit of steel so we want to try to make sure

00:42:28that we maximize every square inch of this plate

00:42:32so these are the pieces that we cut out for the sluice box we're getting them all trued up

00:42:45at a 90 we're going to get them tacked then we're going to put the ribs on and fully weld it

00:42:54i put the ribs in install the ribs before i do the full weld because if you do the full weld it'll want

00:43:00to pull so by putting the ribs in first it'll keep that down to a minimum one welds on horizontal

00:43:06pieces known as ribs to ensure the sluice holds its shape during and after construction finished so

00:43:14we got the box all welded up we're going to set it down we're going to start getting all the riffles

00:43:17in it getting everything cut so that way we got it all set up so when we get it up to the top of the

00:43:21hill we can get it installed and be that much closer to running this ball mill hasn't been opened

00:43:31up since the 80s we're kind of excited to see what's in there up at the ball mill levi follows freddy's

00:43:39tip to search for gold behind the drums liners gory and i are going to tap into it you know nothing

00:43:45venture nothing gained so we're going to see what's going on all those coming off good so far

00:43:53oh i hope there's still gold in here that would be amazing wouldn't it i wouldn't say no fingers

00:44:00crossed yeah all right first that's off

00:44:08now you're gonna take the washers off i'm just gonna pull up

00:44:15there is two liners left those bolts are the liners oh wow hey let's find out see what's in there

00:44:27oh wow look at that look look look at how thick that is right there the material yeah that's it right

00:44:33there oh yeah we're gonna have to try to turn this so we can get those bolts to us oh oh this is gonna

00:44:43be crazy to unscrew the liners they have to rotate the 25 ton ball mill to get the bolts beneath the

00:44:51drum which hasn't turned in 40 years oh boy let's hope this thing turns if anything's gonna make this

00:44:58thing move it should be this here we go get ready for pressure watch yourself you good it's just skin

00:45:11you need to try something else

00:45:19stands finished we've extended the footprint of this spiral by using this wood

00:45:24that'll make it more stable every direction you gotta get the dirt out of it first at fix headquarters

00:45:31freddy and alex continued the spiral refurb there's about 9 400 of these made and most of them are

00:45:38still in use today hardly any of them are used today according to the internet it says most of these are

00:45:43still in use don't believe everything you see on the internet freddy has to clear 80 years of debris from

00:45:51the spiral's pipes before it's usable this pipe's packed up with stuff i've been beating on it with

00:45:57a hammer to no avail we'll give it a colonoscopy and a throat check here and try to get all out of it

00:46:14you're uh maybe an inch or two into the blockage but if you feel up in there that's all rubber

00:46:19feels like the pipe collapsed on itself or something oh bueno the 80 year old rubber lining

00:46:25has collapsed into the pipe we're just out of time so just got to do whatever we can to get this going

00:46:38roll a little more that's better

00:46:41right now there's a rubber liner and this pipe collapsed onto itself and we can't get it removed

00:46:50so i'm going to try to burn it out of there at 5 700 degrees fahrenheit freddy's oxy-acetylene blow

00:46:58torch burns through the antique rubber tap it on it now do anything with the hammer it ain't gonna hurt

00:47:03anything hit it some more a bunch of it right here that's clean there we go son of a gun it's always

00:47:25something huh always something never easy it worked better than anticipated so i'm happy with that

00:47:33i'm building the legs for the sluice that way we'll be able to put this under the box and be

00:47:42able to adjust the pitch and also the height juan works on the final step of his sluice build

00:47:50the hard part about not being able to fabricate on site is we don't have the exact measurements so

00:47:54we're going to make it all adjustable this has got to be one of the bigger builds that freddy and i've

00:47:59ever done for a rescue so i'm hoping that everything that we build is going to go into

00:48:03place and work properly because really we got one chance at it

00:48:08it's a little nerve-wracking because really we put all this work and effort into it

00:48:12but ultimately we don't know until we get everything up there get it in place and run the plan

00:48:15up the mountain levi and corey use a makeshift lever to turn the ball mill

00:48:31oh my gosh i can't believe the thing's dirty

00:48:33so one more okay hold on let me get a bite yeah me too okay i'm ready

00:48:44i'm feeling pretty excited right now knowing that there's two plates in here

00:48:48can't get it off fast enough all right let's start beating on shot number one

00:49:03uh they're in there

00:49:08we're trying to get this steel to expand with the heat and when it cools down it'll contract

00:49:15hopefully we can get it to break that bond because this thing does not want to go they are seized in

00:49:20there we're a whack

00:49:26well she's going i hear stuff falling

00:49:33oh she's going oh yeah oh all right all right all right all right

00:49:38keep it down

00:49:44all right get in there oh wow

00:50:03wow this thing is built it's got a lot of dust on it at the buttray mine levi and corey pull the

00:50:10linings of the old ball mill this is the stuff that that's what that's what they were getting

00:50:16he was talking about there in between the plates you'll have this conglomerate conglomerate is a

00:50:22compact mass of material in this case years of rock dust and gold that has set almost like

00:50:29concrete to the inside of the ball mill drum look at the colors in that corey that's amazing oh you

00:50:37can't see gold yeah dude that's awesome i mean if you can see right there imagine how much could

00:50:42potentially be inside all of that right on the edge there between the metal shavings you can start

00:50:47seeing little pieces of yellow that's amazing dude they see colors in there

00:50:52you son of a gun you man that's awesome let's just go crush the stuff

00:51:00freddie giving me the information about the ball mill it was

00:51:04huge i had no idea hopefully we could find some gold in there it could be

00:51:08life-changing or season-changing for corey and i

00:51:10that fix headquarters we're running out of time today's the absolute last day we have to work on

00:51:22this we just got to get it up to the mountain the race is on to complete freddie and juan's most epic

00:51:28fix yet 180 feet of pipe connecting two levels of the buttery mine

00:51:35a brand new wash plant with custom-made sluice and a spiral concentrator which freddie and alex are

00:51:45fine-tuning right now levi is crushing quartz quartz is mainly white so you won't be able to see if

00:51:53you're cutting the quartz out properly if we get it painted green you can see your blacks and your

00:51:57browns and your whites and your reds and the gold right paint dry freddie's

00:52:05last edition just trying to make this hose a little more pliable it's pretty stiff right now

00:52:11so just trying to warm it up a little bit

00:52:16just using some bubble soap to try to make it slick as well

00:52:23it wouldn't go on before just using a bungee cord on this one to pull it back to get that material more

00:52:29centered in our pan here generic but we don't have time to make proper brackets and stuff but it'll work

00:52:37it'll work just fine

00:52:43juan's final piece of preparation making 48 brackets for the ambitious chute build

00:52:50so what i did was i designed it flat but this is the tab that's actually going to screw into the pipe

00:52:54you can see right now it's right in the middle of where the pipe's going to go but you see this

00:52:58relief cut on these top corners it allows me to be able to bend that flat at a 90 and then it looks

00:53:04like that so it's actually right in line with the circle where the pipe's going to go through and then

00:53:10it gives me the chance to be able to put a fastening screw to the top of the pipe

00:53:13and we're good to go

00:53:22i don't think we'll get that pipeline up there in one day that's a two-day job that pipe

00:53:28i think we get it done in a day fred i really yeah

00:53:33what are we betting on steak dinner steak dinner okay i think we can get it done in a day

00:53:38all right it's on love you bud love you too freddie with their trucks unable to climb the mountain

00:53:46trail atvs and loaders haul the builds well here we go yeah it's pretty tight here

00:53:55i'm sure glad we have these we don't have to walk up this because yeah tough the old timers were up

00:54:00well there's one trimming trees the ground's pretty loose too fred starting to spin juan she's getting

00:54:10pretty muddy yeah it is thinking you need to make it up only one way to find out huh

00:54:20i hope juan doesn't tip that son of a gun over

00:54:30that a boy juan

00:54:36this is a steep sharp turn freddie yeah this might be the one that bites us in the hind quarters right

00:54:43here let's pick it up yeah

00:54:55go ahead freddie

00:55:00thank you sure hope that's the last one of those yeah

00:55:10oh my goodness almost there one more bat switch back

00:55:15oh that's a tight one

00:55:28well the great news is we got it all up here tomorrow morning we're ready to rock and roll

00:55:32it's gonna be a rough couple days we're gonna have to blow and go corey and i are ready to go

00:55:37see you in the morning guys guys guys guys i'm super excited to see everything work with everything

00:55:45in front of us i just don't i don't want to get my hopes up

00:55:51all right well we'll get going on it i'll see how you are about lunchtime remember our bet steak dinner

00:56:02all right buddy for one to win the bet the 180 foot pipe needs to be suspended by the end of the day

00:56:11it's going to be a pretty fun task uh but it's going to be some work first things first knock

00:56:17those branches down get them out of the way then we can start stringing the rest of the stuff down

00:56:22for the pipe to have a straight path down the mountain alex is tasked with clearing the way

00:56:27hey alex yes sir you see that tree you're leaning on yep knock it down

00:56:36let's undo that rope throw it as far as you can down so we don't have to walk down there okay

00:56:54we're going to put this rope down first because it's light then we'll tie the end onto the cable

00:56:59and we'll be able to drag the cable down all right freddy you want to just go down there and i'll throw

00:57:03it down to you hopefully i can make it next step running the cable that will suspend the pipe ready

00:57:11big guy got one shot at this

00:57:18let's roll alex feel good isn't it we got enough to pull the cable just uh tie it off to that tree

00:57:27so once we get this steel cable threaded down the mountain then uh we'll start putting our pipes and

00:57:32our hangers on it and hopefully it all goes together good guide rope secure the steel cable that

00:57:41suspends the pipe is lowered go easy guys okay go ahead easy

00:57:51hang on one second easy

00:57:53but before the cable's even halfway down i think it might be a twig or a root

00:58:01up on top it's snagged on right on that branch huh i mean you're hooked over like about a foot on the

00:58:07downed rock up there so low to the ground is actually running off the ground and down

00:58:17well this is getting kind of frustrating for us because we thought this was going to be a real

00:58:20simple job but it's taking a lot longer than we want i hope we can get that shoot system down

00:58:28a little worried about it

00:58:33hey levi you got any tape duct tape just so this doesn't tangle in trees yes down below yes

00:58:50at the buttery mine the shoot fix has hit a snag the steel cable that will suspend it is getting

00:58:57caught up as it's lowered some duct tape perfect when we get going again having this taped up is

00:59:13going to help us a bunch if not it's going to be like an anchor digging in those rocks

00:59:17taping the ends of the steel cable prevents it snagging as it's dragged down okay go ahead

00:59:32easy cable's on the ground freddie okay let's tie it off up here we've got the cable attached up here

00:59:42and got it strung down the hill so we got to go run down there and then start cinching it tight and

00:59:46then make the connection there so we can start putting the pipe on down on level two a radical

00:59:57refit is underway all this coming off the impact mill we're gonna have to remove all this corey okay so

01:00:02you can go ahead and start getting all this cut apart the old pipe and the shaker table are removed

01:00:12one's new sluice can be installed let's get the legs for it perfect all right let's put it in

01:00:35you want to give me the level okay let's mark that corey

01:00:42so we're just getting the sluice kind of uh set in place where it's going to go

01:00:45and we're just going to get it leveled up and get it at the right pitch that we need it

01:00:49we've made all the pieces so they're adjustable that way it's easy to adjust them on the fly so

01:00:53if you guys ever move the plant you know you can take it apart move it and get it back up pretty quick

01:01:02perfect we got this in let's get all the fittings we need on the pumps and then we'll set up that spiral

01:01:12as juan plans the pad that will secure the spiral while it's operating corey's son brennan arrives to

01:01:21check out the progress hey guys hey juan this is my son brennan brennan how you doing yeah how are you

01:01:27juan nice to meet you nice to meet you you came just in time graduating high school and now going to

01:01:31minor school under wonabara the school of hard knocks exactly so you just graduated huh yeah two

01:01:37days ago congratulations excited to start mining that's what i want to be a miner so

01:01:44he's a great hard worker and he's very excited about this my dad he's a big part of my life

01:01:50if freddy and juan turned this around it would mean the whole world to a dad and family because my dad's

01:01:55made a whole bunch of sacrifices for all this you know family to tell is really happy for him proud

01:02:01of him and i'm proud of him too so you're going to spend the summer out here with your dad then yeah

01:02:07that's my plan nice when did you start mining so i started mining in 2012 but i've been building

01:02:14stuff since you know since i was your age that's cool my dad actually bought me my first welder when

01:02:19i was i must have been probably 13 or 14 years old you know we didn't have a whole lot of money

01:02:23growing up if i wanted something i'd have to build it myself well if you uh had one piece of advice

01:02:27for brennan starting up mining what would that be don't take shortcuts don't take shortcuts anything

01:02:33that's ever come to bite me in the butt is when i take a shortcut right you know if you know there's

01:02:37a way to do it do it right you know sometimes it takes a little longer but don't take shortcuts

01:02:41all right what i can have you guys start doing is i think i want to set up that spiral maybe over here

01:02:47okay maybe take some of this hump off try to level out some spot there and that way we can put

01:02:51the spiral right here let's uh grab that shovel while brennan earns his mining stripes his dad gets

01:03:00a master class in laying out a sluice what you want to do is you want to overlap it like shingles on a

01:03:05roof right see how it's bowed so you you always want the boat in the middle of it so that way when we

01:03:11actually knock it down with the wedges it tightens them pretty good if you have too big of a gap

01:03:21underneath it you'll actually get material flowing underneath the riffles so what we're going to do

01:03:26here we got three different changes in your riffles these riffles are tailored to that real fine gold

01:03:31that you guys are catching out of that ore but that's not lost if it's not caught here it's going

01:03:36into this catch basin which is going to get pumped to the top of that spiral and they have another

01:03:40chance to get reconcentrated and get caught again in the spiral yeah that's perfect perfect well that

01:03:46looks good let's get that uh spiral in huh i like it almost like they know what they're doing

01:03:54for just a little bit more that's good perfect that'll do yeah hopefully by doing what we did

01:04:10here you know we'll be able to increase your production to 300 percent that that'd be amazing

01:04:15really that's that's a home run right there yeah with work on the plant now complete all attention

01:04:21turns to the chute bill why don't we head up and give him a hand yeah let's do it let's do it

01:04:31here we go first one on level three the cable is in place and the first sections of the pipe

01:04:38are ready to be fed down that'll work for now let's get our other brackets on

01:04:43okay go up a little bit

01:04:57it's good i'm getting an arm workout if you want to feed it down to me i'll hook it up down here

01:05:01yep feed me 19 sections of pipe must be connected and carefully lowered down the cable can you go up

01:05:09some more up higher yeah i'm on my toes coming down keep coming

01:05:20this thing is coming along nicely let's just test it real quick for throw some material in it i will

01:05:27big old scoop red

01:05:28yeah she's coming out she's coming out pretty good freddie i can see it all i can too wow look at that

01:05:44perfect flow down nicely huh that is perfect you know we were a little worried about that belly in

01:05:51the line but she'll be fine you know and i think with the more material going down at once it'll help

01:05:55push all the other stuff down through too yeah sounded good going down it yeah didn't slow down

01:06:00one bit that's awesome last piece of pipe the last melon as travis would say yeah right there crap whoa

01:06:10we got it done freddie good

01:06:16i'm really happy for starting this project this morning to having the cable ran having the pipe in

01:06:21in one day and then on top of that i think i'm going to win the bet

01:06:29love you freddie

01:06:33the important side of this is the top okay gotcha yep just so it doesn't slide and pull on that fitting

01:06:54it's the final day on the buttery claim but before the test run can begin the last section

01:07:00of pipe must be installed we still have a couple hours worth of work to do to get it installed hopefully

01:07:05we can have a good test run today i'm a little skeptical we've got a lot to do i'm just not sure

01:07:11if we're going to be able to complete that today so what we're doing is we're going to attach the pipe

01:07:17we're going to put the pipe on a little carabiner and we're just going to lift it up and slide it into

01:07:21place the last section of pipe needs to be precisely positioned so gold bearing ore falls into the hammer

01:07:32mill okay come on let's do it fast lift it up pull pull your weight okay trev get on alex's side

01:07:42guide it in lower a little bit alex there you go there we go that's plenty okay that's good well

01:07:55now we got that in we can start getting everything else in alex grab me the chute over there please

01:08:04this is going to be the chute that collects the material at the top of the hammer mill

01:08:12it's pretty uh mind-blowing actually i feel like i'm just standing here with my mouth open

01:08:24just staring at it

01:08:33what i'm trying to do here this material here we're pumping it to the top of the spiral

01:08:38while one finishes the chute freddy plums in the spiral i'm going to put this valve on that way we

01:08:47can control that water and that slurry coming out of it just like with anything you got to take control

01:08:54of the material and the water we've got all the plumbing done one's got the sluice in he's just

01:09:03finishing up with a chute it should be ready to run here fairly shortly

01:09:12well there it is done so we got the pipeline coming down it feeds to the top of the chute it's

01:09:18going to have a little bit of surge material here as that material builds up he'll be able to drag it

01:09:22with that hoe over into the hole into the impact mill and down the sluice

01:09:26one week ago freddy and juan saw a mine that was heavy on labor the whole process has just taken so

01:09:35long it's manual labor and light on gold there's a bit fred that's not enough to wait though

01:09:46now the streamlined operation feeds directly into the hammer mill

01:09:51so levi and corey should be able to run triple the amount of pay per hour transforming their

01:09:58operation we've got the pipeline yeah it looks really cool doesn't it those hangers really add to

01:10:05it we made this quick little transition chute to go from the chute coming off the bottom of your jaw

01:10:10into the pipe i'm hoping that the vibration from your jaw i'm hoping that's enough to be able to help

01:10:15that material move down you guys know as well as i do this pipeline chute was a lot of work

01:10:21you know first string of rope then clearing trees then hanging pipe the amount of material you

01:10:27can get down to the hammer mill now compared to what you had to do before it's gonna you can get

01:10:31that whole cart there in a few hours having it in place the amount of work that it's cutting out for

01:10:38us well this is just what we did up top why don't we head down below and take a look at what we did

01:10:42down down at the plant perfect all right the plan

01:10:44we got a lot going on guys obviously starting with the pipeline that comes down from the jaw

01:10:53that looks amazing it drops down into this little chute this chute's going to be kind of a surge chute

01:10:58so as material builds up whoever's down here can start feeding the hammer mill then that material

01:11:04is going to go down a sluice box now instead of the table yep yeah there's multiple ripple

01:11:08configurations in there so then it drops off that sluice box and goes into a bin with a pump

01:11:14that pump's going to pump that material to the top of the spiral and then the spiral will do its thing

01:11:19and it'll have a chance to be able to capture the remaining bit of the gold that's in there

01:11:23this guy's amazing yeah you did a great job we're at the point now guys we need to do a test run you

01:11:29guys ready i'm ready let's do it see what happens all right

01:11:31these fixes are astonishing that shoot alone is game-changing for us i have a feeling that

01:11:42when we start our test run now it's going to be a good one

01:11:47are you going to fire it up cory yep we're ready right on

01:11:53she's humming

01:11:56let's run some see what it does all right start sending some material

01:12:01how's that beautiful

01:12:12rocks starting to come down the chute filling the drop you hear that tink tink dollar sign every time

01:12:20tink tink tink tink

01:12:31the water

01:12:36corey are you uh is it feeding good up there because we're not getting much down here

01:12:41but less than 10 minutes into the run they're not getting much down they said

01:12:49yeah we gotta come sit there feed

01:12:53and i'm wondering if we're getting a lot of material that's hanging up in that bow

01:12:56i think we're seized up it could collapse that pipe stop feeding yeah go ahead and stop feeding it

01:13:07i'm gonna shake this pipe fred is material coming out

01:13:16yeah not much is coming out one yeah we're stuck halfway down fred

01:13:25you know you you do the best you can and sometimes it doesn't work if it doesn't work

01:13:36you figure out what's going to work and you make alterations but it's going to take a lot of time

01:13:41and i'm just worried that we don't have enough time to do that

01:13:43it's it's crucial that we get this fixed if uh if we don't get it fixed before freddie and one have to

01:13:51go i don't know if the season's going to be able to continue

01:13:54i lost a bet to lawn over steak dinner so uh being a smart ass i've got a 15

01:14:11sandwich cooker there

01:14:15a little garlic pounded in with dirty hands

01:14:17well we'll see how this thing goes i hope juan likes his steaks rare because i don't know how

01:14:24well this thing's gonna cook it always wash your dishes before you use them

01:14:32that's gonna work damn good

01:14:371-0

01:14:40here's your steak dinner look at that the little cooker cooked it good

01:14:48it's good it's perfect winning tastes good fred caveman style 1-0 yeah i have no problem living

01:14:53like a caveman i'm okay with it me either that's really kind of you sir

01:15:08we have to have a run today because uh we're out of time only 10 minutes into the second test

01:15:15a clog in the pipeline forced to shut down it was a bit of a failure we get it all put together then

01:15:21we run it and it was terrible to get the second test back on track they have to get the ore trapped

01:15:27in the sagging pipe moving to move material we're going to use gravity and vibration try to get it down

01:15:35to overcome the sag freddie and one will drop the lower end of the pipe to create a steeper run

01:15:46and attach vibrators to the top and bottom of the chute to agitate material down and into the hammer mill

01:15:52one gets to work on a mine rescue first pipe vibrators this is going to be a mount for the

01:16:08vibrator we want to make sure that all that energy goes into the pipe to be able to shake the material

01:16:13loose and get it down the pipe system just gonna run a quick test on this and see which way it vibrates

01:16:19better usually on a vibrator one way will actually push the material and the other way will actually

01:16:25draw the material towards the vibrators put material in it travi

01:16:32is it drawing that way slowly huh feeds better that way okay

01:16:37there he is perfect all right now we know

01:16:58all right good to go we got both vibrators on so let's give it a go down below and set a timer and

01:17:06let's run a two-hour test i got my radio all right sounds good freddie hey good job buddy

01:17:11fingers crossed hopefully it works it'll work one

01:17:18all right here we go wish us luck

01:17:36oh cory cory cory it's so beautiful is it beating down there oh yeah we got a great feed i like it

01:17:46it's just dropping

01:17:49good feed hey good job buddy good job dude got the material coming down the shoe going into our pipe

01:17:56with the two vibrators it's running perfectly this is my third pan off the end of the sluice i haven't

01:18:03seen one speck of gold in it yet which is a darn good sign that means that sluice is working great

01:18:09the spiral is actually working really well freddie's actually been panning it as we've been running

01:18:13he hasn't seen one color in this yet the sleuth is catching the majority of the gold everything's

01:18:18working perfectly now the plant is at 25 30 capacity so they can actually bring that up quite a bit as they

01:18:25learn how to run the plant they're going to be able to figure out where the limits are and they can

01:18:29almost double that you know i put years of hard work into this place it just seems like now

01:18:36everything is falling into place levi that's two hours all right cory go ahead stop feeding

01:18:43i just hope everything's good down there and gold comes out the other end because we're really really

01:18:49counting on it see what it looks like juan let's take a look

01:19:01some gold right there juan there there there's a bunch right there fred is there yeah a bunch right

01:19:07there oh yeah that looks good right there in that one riffle is more than what we had in the first gold

01:19:13well that is a good feeling yep we'll grab a hammer and we'll knock these out get them cleaned up

01:19:19i'm really hoping that the second gold way is what they need to see because in order for them

01:19:24to get anywhere near their goal they're going to get a lot more gold than what they had in that first

01:19:28way there's a lot more gold than last time we got enough to weigh yeah that's valuable you know

01:19:39before we barely had a little streak in that pan now we actually have a amount that you can see and

01:19:43the big difference was you know before you guys ran 150 pounds maybe not even that

01:19:49we ran probably 500 pounds yeah honestly watching that run you know i think we can actually turn that

01:19:53up a little more i think so too i honestly think that we can almost double that for sure moment of

01:19:59truth let's do this it's not a fortune but it's gold exactly well there's weighable amount 0.02 there's 0.05

01:20:09there's point zero seven

01:20:16there's 160 dollars worth of gold guys probably 50 times the amount of gold you had in the first run

01:20:24mm-hmm i mean that's amazing freddy and juan have increased the volume going through the plant by 233

01:20:32percent over a six-day week the gold way equates to 1.68 ounces worth three thousand eight hundred

01:20:41and sixty four dollars watching you guys feed it at the end there i'm like you know i i really think

01:20:45we can put more through that hammer mill 0.07 you might be able to get get that in an hour exactly

01:20:51doubling volume run through the plant will see levi and cory exceeding their three ounce a week target

01:20:57seeing this it just gives me goosebumps too because i know how him and i are we're just going to be

01:21:03sitting there just sitting there and sitting there feeding that shoot the more material they can run

01:21:08through the plant the more gold they can recover i'm really hopeful for these guys i think this is

01:21:12just a start for them we should have been gone this morning but uh we had a little hiccup but you know

01:21:19there's there's proof that your plants running good perfect it was worth the wait it was before you guys

01:21:23go i got something for you what do you remember that little tip you gave us about the ball mill

01:21:28so we were able to get in it and pull some liners and cory and i owe you four ounces for the year we

01:21:36have just probably roughly an ounce and a half to two ounces in the pan oh no kidding yeah we still

01:21:41have a lot more material up there to crush out of the ball mill so uh we'll be able to get you guys

01:21:47this payment to you a lot quicker that'll work that's awesome right on guys yeah that's yeah

01:21:52that's it very cool with what's left in there we might be able to even get closer to that 40 mark

01:21:56just by stuff they left behind for us that's a good looking pan there yeah it definitely is

01:22:01load up and head down the mountain home on let's go fred thank you guys drive safe thanks a pleasure

01:22:08it's been a challenging week but it's done at work we eliminated

01:22:13lots of their manual labor out of the whole equation the sky's the limit for them

01:22:20freddy mentioned something about mining can break friendships but with cory i think it's just making

01:22:25us even better friends you know because we have that drive and we need and want to make this work

01:22:32let's go uh get a proper steak dinner buddy you owe me one i know let's go i love the people we

01:22:37worked with we had a good time but this mountain's a pain in the ass

01:22:46three two one

01:22:49well hey pretty one everything's working really really good here we got it so nice that we even

01:22:55recruited a little bit of help in levi's mall how'd that sluice look last night last night was amazing

01:23:02i gotta show you this hold on every rifle is loaded with gold this was just in three hours

01:23:10we're able to do an ounce a day now this is the gold we're getting we were hoping for three ounces

01:23:18a week and now we're getting about six ounces a week there's no way we could have doubled it without

01:23:23your help thanks to you freddy and juan our hard rock mining future is looking very bright and next

01:23:29time you are in town the stakes on us

01:23:38gold is addictive

01:23:41we have a tremendous case of gold fever gold fever gold fever it's contagious

01:23:48sometimes it makes you do crazy things why they call me the human forklift

01:23:55go up a little bit more oh my goodness it's just so hard to think how far behind i am right now

01:24:04playtime is over fred got real

01:24:08my recommendation is find some other ground if you were sick you'd go to a doctor if you're gold mining

01:24:14you're gonna go to freddy and launch this is a mine rescue first it's all hands on deck now

01:24:25perfect it's been one of our toughest weeks that's for sure we never had to do two full

01:24:31plant builds like this we've resurrected a dinosaur it's just unbelievable

01:24:36holy cow there's another nugget i'm in shock miracle in the pan that's almost six thousand dollars a

01:24:45day oh my gosh you guys it's looking up i'm feeling better and better every day wow that is amazing

01:24:53i'm proud of what we did here well let's head out to the next one huh

01:25:05you

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