- 2 days ago
Episode name - Tricks of the Mine
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00:00:00Well, Freddy, Raul and Helen are the people we're going to go help, and Raul, he's originally
00:00:07from El Salvador. Roger that. I'm glad we worked on my Spanish a little bit before we got here.
00:00:14I know lots of cuss words. You've taught me a few of them. The good ones I taught you.
00:00:20Just don't tell my mom that. She'll be upset.
00:00:22Early summer, in the foothills of the Caribou Mountains in British Columbia, and Freddy
00:00:31and Juan are responding to a Hail Mary call from a husband and wife team with a struggling
00:00:36mining operation, who have invested over $400,000 so far, with no return.
00:00:48Raul reached out a little while ago and was telling me he sunk every dollar that he had
00:00:52into the operation. He's right at Quenelle Forks. So historically, there's been 150 years
00:00:58of mining in that area.
00:01:04A half mile from the Paredes Mine, where the Quenelle and Caribou Rivers meet, is Quenelle Forks,
00:01:11the Caribou region's first great gold rush town. It's here that European and Asian miners discovered
00:01:19a gold-rich valley in the summer of 1859. It produced over 120,000 ounces of gold, almost
00:01:26$280 million in today's money.
00:01:33Hello.
00:01:34Hello.
00:01:35How's it going?
00:01:36Oh, my goodness. Much better that we see you guys.
00:01:38Nice to meet you.
00:01:39Nice to meet you.
00:01:40Nice to meet you.
00:01:41Juan.
00:01:42Raul.
00:01:43Mucho gusto.
00:01:44I'm Helen.
00:01:45Hi, Helen.
00:01:46Good to meet you guys.
00:01:47Well, it wasn't hard to find you at all, right off the side of the road, so that's
00:01:50very nice.
00:01:51How long have you guys been out here?
00:01:52We came last year, and this year we came on board. I mean, again, give it another shot.
00:01:57You know, we tried, we tried, we tried, and it didn't happen.
00:02:02So last year was your first year out here, and just the two of you?
00:02:05That's correct. David is our kid. He's involved, but he only came only two to three weeks in his time off.
00:02:12It's good to have your guys' expertise on board here. We can learn lots off you guys.
00:02:17Well, we'll do the best we can.
00:02:19Yeah.
00:02:20Are you guys mining full-time then?
00:02:21Yeah, we're here every day. I mean, from 7 to 6.
00:02:24Prior to us, there was somebody else mining this property three years ago.
00:02:29And he was getting at least an ounce and a half to two ounces a day.
00:02:33He mentioned to me that it was, the gold was really good over here.
00:02:37Really, really good.
00:02:42Mining is, it's my passion. It's my love.
00:02:47My dream for this mine is we can make it as a family business.
00:02:51Now we got water.
00:02:54I'm originally from El Salvador. It's in Central America.
00:02:59Coming to Canada was a second opportunity to start a life.
00:03:03Two years ago, Raul Paredes and his wife Helen staked a 700-acre claim in historic gold country.
00:03:12Do you have the red pipe wrench?
00:03:14I came to Light Creek because there's still a lot of good gold here.
00:03:18We got our own ground because people before me have been getting gold.
00:03:24Since I came here, I've been trying my best.
00:03:27It's been testing me to the limits.
00:03:29Hey, Raul. I think we need more pressure.
00:03:32Helen has been with me since the beginning.
00:03:35She's the one that looks after the plant and I couldn't do what I do without her.
00:03:40The dream of getting into gold mine actually is both for us.
00:03:43We started with smaller wash plants and really, really enjoyed the process.
00:03:48But actually having a big wash plant, I'm struggling.
00:03:52We call the wash plant the octopus.
00:03:55That's the first thing I thought about when I saw this big monster.
00:03:59All these tubes going all over the place.
00:04:01I'm probably in way over my head and we're having constant breakdowns that we haven't been able to really financially support to get things on the right track.
00:04:12My situation at this moment is terrible.
00:04:15Barely make it to pay my rent this month.
00:04:18If I don't see something that can change or something like a hope, it's not going to happen.
00:04:25How much gold did you do last year?
00:04:28I would say probably an ounce and a half.
00:04:32We washed probably 500 or 600 yards.
00:04:35Whew, that's not good.
00:04:37What about this year? How much have you ran so far?
00:04:39This year probably we've been running 200 yards.
00:04:42How much gold have you got out of 200 yards?
00:04:46Probably eight grams.
00:04:52Yeah, that's...
00:04:53That's not good.
00:04:54No.
00:04:55Well, the old timer, he mentioned to me that it was really, really, really good, he said.
00:05:01Well, you know, you hope people have the best of intentions, but sometimes they're just trying to drop it on you and get their investment back.
00:05:06Yeah.
00:05:07What's your gold look like?
00:05:09There it is.
00:05:12Pretty chunky, huh?
00:05:13Yeah.
00:05:14Nothing real substantial, though.
00:05:16How much gold do you need per day?
00:05:18To make a living ourselves, we'll be happy with an ounce of gold.
00:05:22A day.
00:05:23If things don't work out here, this is it.
00:05:26I'm done.
00:05:27What do you have invested in this?
00:05:28Time and blood and sweat and tears invested in this.
00:05:29Yeah.
00:05:30Yeah.
00:05:31It's very emotional because we love what we do.
00:05:32Mm-hmm.
00:05:33And, um...
00:05:34Oh, man.
00:05:35The best thing for us to do is what we like to do, we come in, we want to watch your operation, watch a test run, and then after that we'll come up with a game plan.
00:05:40Thank you very much.
00:05:41All right.
00:05:42Well, let's have a look around your plan.
00:05:43Okay.
00:05:44I'm excited.
00:05:45Meeting Raul and Helen, immediately you can tell that they're just really sincere, humble people.
00:05:50But his love and his desire to want to be a miner has gotten to the point where it's not a detriment to his finances.
00:05:54They're looking at us as their Hail Mary to help them, you know, kind of pull their mine out of bankruptcy.
00:06:00If we don't do what we need to do here, essentially, essentially, Raul, I still don't want to be a miner.
00:06:06Yeah.
00:06:07Yeah.
00:06:08I'm excited to have a little bit of a character in that.
00:06:09Like, we have a father and I have a father.
00:06:10All right.
00:06:11So, we will see.
00:06:12And then after that, we'll come up with a game plan.
00:06:14Thank you very much.
00:06:15All right.
00:06:16And now let's have a look around your plan.
00:06:17Okay.
00:06:18do here essentially Raul and Helen's mining career is over it's your plant
00:06:24huh this is the octopus the octopus all the green hoses yeah last year when you
00:06:31were running were you running this plant that's correct I look at the long term
00:06:35you know hoping that things we're gonna get better recovery is some gold well
00:06:40let's fire it up run it okay let's do it
00:06:48one thing's for sure they're in a tight spot I think they're about broke hopefully we can
00:06:55help them you know the plant in itself is an issue you know everything
00:07:06holy that's loud you can hear that screen on the dark side of the moon
00:07:10holy cow okay we're rolling
00:07:16first bucket
00:07:18start a timer home on them yeah let's get it going
00:07:24first Raul feeds pay dirt into a 10 by 6 foot hopper a vibrating punch plate screens out the
00:07:34large material before the gold bearing pay falls into Raul's four 10-foot long sluices
00:07:41I'm nervous stressed I want everything to run well but I want it to be realistic to what's happening in
00:07:49our our daily lives it's not running well and they need to see that so they're gonna see why we need a
00:07:57lot of help
00:07:57is that a loose screen in it yeah punch plate
00:08:04there's loose of it out there huh oh way loose side pensioners aren't there they're welded in
00:08:09probably the most ineffective screen I've ever seen the materials being screened too big right now
00:08:18they're not classifying their material can't have proper concentration without proper classification
00:08:22classification is when a screen or punch plate divides out large rocks allowing the smaller
00:08:30gold-bearing dirt to run into the plant's sluices all back all back
00:08:39the sluice boxes are absolutely just in rough shape what going wrong here well that's a lot going wrong
00:08:54there we go you know in order to be able to get this operation into a position where they could be cash
00:09:03positive every aspect of this process needs to be worked on
00:09:06every day something happened she's been like a curse
00:09:31I wish we could have done the four hours but that's what we got well let's pull the mats huh
00:09:41pump cap out of action after just one hour Raul and Helen are forced to shut down and pull the mats
00:09:52you know it's disappointment because I put my heart and soul in this I just wanted to look at this material
00:10:02you're running it just doesn't look good I'm gonna tap a couple pans of it and see uh what we see in it
00:10:09this is right out of the pay pile the stuff they're running through the plant
00:10:17are you guys testing at all as you're mining like panning much or I've had more time out here I'll
00:10:25pan more yeah it's the most important thing though no it'll get you too busy fixing stuff yeah
00:10:33what are you looking for I'd like to see 20 colors 20 colors yeah nothing no gold not a color that's not
00:10:45good sorry guys no that's good to know I had a guy that came up to me and he say you want to make a
00:10:56quick dollar right away right away in a week you'll have five grand ten grand whatever you know he said
00:11:02to me come down here and I even asked him man I say are you for sure anyway it is what it is I guess
00:11:13sometime it is my fault because nobody put a gun on my head and tell me to do it right I did it I took
00:11:18the risk that's dead for gold
00:11:26rawl's got a big heart and he wears it on his sleeve you know he's the good guy so you hate
00:11:32giving people news they don't want to hear right the difficult part about this rescue is we're
00:11:41starting from scratch you know the ground that they have we know has no gold the plant has to
00:11:45be re-engineered I'm a little nervous about being able to get it done in time and more nervous about
00:11:49trying to find better ground this kind of sucks getting out here and meeting Raul and Helen you
00:12:11can tell right right from the beginning they're great people they are great you know the way that
00:12:15Raul speaks and he's very compassionate and very emotional you can tell he's a real caring person
00:12:21yeah but I think his desire and his motivation to mine kind of trumped going out there and actually
00:12:26testing and figuring out what was there before he committed no that's the problem with listening to
00:12:32hearsay you know everyone has a story about how the ground is so great grab a gold pan grab a test
00:12:37plant grab a high banker whatever you know test it yourself I'm really hoping that we can deliver on
00:12:44this one's ready moment of truth good morning good morning in British Columbia after a cracked pump cap
00:12:58shortened their test run to an hour Raul Paredes and his wife Helen have the gold they cleaned from
00:13:05their mats when we need that you know it's not going to be a good thing holy cow very sad well it's not weighable
00:13:17yep can't buy a can of soup with that Raul and Helen need to make an ounce of gold a day to run their plant
00:13:24and pay back their investors you had a thousand dollars worth of expenses for 50 cents worth of gold if you
00:13:32were getting you know a quarter ounce for you know for the day that that's still a death but that's
00:13:37a really quick death yes that doesn't even cover the fuel that it cost to start the equipment so
00:13:42where do we go from here we can fix your plant but we need to go look at your ground we need more
00:13:47understanding and more more information more information about the ground all righty well
00:13:53that's pretty thank you thank you that's probably one of the worst gold waves we've ever had there's
00:13:59no way they're ever going to be able to pay back their investment or their investors mining like
00:14:04that unfortunately Freddie and I were not miracle workers the gold that's in the ground is in the
00:14:08ground so it puts a lot more stress on Freddie and myself to be able to go out and perform and
00:14:13do something good for these people hey Raul what's going on let's not waste any more time down here and I
00:14:23think it's actually I think it's a really good lesson you got to do that testing before we set up
00:14:30these elaborate setups and then find there's no gold we believe a few people maybe it was no true I
00:14:42always listen to other people maybe I'm doing something wrong I think that imagination runs a little
00:14:50bit too wild we've got to get wiser at how we mind to get these depths cleared up because we're getting
00:14:57too old to play this game this way all good we'll figure it out Raul's a very determined person he's met
00:15:12challenges in his life most human beings shouldn't have to go through he came to Canada to escape the
00:15:20situation that was happening in El Salvador I came as a political refugee in 1991 by that time you know
00:15:29Salvador there was no democracy in 1979 El Salvador plunged into a 12-year civil war that saw over 75,000
00:15:44people die at the time Raul worked at a Jesuit university one fateful day the Salvadoran army raided the
00:15:58building he worked in I took 10 minutes early for lunch and that's when the incident happened they
00:16:06murdered six Jesuit priests their housekeeper and her daughter everybody that was at that moment in the
00:16:15building was murdered they didn't get me known as the Jesuit massacre it's one of the most high-profile
00:16:25religious crimes in modern Latin American history my dad came up to me one day and he said you know
00:16:32what I don't want to live with my conscience that tomorrow they found you on the road dead the next day
00:16:39at 7 30 in the morning I was in a plane and I was good that was it that's the last time I ever see my
00:16:46family it was tough for me to leave my country I came to this country with seven dollars in my pocket
00:16:54I didn't know how to speak English coming to Canada was a second opportunity to start a life
00:17:01it's been tough for me I have to find a goal
00:17:05what are you thinking on the plant buddy well the plant itself Fred you know we have a lot of issues
00:17:21I can see why they named it the octopus yeah we call this the screen right there's a screen here's
00:17:26the the hopper feeder that they have yep first and foremost most the racket that we're hearing is that
00:17:31punch plate that they have that's one of the loudest screens I've ever heard is not installed properly
00:17:36but more important than that the punch plate is too big way too big we've got two inch rocks going
00:17:40down the sluice box so I think what we may have to do is I'll build new punch plates okay what about
00:17:46the sluices one right now there's no room for gold the material it's blowing it out of the box I'm
00:17:52going to pull everything out Fred getting rid of those those three or four runs that he has and just
00:17:56make two runs yep and then what I'd like to do is put one of our distribution boxes in there our
00:18:01standard shoot where it comes out has a splitter and then it perfectly divides that material between the
00:18:06two runs yeah those are the three big key things that I need to get done on that plant but more
00:18:11important than the plant if you don't have gold to put to the plant that means nothing right yeah
00:18:16well I'm gonna go prospecting honestly I think we could use a little help what if we bring Alex
00:18:20and Travi in yeah I think that would be better let's go do it let's do it on Raoul's plant nicknamed
00:18:29the octopus oversized rocks jam the system and pack the sluices one will fabricate two teardrop hole punch
00:18:38plates to screen out oversized pay then to give the plant a chance to collect every speck of fine gold
00:18:46one will reduce the sluices from four to two to better control the water flow and design a two-way
00:18:56v-shoot distribution box to spread the pay between them to allow the sluices to flow evenly Freddy's
00:19:05main mission will be to decode 150 years of old-timer mining to track down a pocket of gold that will
00:19:13save Raoul and Helen's operation going guys we're a bit nervous we did a little bit of figuring out
00:19:22while you were running we saw a lot of issues a lot one of them is that you're screening too big
00:19:27right so we're gonna pull what you have out build a whole new top deck and then we're gonna build a
00:19:32new system to go on the side to actually tension the the screens into the screen nice your sluices are
00:19:37not good yeah it's just it's too too messy what we're gonna do we're gonna do two traditional sluice
00:19:44boxes but before the sluice boxes we're gonna actually put a distribution box in so both runs are
00:19:49gonna get equal amount of material and water and we'll fix that pump cap for you right essentially
00:19:55we're gonna rebuild the whole wash plant wow so it's no longer gonna be an octopus we're gonna have
00:19:59to rename it um and then Freddy is gonna try to dedicate most of his time to to prospecting because
00:20:04you're gonna be out there you know pounding the pavement trying to find some decent ground well you've
00:20:08got a lot of property here but there's been a lot of people on it before you everything i see is
00:20:13tailings right so we've got multiple things going on here that are fighting against us right now
00:20:18so we need to go punch a bunch of holes okay yeah it's a lot of work we talked as well so we aren't
00:20:26going to charge you anything yeah you know considering where you guys are at and everything you got going
00:20:31on we understand your guys financial situation and both freddie and i have been very blessed so um
00:20:37we're happy to do it for for nothing you know material and labor we're just going to pick up
00:20:41the tab on it oh wow that's that's amazing you guys we can't thank you enough hopefully down the
00:20:46road we can that's fine if not not not the end of the world i uh i appreciate very much the help from
00:20:53you guys you know i mean this is this is our life there is hope for us to continue what we love to do
00:21:01deal then yeah i'm blessed to have freddie i'm blessed to have one but they can see that we're
00:21:09struggling and hopefully he can find good material for us it's not over yet so we're going to have a
00:21:15new plan yes i know that maybe some gold to put in it these guys are a pickle for lack of better words
00:21:23so hopefully fingers crossed we can find them some gold for their future
00:21:32coming up there was a lot of gold right here it's now in somebody else's bank account you can tell by
00:21:36the look right here the whole thing's built off we're going to run out of time on this one you
00:21:40know this has really turned into a show
00:21:53what we're trying to do here is learn before freddie attempts to find raoul new ground he must seek
00:22:03advice from a local expert i kind of consider myself a redneck geologist but i don't know this area so
00:22:11the more knowledge i can get from somebody that's grown up here that's mined here that's worked here
00:22:16that knows the geology of the area is going to be of great benefit for one and myself
00:22:24how's it going not too bad elf right right nice to meet you else it is this is pretty cool
00:22:31old steam shovel i've never seen one of these in real life i've seen them you know in pictures and
00:22:38in books took a whole crew to run this one gold fever's been here since the 1800s
00:22:43question for you over at rules across the valley is most of this gold in the surface
00:22:51they said it was a mile deep here oh i imagine yeah yeah it's unbelievable so when
00:22:56you start mining here 1980. nice so when gold spiked gold spiked and we all got the fever we all
00:23:03come running out here i didn't move here until 96. so 44 years huh yeah off and on now this is one
00:23:12of the better nuggets i got that's my souvenir from gold oh that's beautiful yeah absolutely beautiful
00:23:18that's one of the prettiest nuggets i've ever seen yeah with the courts like that so over the decades
00:23:26you mind here you know was it up and down very and a lot more down than up actually yeah do you think
00:23:34the gold's the same over rules it's crazy place to mine you just think you're on it nice on a channel
00:23:40yeah cuts right off the gold's here and then it's shifts over here the river's coming up and down and
00:23:46moving around and yeah but here we've had two glaciation periods yeah and moved it around
00:23:52the glaciers screw everything up they're the world's biggest bulldozer that's for sure
00:23:56the ground's very erratic you'll hit good but you'll be a lot of poor in between there's still
00:24:05gold around here to be found i'm sure about that you got to get through all the lean dirt to get to
00:24:10the good dirt you know you put it in my head that it's spotty right yes that's right bulk testing's the
00:24:16way to do it that's what i recommend yeah i really appreciate your help see you later sir thank you
00:24:22gold mining essentially it's a treasure hunt the guys that were here before us
00:24:29they took most of the treasure but there's got to be some gold left here
00:24:42so this is where the magic happens back at the parade's mine juan begins to fix the wash
00:24:50plant's cracked pump cap that brought the first test run to a standstill we got an issue with the
00:24:56pump over time pressure changes in the pump creates weakness in the metal known as fatigue cracks which
00:25:04eventually buckle the cap oh it looks like it's cracked so how long does it take to build something
00:25:13like this we should be able to get it done in about a half an hour that fast
00:25:22wasn't expecting that in minutes one 25 000 degree laser
00:25:28cuts the pump cap pieces out of a three gauge steel sheet
00:25:35well that was absolutely amazing i've never seen anything like it
00:25:39that worked out good huh yeah it did well let's put it together real quick ready
00:25:45i can see how amazing it is to have the proper tools on site because if we're not running we're not
00:25:51making money what's it like working with raul he doesn't give up easy most days we just have a blast
00:26:02but it does have its challenges when you're with your partner 24 7 that um uh you can have
00:26:09disagreements but uh we believe in a more positive outcome in mining than what we've been experiencing
00:26:20raul and i met each other about 13 years ago on a dating application
00:26:26we just kind of headed he was cute long black hair the sexy accent and i thought okay i'll bite
00:26:37raul was first offered a job in the yukon gold mining he fell in love and then a couple years later
00:26:45i also helped on that journey and i thought okay this is it this is our lifestyle
00:26:49after 13 years we have our tiffs but most of the time it's a beautiful journey together raul has my
00:27:00back at every step um i love him hola got her down fred let's see if it fits
00:27:08with this cap we don't have to be too worried about the pressure we put on that
00:27:32i'm proud of what we did there it seems like it's working out
00:27:34only somebody like juan couldn't make it that fast for us but we're we're good i'm happy
00:27:52these are the maps of raul's claims and he's got roughly 700 acres here with five days to put raul
00:28:00on the gold freddie plots out his prospecting plan it helps to have an aerial view sometimes right
00:28:07you can definitely tell you know this lower area where we're at right now has been hit hard that
00:28:12meant there was quite a bit of gold here right but i can see on here and i could see visually on
00:28:17the ground that river used to be up there and before that it was up there right so i don't know
00:28:23if it's been mined but that's where we need to start freddie aims to follow what looks like an old
00:28:29river channel and has identified three promising locations with the first in the north
00:28:37one thing raul didn't do here is prospect his property so he's kind of up the river without
00:28:43a really good paddle right now but that doesn't mean there's not hope left here this area has
00:28:48produced a tremendous amount of gold the easy stuff's probably gone but there's still a lot of gold around
00:28:55here we just gotta find it in the next valley to raul and helen's property the famous bullion pit mine
00:29:05is a lasting legacy to the incredible richness of the ground from 1892 this placer mine was operational for
00:29:1450 years and pulled out over 175 000 ounces of gold worth 400 million dollars in today's money
00:29:33right now these guys are in a desperate spot every ounce of gold every speck of gold we can help them get
00:29:39means everything to them so basically the pressure's on me now we got to find mineable ground that's
00:29:47fairly easy to get to to put money in his pocket or they won't be mining very long you said you had to
00:29:55sell your house to keep mining yes at one point we decide to sell our own house we always knew that was
00:30:01a gamble you haven't paid any bills i'm just going in death every year more and more and more
00:30:10one big deal is uh you need to do some testing on your own let's say you want to buy this piece of
00:30:16property and the owner's got all this paperwork from years past sometimes that doesn't matter in gold
00:30:24mining though if the gold's not there don't trust what they've got wrote down most of the time unless you
00:30:30really know the people you know trust what your own eyes tell you get in there and do some sampling
00:30:35that's right you can work your hands to bloody nimble's and uh still not make any money
00:30:52trying to figure out what's going on with the creek
00:30:54is that the same creek that goes into your mind now yes freddie has identified a section of ground
00:31:07he believes was once part of the quenelle river a major tributary for the famous gold rush fraser river
00:31:14of the caribou district see now this is truly a bench
00:31:19and this is too steep to hold gravels here so here's the bench but i don't know how much of it's
00:31:28been hit over millions of years a bench is formed when an ancient river carves its way down a mountain
00:31:36as it changes course it leaves gravels that could be rich in gold
00:31:41freddie hopes that this area if not hit might give raoul some high grade pay they've knocked all the
00:31:53trees down all these trees are you know a couple decades old it's just hard to tell what's been played
00:32:00with so let's get an excavator up here and punch some holes and see what we see see what's tailings and
00:32:06what's not because with everything grown on it where we're standing did they mine this and then
00:32:11back fell it or you know yeah okay we'll do that you know there's hope he's throwing me a life jacket
00:32:19so i won't drown hopefully it can change my life the old timers hit it hard it looks like you know
00:32:28they hit it hard probably in the 30s and in the 80s and in the 90s so there's a lot on the line for these
00:32:33guys how's it going guys how we doing good in british columbia alex and travis arrive at the
00:32:57parade's mine site to provide some extra muscle bring your gloves gloves and a third welding truck
00:33:04it's kind of scary when you two say you need a third welding truck all right guys let's get out let's get it
00:33:15guide me for my tips down a little bit with freddie focused on the prospecting mission
00:33:21alex and travis helped one with raoul's new sluices
00:33:28so this sluice box looks really wide but it's actually two sluice boxes in one we're going to put
00:33:32a center divider in it and then we're going to have two runs that are two and a half feet wide each
00:33:37for that plant to run efficiently it has to have a five foot box we'll build one box and split it down
00:33:42the middle you know if we ran just one big box there was no guarantee that you get an even flow
00:33:47but by being able to put it down to two and a half foot each stream we're able to concentrate it a
00:33:52little better and actually get better recovery with a smaller box one will remove the overcomplicated
00:33:58octopus hose feed system and install two custom-made 10-foot sluice boxes to better capture gold
00:34:06hot this is perfect welding weather you know when it's over 100 degrees it's perfect to weld in
00:34:21uh it really makes it enjoyable i'm really hoping that freddie going up there and taking a look at
00:34:27the cut might kind of open up some options for raoul and helen that's a lot we just got to keep our nose
00:34:33of the grindstone keep on working right now let's go
00:34:45here's the bench i'm gonna punch one over here you want to throw one here yeah to the north of raoul's
00:34:53claim freddie digs deeper into the first location he's identified this would have been a gold bearing
00:35:01bench in this area but looking at it i can't tell if what we're standing on has been a mine already
00:35:07we're just gonna have to look around here and start punching some holes and see what the material looks
00:35:12like thank you
00:35:29it's tailings
00:35:30it's tailings this is uh this is well the old timer he mentioned to me that
00:35:41he did two yards of a bucket over there and it was really really really good he said i don't know
00:35:45if i believe whoever he bought this place from everything's tailings there is no point to every
00:35:51rock here has been washed there was a lot of gold right here it's now in somebody else's bank account
00:35:56you know but if there is a 10-foot square area here number one it's not going to be enough
00:36:02to mine and number two finding it that's like finding a needle in the haystack right where your
00:36:07track go out trying to find a little sliver of something the more time goes by the more worried i've
00:36:13become
00:36:16tough but it's reality
00:36:20just right now i don't have the answer where
00:36:33so cut this punch plate is going to probably take a little over an hour and a half each plate
00:36:45back at juan's build site as the rescue crew continues to work on the sluices
00:36:51juan and david kick off the wash plants punch plates
00:36:55so the design that we're doing on this is a teardrop design it's something that freddie and i
00:36:59used in the past that way the material when it goes over the top of the screen has a chance to
00:37:03relieve itself and also we leave a little bit bigger that way if there is the odd chance of that
00:37:08bigger nugget it still has a chance to be able to make it through
00:37:12fixed onto the hopper's screen deck the plates will allow gold bearing material through into the sluices
00:37:23be careful
00:37:29that looks good david that's probably plenty you know as uh as when we put that in as
00:37:35the material goes over the top of it it'll wear it out so it'll push all that out it's not a big
00:37:39deal how come the teardrop design you know that's a design that we've kind of done over the years
00:37:45it starts out about a quarter of an inch and goes to half an inch it's pretty effective for when you
00:37:49screen material oh awesome so quick question for you how'd you get involved in all this my parents
00:37:54come out and uh mine every year so i just i come out and help whenever i can i i really enjoy it
00:38:04i love the prospecting of gold mining sticking the shovel in the ground and into the pan and seeing
00:38:11what what's going to come up david spends his time between his role as a firefighter and his passion for
00:38:19mining and has become a key asset to raul and mum helen's operation i am a very hands-on type of person
00:38:29to give me a book i'm horrible at the book but like give me a piece of equipment i can run that all day
00:38:34i also bring energy to the team bills i gotta be paid and the job i have is very secured but if the gold
00:38:46was stable and consistent i come out here and help mom and i will kiss they absolutely deserve it
00:38:53hold on watch your fingers i thought it'd be lighter with all those holes in it but it's still pretty
00:39:04heavy they're not light are they you want to get these guys set up with a slag hammer let's start
00:39:08poking all those out okay yeah i can do that very good
00:39:23so it's your property that's correct now this property almost go up to the caribou river
00:39:33back out on the hunt for gold and after one failed prospect freddy moves on to his next location
00:39:40in the middle of the bench formation people that we bought the property yeah and find a few colors in
00:39:47uh he said to me well you can start from there i mean we run some yeah we find colors but nothing
00:39:58nothing to make us uh super rich none of this looks good to me this is just what they dug out when they
00:40:05made the pond when they dig a pile out like that and then they don't sluice it when they have a plant
00:40:10set up in here that tells you a story right looks like they were going broke and they took the quick
00:40:21going broke way and got out it was our own life savings money maybe it was my fault to listen to other
00:40:32people the lesson that i learned you know is do your own testing because it's very tough to learn it this
00:40:41way you can see that the old timers haven't done much the modern people haven't done much and there's a
00:40:47reason because from what i see so far there's not much gold in the ground up here like the old saying
00:40:54goes a gold mine for sale there's a hole in the ground with a liar standing above it
00:41:14this is a real horrible part of the day in british columbia facing an uncertain future helen
00:41:21struggles to pay bills it's overwhelming like we've got people that we need to pay back
00:41:30then we've got our regular bills like our rent and all our fuel for the equipment
00:41:36the reality is we need to get into that gold like yesterday we've made a ton of mistakes definitely
00:41:45identifying the ground you've got to be on the gold and then that wash plant is too much it's too
00:41:52complicated i wish i had been armed with the information that franny and juan give us
00:42:01before i started this journey i would be way wiser and probably still have a lot more money in my pocket
00:42:15the way raul let's go look at this up there okay after drawing a bust at the first two locations
00:42:23freddy is down to his last option a patch of ground to the south of raul's claim 50 yards from his main
00:42:30cut we're just gonna have to look around here and see if there's any any ground that's still minable
00:42:36the old timers hit it hard so trying to read this i can't see into the ground but i know one thing's for
00:42:44sure we're running out of options fast let's keep looking around huh yes sir
00:42:59this is tailings
00:43:02see the tailings here tailings there
00:43:10hang on one second
00:43:14i like the look of this stuff
00:43:20you like this stuff yeah it's better than anything else i've seen that isn't tailings
00:43:24okay see how the rocks are shingled in there uh-huh see the difference in the material looks compared
00:43:30to what you were digging right yeah i don't know how much of it's here though we need to find out
00:43:34what's under here under here yeah let's see what we got this may be your last chance pretty i'm gonna
00:43:41get on the excavator okay i'm very excited freddy's discovered what he believes to be virgin ground
00:43:49surrounded by tailings kind of a little excited to know that maybe there is a pocket of gold over
00:43:56there and change my life hang on one second row no you don't have to go that far
00:44:07not that far no just scrape the face bro just
00:44:14just scrape the face from right there down okay not to back up
00:44:27okay now reach out and scrape it don't take the whole hill down that may be the only virgin material
00:44:34we got what did you see freddy
00:44:51you know it looks good
00:44:56take a snapshot in your brain of how this material in the bank looks right i want to show you something
00:45:00in this hole you can tell it's virgin material because just the way it's laying in there
00:45:08in nature that rock right there right when it's in a stream system isn't going to stand up like that
00:45:14is it water is going to hit it it's going to fall over so that tells us once upon a time water flowed
00:45:20through here and uh helped concentrate the gold so in the future you know look for this and uh look for
00:45:30your shingled rocks i will let's keep punching a hole down hopefully it gets you enough gold in your
00:45:36pocket where you can uh keep going well the past two days have been kind of a a real pain in the butt
00:45:47for lack of better words you know look here you know it doesn't look good look there it's all been
00:45:52mined all tailings but there's a little glimmer of hope because we just found some virgin material over
00:45:57here and it looks good to me just leave it right there ro what's your opinion
00:46:12so there's definitely a division on what's going on here we've got two types of material in there
00:46:18it could be spotty ground we got uh tailings and virgin ground we're in a situation do you go broke fast
00:46:25or do you go broke slow so we need to test that material and see if it's worth digging it up
00:46:32yeah yeah bulk test is way better than a gold pan instead of doing you know 10 gold pans let's do
00:46:3910 000 gold pens and see what lives in it let's get this thing knocked out we're running out of time
00:46:45last season one of the guys he left the trommel over here the chain broke down to bulk test the new
00:46:58material freddy eyes up a broken down test trommel he's seen in raul's bone yard what do you think
00:47:05i like it fred i like the idea what's the test trommel huh this is a trommel have you used it
00:47:12we washed two yards then scenes went sour the master link it broke
00:47:19the another issue that had it doesn't have a spray but in the trommel
00:47:24the motor run yes it does we had it to start just with a rope here yeah okay but yeah it runs
00:47:31what we might be able to do here is even if i do another section of sprockets and then we'll put a
00:47:37spray bar in it get these two tied into one manifold so we have one pump feeding the whole
00:47:42system instead of multiple pumps yep five times cheaper to run than the main wash plant raul will
00:47:49be able to use this trommel on every piece of promising ground it's a big weight on our shoulders
00:47:55freddy and i want to do the most that we can here to help raul and helen
00:47:58and uh that looks like it's going to be us having to work on their test trommel and also on their
00:48:02main plant so it's really a two-in-one rescue and that's a lot of work to provide raul a way to
00:48:10bulk test his spotty ground juan will resurrect the test trommel with a new spray bar then design a
00:48:17bespoke manifold to maintain uniform water pressure throughout the system
00:48:22to keep gold bearing pain moving through the plant they'll add a custom-made sprocket and chain
00:48:31to efficiently rotate its drum and add freddy's signature riffles in the sluice to catch fine gold
00:48:41these were uh something that they added onto the trommel to be able to guide the chain but they didn't
00:48:46really work so we're going to pull this complete assembly off and build a whole new assembly for it
00:48:57that's a better one
00:49:00the sprockets can actually be a two-piece sprocket that we've weld on the outside of this drum
00:49:04that way it can actually turn the trommel
00:49:05here fred i'm going to be spinning this for a second
00:49:17what i'm doing is i'm just getting it lined up and i'm about ready to start welding it to the drum
00:49:20we want to make sure that it's perfectly aligned with this drive sprocket so that way when it runs
00:49:24it runs true the true we can get it right now when we're setting it up the better it's going to run in
00:49:28the long run put the clamp on it then bring the piece of chain over here and we'll do the same thing
00:49:33over here fun times freddy fun fun with the chain connected to the trommel's drive system there
00:49:44we are can you let go of it juan takes the drum for a spin starter up
00:49:50how did that get far off and i went right on my line let's see it's built off and this it is
00:50:08it's not built square no the base for the motor that runs the trommel is welded on out of line i'm
00:50:16just gonna have to readjust it's gonna slow me down the whole thing's built off yeah and you
00:50:20can tell by the look right here they got a quarter inch difference from here to here yeah i'm gonna
00:50:25cut the motor off and shift the whole thing gonna have to that's the only only way i can get it close
00:50:32yeah it is we genuinely might be screwed so really the pressure's on now we have a lot more work than
00:50:38what we originally anticipated because we're going to run out of time on this one
00:50:52it's always something moan at the paradis mine in british columbia um whomever built this you know
00:51:00they had great intentions but uh unfortunately they didn't know how to read a measuring tape
00:51:03after fixing up the test trommel freddie and juan discover the motor's mount is off center i assumed
00:51:11things were square and straight you know the gearbox the way they had it set up uh it wasn't
00:51:16perpendicular to the drum which created a lot of problems but uh that's how it goes we're just gonna
00:51:22have to make it up somewhere once you think you got something figured out something else pops out and
00:51:30bites right in the ass so are we still square on your sprocket down there yeah pretty square okay
00:51:39that's good yeah let me weld it right there we're good
00:51:51i like it freddie someone built that in their garage they had the best of intentions they tried
00:51:56hard but uh unfortunately nothing was right but i'm really happy the way it turned out
00:52:15okay we're gonna lift this up with just two days to go one puts the main wash plant on hold to carry
00:52:22on with the work on the test trommel that thing is hot travi next up fabricate its main spray bar
00:52:31this is going to be the end of the trauma right here right around there it's going to turn um
00:52:37this way to the left it's going to be a left-handing turn but what we're going to do is since the
00:52:41material is going to turn to the left it's going to be piled up right here that's about where the
00:52:44material is going to start sliding actually right about here i want this coming out at a 90 right here
00:52:48that way it can curl over so reality is the spray bar should be spraying roughly right there
00:53:02okay put some more lube on there freddie yeah we'll throw some on here where's our soap after
00:53:07adding the drums brand new spray bar freddie uses bubble soap to ease the hoses onto the trommel
00:53:14good thing your little bubbles work pretty yep it's still pretty tight on tiny bubbles
00:53:22okay well let's move this to its new home coming up after 24 hours work on the test trommel
00:53:31it's finally ready for the bulk test
00:53:33doing good alice looking good
00:53:43there's your trommel unreal wow well thank you very much you know i mean this is well we are here
00:53:54to help you buddy thank you very much we're here to help you i really appreciate it
00:53:57let's run the bulk test see what's in it okay we'll do that freddie fair enough
00:54:15freddie's plan run 50 buckets of pay through the trommel to get a dollar per yard result
00:54:23first bucket
00:54:27so far so good it's clean
00:54:42watch i'm going to turn the water up a little bit more okay
00:54:48right now the bulk tests go pretty good between the sluice box the way it's running the trommel's
00:54:54doing an excellent job scrubbing and washing the material and the drive system's doing great
00:54:59so i couldn't be happier hopefully there's going to be gold in the sluice box when we're done
00:55:08it's working well enough for us to do a bulk test right we got water flying all over the place and it's
00:55:13not ideal but i need a shower anyway
00:55:22we got one plant done fred the test plant one more to go huh i don't know who built this plant
00:55:29but they shouldn't build anything ever again the design and the concept is pretty good just their
00:55:34execution wasn't great yeah i'm gonna get back to welding okay i'll see you in a bit
00:55:42last bucket okay
00:55:44well let's see what we got here shut the trommel off bro
00:56:02i'm excited to see what is in there this is it this means everything to me this test
00:56:06me this test after running a 50 bucket bulk test
00:56:12thank you sir freddy cleans up the mats
00:56:24so this is roughly five yards of material raw yes there's gold in it that's for sure
00:56:31so we've got one two four
00:56:3916 17. well there's well over 20 colors there 21 but there's a few more wow this is the most i
00:56:49ever seen you know i mean since i've been here we might not even weigh it we may just eyeball it
00:56:54have a look at it so 20 dollars a yard wow this is amazing since i've been in this claim it's the
00:57:05most goal i ever seen in only five yards from that little piece freddy was the one that discovered that
00:57:13in just one five yard test freddy recovers more than 10 percent of what raul has found all season
00:57:21but i tell you what if it was gold was everywhere it wouldn't be worth much would it all right now
00:57:27it's twenty three hundred dollars an ounce so every one of those specs count just got to help
00:57:31catch more of it at the plant i don't know i'm very excited very excited to see gold there's some
00:57:38material to run right there twenty twenty five dollars a yard it looks good i mean that that's
00:57:43pretty good pay one oh that's pretty good out of five yards 20 some dollars a yard that's a hell of
00:57:52a whole lot better than what we saw last time three specs that's a huge improvement fred from not being
00:57:56able to pay the the gas bill to start the water pump to actually being able to maybe make some money
00:58:01there that's exciting freddy i'm actually excited about that so we're going to go run those old timer
00:58:07tailings see if it's worth running we'll do a side-by-side comparison okay and see what that does
00:58:12all right buddy see you in a bit waddle freddy's found some ground but uh the pressure's still on
00:58:18we still got a lot to do we still have to install everything and uh do a test run so we're out of
00:58:23time makes it tough
00:58:26how are you going go ahead and shut the throttle off at the parade's mine time to have a look at it
00:58:43huh to make a comparison freddy runs a second bulk test on the old timer tailings which surround the
00:58:50pocket of pay the old timers didn't have pumps they didn't have heavy equipment but you do now
00:58:58let's see what gold if any lives in this
00:59:02this 50 buckets yeah so we're apples to apples helen
00:59:11what are you looking at now there's not nearly as much black sand in it it's no good
00:59:16black sand is a highly mineralized material and often an indicator of gold that's a bad thing
00:59:25see we got some gold there yep but not much how's it looking well you can see the one on the right
00:59:31here helen we're figuring that's right around twenty dollars a yard okay okay now here's those old timer
00:59:37tailings it's probably got ten percent the amount of gold right you can run 20 you can make money on 20.
00:59:44yeah two go broke the bulk test confirms the old timer tailings are not worth running
00:59:52and in order to be profitable raul must focus solely on the virgin ground
00:59:58do you think there is more there's more of it in the bank up there right yeah but it's just hard
01:00:02to get to yeah so what i think we do is get this pond drained we look at the walls of this pond here
01:00:08and we'll start there right thank you freddy and let's make some stuff happen thank you start to
01:00:14have this glimmer of hope is just super amazing and hopefully we can start paying our bills and
01:00:23have a forward direction
01:00:28raul drains the pond by cutting away the berm wall to see if the pay pocket extends further
01:00:34in the river i'm very excited that freddy found us this little piece of ground that you know was
01:00:41hiding from us in this corner i would like to see what is in there and go from there right
01:01:05travis you want to plug in that other welder and start welding this other box out yeah sounds good
01:01:14with the ground found and 24 hours to go before the final test run juan races to finish fixes for the
01:01:21main plant so this is the beginning of the v chute you can see the outline of it the material is going
01:01:28to get funneled into the v chute concentrated in the center so it's even and then what we're going
01:01:33to do is we're going to have a splitter right here and then this one will come over to this side drop
01:01:36into the left hand sluice box and this will have a downspout over here for the right hand sluice box
01:01:40the reason we're doing this is because right now the way he's running the boxes one's getting a lot
01:01:45of material one's getting nothing and so it's not effective at all the v chute will separate material
01:01:52equally to the sluices allowing them to capture fine gold
01:02:0214 by 14 right there then i need the 47 by 14 that one perfect there's a tremendous amount of
01:02:12calculations figuring out where it's going to go how it's going to sit we still got a tremendous
01:02:16amount of work to do we're only halfway through this we're going to get this all jigged up and then
01:02:20we'll finish welding it out fortunately i have travis here with me so we're able to get a lot more
01:02:24done uh with the time we have but we better get back to it thank you trap
01:02:37hey raul
01:02:42i'll give you all the time in the world for you but
01:02:44out on the claim raul's drained the pond next to the pocket of pay
01:03:01this is all good pay call this is good pay i had a feeling that that pay continued through there
01:03:08right yeah you can't see through muddy water wow at twenty dollars a yard freddy's find could stop
01:03:17raul and helen from going broke it looks like it's going back into this hillside but it's just hard to
01:03:23get to once you get these tailings off the top somebody made a mess for you up there yeah so it's
01:03:28going to be a bit of work to get to it yeah this is all good pay bro yeah like uh that's tailings
01:03:38there you don't want to take any of that i'd follow it back first and then i'd plop those tailings out
01:03:45of there you know get it all cleaned up this way away from the hill that way you can throw those old
01:03:50timer tailings over the top without worrying about you know covering up good pay that's right but you can
01:03:56see even here right we got pay yeah in there so just look for those shingled rocks thank you very
01:04:04much old timer tailings are stacked on top of virgin material which will need to be dug out with
01:04:12precision so that the pay is not diluted start digging some of this material over here and get it
01:04:21stockpiled to run dig away wow got good news freddy found a really nice spot over there bro i'm so
01:04:34excited it's the first smile i had all day is when i seen that i got something to look forward
01:04:42in the future that i can continue my passion for gold mining
01:05:03at the parade's mine site with hours to go the rescue crew races to complete the final fixes
01:05:10basically we're out of time everything we've had to do here from prospecting to uh get that test
01:05:17trauma going it's got to be all hands on deck now because literally our hourglass is damn near empty
01:05:26are we taking out all of the sluices all of the sluices he won them out
01:05:30but he said i mean we're just preparing the job for him so once we take all these sluices out it's not
01:05:37going to be an octopus anymore it's not going to be an octopus we're going to have to come up with a
01:05:41different name you guys that's right maybe an oyster because oyster oyster has pairs so they got value
01:05:48okay let's do it get at her raoul's mission strip down the old plant in preparation for the new sluice
01:05:56runs and distribution box
01:05:58yeah we don't want to damage any of these beams because we don't know what um one's going to be
01:06:08using right yeah so let's not um damage anything okay i couldn't do what i do without helen she's
01:06:15a key in this operation without her i couldn't do it
01:06:19she's the one to look after the plan and we start this adventure together and hopefully we end up
01:06:28together and hopefully we can be winners together helen you guys want to move out of there please
01:06:34yeah i guess just stack them all over here this way yay we got one down three to go
01:06:41i gotta go more that way so when i lift it up i'm not pushing it this way i gotta let me know you're
01:06:52my eyes buddy i can't really see from here okay nice and slow raoul watch the chain
01:06:58all right let's unhook that chain nice job raoul oh good
01:07:16now for the rebuild
01:07:21pull on that rail the crew prepares to weld in the v shoot box
01:07:27into raoul and helen's plant today's gonna be a big day we're completely out of time luckily
01:07:32we have enough help here travis and alex are here to give us a hand still got a lot to do
01:07:36but we're getting closer the custom-made v shoot needs to sit tightly under the hupper
01:07:44the only way freddy can weld it in is from the inside of the five foot long box
01:07:50this is really gonna suck i'll be right over here huh i'll be right over here if you need me
01:08:00where's that grinder alex alex i need you what's up yeah hand me that grinder would you
01:08:10grinder grinder thank you i'm gonna get fried in here
01:08:26it's comfy in here
01:08:32so we'll slide it in through the front here and then we'll we'll walk it over all right right above
01:08:37freddy on the shaker deck juan and travis install the new punch plates
01:08:44all right to me a little bit what we're going to do is we're going to get the punch plate lifted in
01:08:47place we're going to have to get one side tacked in and then we'll have to push down the other side
01:08:51so we can get that bow in it and be able to tension the plates all right let's get the work
01:08:59push this side down hard are we tight all right
01:09:08thank you travi no problem so we thought we're gonna have to use a bottle jack to add pressure
01:09:15to push the plate down but after water and i stood on it there was enough weight between the
01:09:19two of us to be able to pin her down called her good enough one and travis's body weight bush fix
01:09:27is enough to tension and weld the punch plates into place i guess that means we need to go on a diet
01:09:32as the material comes down it can come over and it's not going too far over where it can't get
01:09:47screened so that way it'll still hit the the holes it's still real the holes yeah still get the
01:09:52perforations nice you've done an amazing job here juan wow i get pretty emotional this just means a lot
01:09:59to me i mean this is this is my life i appreciate that you're giving me the tools that i can go and
01:10:05start start all over again and honestly it's been a pleasure you know and you came to canada with
01:10:11nothing you know you started a mine and you know this is yours and and to me that's you know that's
01:10:18that's the sign of somebody that's put a lot of effort a lot of time and a lot of heart into what
01:10:22they do you know not everybody does that so i totally understand that that you know the story
01:10:30because my family's done it as well and you know they gave me the opportunities to to be the person
01:10:35i am now it's our pleasure
01:10:36much thank you don juan no te preocupes y para ver a alguien que ha sacrificado tanto para para
01:10:45estar aquà para tratar tener una mejor vida es un placer para nosotros para ayudarte muchas
01:10:52gracias don juan claro no me digas igualmente gracias pues hay que ponernos las pilas no para terminar
01:11:00esto hey alex yes sir can you hand me my stinger i have no idea where i think you're laying on it
01:11:13buddy yeah i can't through my own head around in here beneath juan and raul freddy finishes welding
01:11:22in the five foot v chute i'm not like freddy freddy can fit into tight places um i don't think i
01:11:32could have done that when i was five hot in here oh i bet
01:11:39it was already 100 degrees in here before i started welding on this plate
01:11:44now the plate's a couple hundred degrees how long was i in that thing uh you were in there for a solid
01:11:51hour well i was a tight fit in there that's for sure and hot and you know without something on
01:11:56the back of your hood you get the reflection off the steel that goes in there and it flash burns
01:12:00your eyes i can feel it right now they're like itchy so wasn't any fun but at the same time it had to be
01:12:09done good you're doing good keep coming the last step of the wash plant fix a little more
01:12:19installed the 10-foot sluices perfect here you go buddy thank you
01:12:28it was a tremendous uh undertaking and i honestly didn't think we were going to get it all done
01:12:34i'm hoping that this plant is going to work properly and we do the final test run because
01:12:37raul and helen they've put a lot of trust and confidence in us there you go and we want to deliver
01:12:49you gotten a little bit of uh time with your drone fred not much crashed a couple times
01:12:55one mile from helen and raul's claim is the bullion pit mine which was hydraulicked in the 1870s
01:13:02using huge water cannons well one time at home i uh piled up a drone into a pile of black sand
01:13:09from cleanup really got in the motors and everything just completely destroyed it what drone is this
01:13:14number is four or five six thanks freddy you've gotten better no i haven't went through the
01:13:24widespread trees instead of the narrow ones you didn't want to go to the narrow gap huh if there
01:13:27was only one tree i could find a way to hit it how's that looking oh wow definitely bigger than it
01:13:33looks from the ground here a lot bigger than what it looks like i think i read they mined out about 22
01:13:37million tons of gravel yeah that's quite a bit there's a lot of material there well like you said freddy you
01:13:43know there's a reason they mined all that material it must have been pretty decent gold
01:13:56you ready guys let's fire it up run let's do it start the pump thanks starting the pump
01:14:03at the paredes mine with the pump cap and large wash plant fixed and new pay found raul helen and david
01:14:12start the second test okay hey no more agua we're good i'm very excited this is my day
01:14:24i've been waiting for this for a long long time how's it look looks really good in here fred yeah
01:14:33first bucket there you go started the timer
01:14:44the stockpiled pocket of pay will keep the plant running for an hour
01:14:49enough time for freddy and juan to assess their fixes on the big plant
01:14:53the difference is amazing now it's even it's running beautifully
01:15:05looks good the plant before there would be no way i could even hear you but now the plant's actually
01:15:10running pretty decent so far the material coming off the end looks really clean so i couldn't be happier
01:15:16the new fitted punch plates screen out the worthless rock
01:15:26well the v chute looks good the sluice looks good the punch plates
01:15:34juan's custom-made steel v chute separates material evenly allowing gold rich pay to settle in the riffles
01:15:42place much better yeah that's good hopefully things can change for the better and be able to
01:15:57to pay the people that i own money pay my bills and doing what i love to do
01:16:04be everything to me will mean everything the whole world right
01:16:12i can see tailings in that pay they're feeding into the plant that's not good that's really going
01:16:17to water it down freddy has identified old-timer tailings mixed in with the virgin pay lowering the
01:16:25value of the material last bucket roll
01:16:29part of it was tailings we diluted it a little bit huh yeah we probably lost quite a bit of gold
01:16:45probably 50 percent of it yeah i would imagine that yeah
01:16:47let's clean it up yeah let's do it
01:17:03okay
01:17:10hello guys moment of truth guys how we doing how does that look good well we got gold there
01:17:16weighable amount yeah but there's some issues we wanted to talk to you about
01:17:20there was a lot of tailings in it let's say our pay was diluted 50 percent so when when you start
01:17:27you know following that channel you need to make sure that you just take the pay layer
01:17:30and you've seen what we did with that test trommel right yeah we got a gram of gold out of that out
01:17:34of five yards it's going to be a huge improvement when you actually get in there and actually run
01:17:38straight pay you're going to see a night and day difference you ready yes we're ready
01:17:44here goes nothing excited the first test run produced just 50 cents worth of gold
01:17:59point zero three
01:18:03point zero three guys after an hour running 30 yards of dirt raul and helen make almost 70
01:18:11dollars worth of gold you know 0.03 out of one hour run it's gold it's here honestly i see hope
01:18:18there it's a heck of an improvement from the first gold weight yeah we're happy now you know you have
01:18:22some decent ground on the on on the property to run and stay in that pay channel yeah stay in those
01:18:27shingled rocks but there should be enough material here to get your pockets lined with a little bit of
01:18:33money but in the future you're gonna have to find more ground and then two now you have a proper test
01:18:38plant that you can take anywhere to do testing and your your wash plant is working amazingly it's
01:18:44running really well it's gonna pay off you know you're in a spot where you can make some money
01:18:48200 improvement oh yeah well thank you very much you guys give us hope i mean if it wasn't for you guys
01:19:00we wouldn't be here we wouldn't be here you're very well you guys changed our life it's no longer
01:19:06the battle that it was we're off and running well guys we've got another mind to go to so it's been
01:19:13an absolute pleasure yeah thank you i'm proud of what we did here even if raul and helen don't
01:19:18stay on this property or they mine it out they've got the tools and the knowledge to go somewhere else
01:19:24and have a lot better start than they've had here the hope that freddie and juan has given us
01:19:32priceless priceless i'm on my way i'm feeling really awesome right now for the future of our
01:19:40mining this is going to be really exciting please let us know how you get on definitely yeah do for
01:19:45anyone i love you and we can't thank you enough you've changed our our world honestly i feel that
01:19:54these fixes and what we've done here for them it's gonna it's gonna be life-changing you know i'm happy
01:20:00that we had the opportunity to come out here and help it's great to meet people that need the help
01:20:04and that when they receive the help they're they're truly appreciative and they definitely are that
01:20:18after freddie and juan left we found it was going to be way too difficult for us to get to the dirt
01:20:25with the current equipment that we have so we decided to move on to find better grounds the gold
01:20:33isn't so difficult to get at we did a lot of testing with the trommel i couldn't be any more happy
01:20:41because without that trommel i wouldn't be telling you what i'm telling you i found the ground
01:20:46if we run a day on this page and this is being conservative we should be just over the three
01:20:55thousand dollar mark a day pretty phenomenal freddie and juan have really breathed so much
01:21:03new life into the future of our gold mining and we're so excited for next year to get done
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