We’re running dirt.
This is the end push.
It’s go, go, go.

If Rick’s right about this Vegas Valley,
we’re all excited to see what kind of gold we got in these sluice runs.

Rick Ness is on a make-or-break treasure hunt.
After hitting it big earlier this season at Rally Valley,
he struggled to find another hot spot
before deciding to gamble on Vegas Valley.

Now, after burning six weeks and one million dollars,
he’s finally sluicing the 160-foot-deep cut
and is just days away from finding out
if his big gamble will deliver a bonanza or a bust.

To put it lightly, it’s got to be good ground to make it work, to make this gamble worth it.
So, you know, that’s why we’re in the business we are.
It’s a volatile business.

With Rick’s water license about to expire,
it could be his last ever season mining at Duncan Creek.
And with winter on the horizon,
tensions are running high.

You know, everybody lives together and long hours and all that.
You know, it can be toxic for a crew,
and when that happens,
you kind of lose control.

It’s the end of the season.
We’re pulling pay from Vegas Valley.
Hopefully it’s good and the weather holds out.

Yeah, no, everyone’s definitely pumped to have Z back.

Z is getting up, doing breakfast in the morning, knows what needs to get done,
jumping in and helping out where needed.
So, it’s going really good.

He’s up here helping me out,
making sure that the season ends on a strong note.

With Z back,
Rick’s crew are at full strength.
But with just a few weeks left in the season,
the clock is ticking on Rick’s crew
chasing down two million dollars in gold.

I just didn’t realize how much stress I was carrying
knowing that we weren’t getting any gold.
But we’re up and running right now.
We’ve got a shot at it.
And it feels really good.

Holy, Ryan.
Ryan, Ryan, hit the bypass.
Water line let go.
Those blew off.
Just slid right off.

Well, at least it’s nothing major.

No.

So, I’m headed up top.
Ryan’s going to feed that water line up to me
and I’m just going to tighten the new clamp.
Should be easy.

Attach this water line.
Holy.
Holy.
Dude, we got problems.

Holy.
Holy.
Dude, we got problems.
We got more than a water line going on here.
We got screen damage, big time.

So that’s the problem right there.
We got some significant damage at Duncan Creek.

In its first week running Vegas Valley pay,
Monster Red is once again shut down.

And it is up our universe, man.

That’s a big hole.
Looks like you’ve got one, two, three, four, five.
You got at least six of them down below
that are right in line with this rock right here.

That’s a big rock.
Yeah, that’s way too big for these screens to handle.
Yeah, a rock like that will destroy everything in this plant quick.

That big rock right there is going through
and it’s puncturing the smaller screen decks.
And what that’s doing
is causing bigger material to build up
in our distribution box.

Pay is fed into Monster Red’s hopper
and filters through a top screen
and then a second deck below
before the gold-rich slurry travels through the sluice box
where the precious metal is caught.

A large rock has smashed through the top deck,
allowing more rocks to fall through,
damaging the second screen deck.

Ryan needs to replace
all of Monster Red’s broken screen deck panels
before any more damage is done.
It should be a quick fix
given the wash plant’s unique plastic,
easy-to-insert replacements.

You know, this is going to put us down a couple hours.
It’s unfortunate, but we’ve got to get it fixed now.
If we keep doing damage,
we’re just wasting gold and wasting time.

[Music]

I mean, this is a bigger job than we thought here.

I’m thankful the hose blew.
We just caught a really big issue up here.

Yeah, and that would have gotten worse quick.
But you think about it,
we’d have been several more hours till the end of the day.

Yep.

That’s several more hours
for that middle deck to get destroyed.

[Music]

Now we’re good to fire back up.

I’ll jump up there if you want to fire it up.
We’ll make sure all those screen decks that we put in
aren’t going to bounce out.

Okay.

Oh, slick.
All right, go ahead and let it rip.

You look good.

Good.

I’d say we’re all right.

All right.
Cool.
Run it.

Yeah.

On it, boys.
That’s what we’re here for.

Monster Red back washing rocks,
Rick is a step closer
to seeing his first Vegas Valley gold
and finding out
if his million-dollar gamble will pay off.

Hey, man.

Hey.
Finally back to gold.
It’s been a while.

Couple months.

Rick and his crew gambled
all their season’s profits,
one million dollars,
to dig down to Vegas Valley’s pay streak.

Now,
it’s time to see
if they’ve hit the jackpot.

You guys put your gold bonuses on the line for that.
A long time stripping, digging a deep hole,
and not knowing, you know,
if we’d get to the bottom,
what we’d hit at the bottom.
And this is the start of it.

Yeah, it’s definitely been some challenges
starting that cut.

Should we wait up?
All right, so there’s a fair amount in here,
so let’s count it out.

Rick’s old hot spot, Rally Valley,
averaged 300 ounces a week.
He’s hoping the first pay from Vegas Valley
will deliver at least 200.

And ten…
twenty…
thirty…
forty…
fifty…

[Music]

56.7.

And I’ll tell you right now,
there’s 200 in this bottle.

Yeah.

So, 256.7 ounces.

Yeah.
That’s almost halfway what we need.

Halfway home.

Worth over $670,000.

Take that all day.
That’s what we dug all that dirt for, boys.
That’s over half a million dollars for one run.

If I don’t say it enough,
I’m very thankful for you.
You guys are incredible.

You keep this thing going.
You’re having a hell of a season.
I know you guys have been pushing hard.

We’re so close to the end.
All we need is a couple more weeks.
You guys giving it all you got,
and we’re all going to leave here
with a bunch of gold in our pockets.

Right?

And I hope you guys see that too.