We’re going to have to run night shift if we want to get 1,000 ounces this year. So we’re going to kick that off tonight.

If night shift goes well, then we’re running double the hours. So that should mean double the gold. Fingers crossed.

It’s all that’s going to matter — getting all the hours on the wash plant as we possibly can to hit our target. Anything to keep that wash plant running full tilt.

With Brennan Ruel digging pay nonstop, Kevin’s hired a new crew to keep the plant running 24/7.

Turning up first for night shift is Kaden Foot, who’s been on the team just two weeks.

Hey, Kaden is from a mining family and has 5 years’ experience running wash plants.

“Ready for your first night shift?”
“Oh, looking forward to it, you know. Liar.”
“Hopefully it’s a nice boring night. We’ll have a radio in the trailer so if anything happens just give us a call. We should be able to hear you and, yeah, anything up let us know.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Alright, well, have a good one.”

[Music]

Thanks. So Kevin’s given me a big responsibility. I’m on night shift here.

Got to keep an eye on the plant, keep an eye on the pump. I’ve got to make sure that the conveyors are running nice and smooth and there’s always water going to the plant.

It’s a lot to take on to keep the plant loosing at 150 yards an hour.

Kaden must feed pay dirt into the hopper and clear the tailings every 8 minutes.

That’s a little stressful. You can’t see for half of your shift with how dark it is and I’m all by myself. I don’t have anyone to help make certain decisions or anything.

Then there’s lots of wildlife out here so just got to keep your head on a swivel and make sure that you stay safe. Because if something happens to you out here at night, no one will find you until the morning.

[Music]

Long days for sure. Pretty tired.
“How come there’s no material coming off of that?”

On the brink of Kaden ending his first night shift, the conveyor has broken down.

It’s not good. Risking a washout and losing the entire night’s haul in the SLO.

[Music]

“Ponds, hey Brandon, Kev, got a copy anybody?”

Kevin’s going to be… Being a new starter and having to make the call to shut down operations and stop making money is no easy feat.

“Thank God.”
“Hey Ken, I came to look at the feeder and the drive wheel was moving but the belt wasn’t.”
“Let’s see — the belt is split right in the middle too, isn’t it? Torn apart at the zipper.”

Well, this sucks. The hopper feeder’s 12T belt has split under the weight of pay dirt piling up in the hopper.

“Is there anything I did wrong with that?”
“Not really anything you could have done to foresee this happening, honestly. You know, the belt has had a couple of cracks in it for a while now and it finally went.”

“So we have a project on our hand.”
“Do you want me to get set up to start shoveling?”
“No, no. We don’t want for night shift. You should head to bed, Kaden. I’ll line some folks up.”

Okay. It’s a real thing to happen. That’s going to be a lot of shoveling for the guys on day shift. Hopefully they get it fixed.

[Music]

“Today, everybody watch out in case that falls.”

Before the belt can be repaired, the day crew have the pleasure of digging out 12 tons of dirt blocking the hopper.

Hard work. I don’t want to be shoveling all day and it’s just like night shift comes through and it’s kind of chaotic and then I have to clean it up.

[Music]

“Job. How’s it going you jagaloon? I see I missed a lot of the hard part.”
“I’m excited about it. Someone was grumpy this morning about shoveling when I woke up and I was like, ‘Are you serious? The guy that done this gets to go home and go to sleep?'”
“Well, it’s an accident.”
“I know, but that’s definitely a big blow to us. Things were set up for success and then this happens today and it just pisses me off to no end. But it’s nobody’s fault, it’s part of mining.”

With the hopper now cleared, Kevin can drag out the feeder and bush-fix the ripped belt.

We’re down about 11 hours now. Still have to get to the actual repair, so zoom zoom zoom to do a quickie.

“We got the belt all lined up. We should need to cut it. The next step is put the BT Clips on.”

[Music]

“Okay, that’s it. One’s in.”

After losing 16 hours of SLO time, the day crew have the hopper feeder’s belt fixed.

Just in time for Kaden to take on night shift again.

I feel a little guilty that everyone had to shovel that out and I didn’t have to. But it’s not my fault that it broke on me. It’s just part of how it goes.

[Music]

“Wind’s clear?”
“Yeah, okay.”

[Music]

“Starting, get ready to turn on the feeder.”

[Music]

I just hope it doesn’t break down tonight because we need to keep sluicing to hit our target.

It was great that Kaden spotted that. He keeps his eyes open, so he did the best he could. I mean, there’s nothing else you could have done.

That’s a long time to be down. That is a lot of sluicing hours we lost. But we think he’s still the best one for the job.

So with the small crew, everyone is giving it their all.

“Drop it, drop it, drop it.”
“Hey, what a nice day for a fire. Beautiful.”
“You got steaks to cook up for us? You know how hungry I am all the time.”

At Scribner Creek, Kevin’s crew have worked day and night on split shifts and it’s now time to find out if the plan has doubled their gold.

Last week, Kevin’s first gold weigh delivered just 33 ounces.
“Okay, 4, 6, 21, 30, 50, 70, 80, 90, 115.”
[Music]
“122.4 worth $36,000.”

That’s a good week. Kevin’s decision to run nights has more than quadrupled his gold, bringing his total to 1,554 ounces.

Coming off of a 30-ounce to 120-ounce jump — beautiful.

“Well guys, high five on that. Better we pull at least that out every week. We’re on a good stretch.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Okay, cool guys. Well, I’m going to head back down and make sure everybody’s giving her hell still.”
“Sounds good.”

I mean that was almost a 100-ounce difference from our first cleanup, so that means that we are doing things right.

Feels really good to finally get some gold from the ground, like a decent amount, and start paying off some of the bills.

Now we just got to get more because it’s still a long way to 1,000 ounces.