Every season, I go through a little phase of panic.
It’s always kind of the same circumstance —
where you have a whole bunch of projects that are halfway done.

And we’re just coming into panic season for me.
It’s a big machine that needs a lot of fuel.
Fuel being money.

On Dominion, Parker’s battling to rescue his season.
Roxanne is running pay dirt from the long cut.
Desperate for some income — and with gold prices at an all-time high —
Parker’s sluicing low-grade ditch pay from the bridge cut, trucked to Big Red.

“You know, we just finished off their wash plant pad,
and so we got to move Big Red.”

Tyson can finally move Big Red to the bridge cut.
“So, right now, we’re going to have to shut the plant down.
But this is the last scoop here at Big Red.
No time like the present, eh?”

“We need to get this sluice cleaned up, emptied out so Tyson can move it,
get it down to the new site so we can put it back together again —
so everybody’s in a bit of a hustle right now.”

At the bridge cut, Tyson spent two days building Big Red’s new plant pad.

“All right, Tyson, you’re all set, buddy.”
“All righty. Get her done, young man.”
“Thanks. This is going to be damn near one of the fastest plant moves
we’ve ever done — if we can get it done.”

“You know, we have a lot to do with moving Big Red.
It’s not moving a short distance.
Everything’s got to line up perfectly today
or we’re not going to be sluicing.”

Big Red needs to be moved in three pieces —
one mile across the bridge cut
to the top of its new plant pad,
then assembled and fired up by the end of the day.

“Don’t break it.”
“All right, here we go.”

To save time, Tyson sends the sluice runs on a low boy to the pad,
while Tupper drags Big Red in the 750.

“Right now, we have Big Red on the move.
Turn to your right now. Tupper, hard right.
All right, I’m through the cut and I’m just coming up upon the ramp.
This ramp’s really narrow. Got to stay right in the center.
Here we go. Here we go.”

“That was close. I thought I was going over for sure.”
“Say when.”

[Music]

Tyson’s just checking right now to see if this plant is level.
“Done. Bingo. First shot. Love it.”

“The wash plant’s level now.
We got the sluice runs in place.
So, we’re going to go work on the feeder.”

The last piece to be hauled in —
the hopper feeder on a low boy.

“So, right now, we’re trying to get the hopper out and it’s pretty stuck.
All excavators are way too far away
and we got to get this thing moved and running.”

The hopper’s 80-ton load on the low boy is stuck in the soft mud.
To free it and get it moving, Tyson attaches a chain to his loader to tow it out.

“One, two, three.”
“Okay, you ready, Chop?”
“Go for it.”
“One, two, three. There we go. Slow. Looking good. Keep going. Go, go, go.
That’s good. Right there. Right there.”

Feeder free.
Tupper speeds to Big Red’s new plant pad in the bridge cut.

“Start cutting. Okay. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. That’s good.”

[Music]

“All right. Thanks for your help, Jeff.
Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“All right. Good, man.”

“Well, you know, we just got pretty much everything done here.”

Tyson fires up Big Red.
“This is nice, eh?”

And Parker’s crew are now sluicing pay from two cuts.

“What’s up, Chris?”
“Hey. Hey.”
“What’s happening, guys?”
“You’ve been a little busier, I hope.”
“Yeah, real busy.”

“Two wash plants running finally.”
“Yeah, it feels kind of good. Really.”

“Finally sluicing the bridge cut.
Thanks for getting that plant set up.”
“No worries, man.”

After a week of sluicing long cut pay through Roxanne,
and finally getting his second plant, Big Red, operational —
Parker’s crew are ready to see some gold.

“Yeah. How’d your plant move go?”
“It was a good one. Got it done,
but not without any issues, of course.
Hopefully, it produces some gold there.”

“Do you want to see what you produced?”
“Sure. Let’s check it out.”

When Parker ran ditch dirt from the long cut earlier in the season,
it delivered 30 ounces in a week.
Big Red ran for two days in the bridge cut.

“Here we go. All righty. Here we go.
5, 10, 17, 20, 27, 29, 30.45.”

Worth $76,000.

“It’s not bad, though.”
“I mean, 30 ounces with gold prices right now…”
“I thought it would be worse than that, to be honest.”
“Oh, good. My expectations are plummeting.”
“The great reset.”
“Aim low and avoid disappointment. Right, Mitch?”

Roxanne did well this week.
Last week, Roxanne in the long cut ran for two days,
producing 76 ounces of gold.

Parker needs to see an improvement —
he needs 100 ounces a week just to cover costs.

“Well, let’s see what we got. Let her rip.
20, 40, 60, 70, 100, 150…”
[Music]
“181.55.”

“Better.”
“We’re getting there, right?”
“Is that the best cleanup of the season so far?”
“Must be.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”

“It’s over a hundred. It’s like—”
“But it also gives us 576 and a half ounces for the season.”

“9,500 more to go.”
“Don’t say that.
We’ll see where things end up.
We’ll see if we can get the bridge cut rocking and rolling.”

“Nice clean work as always, Chris.”
“Oh, thanks, young man.”
“We’re getting back at it. More sluicing.”

“I’m Parker Schnabel,
and you’re watching Discovery Australia.
Hit subscribe now to not miss out on any Gold Rush content.”