Parker Schnaval is running three wash plants to hit his 10,000 ounce target,
but it’s stretching his operation to the limit.

We have Daven in the loader now.
It’s his first time running it by himself,
so he’s got to be quick on his feet.
A lot to keep an eye on.

Roxan — it’s a one-man band out here.
It’s just him.
So he needs to be able to keep up with this plant.

There’s a lot to look for when you’re feeding a wash plant.
It’s pretty hard to keep an eye on everything
while you’re watching your bucket
and where you’re going.

20-year-old Taven Peterson has run rock trucks all season.
Now he’s been promoted to feeding rock and sand.

It just sucks.
I feel so bad that I’m not very good at running the loader yet,
and they want me to start running this wash plant.
I’m trying my damndest,
and it’s so hard.

Whoa.

Oh my goodness gracious.
My kidneys hurt so bad.

Taven must feed the plant
250 yards of pay an hour.
But six hours into his shift,
he’s struggling to keep up.

The hopper’s jammed.

About to shut it down.
Half of the hopper is jammed up with mud,
so I have to shovel it out.

Tyson never mentioned what to do in this situation,
so I never got the memo for this.

Kind of just winging it.

Just running around like a chicken
with my head cut off.
I’m actually just stressed right out
and have no plan.

I just got a radio call from Tav here.
Came across pretty staticky.

We’re going to see what he wants,
but I can definitely tell
he needs some help up here at the plant.

---

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---

How’s it going?

Half the hopper’s jammed up,
and I’m not too sure what to do
when it gets like that.

The first thing we’ll do here
is have a look inside.

Yeah, you can see
we got that big rock there.

A large flat rock slipped through the grizzly bars
and landed on the belt,
preventing the compacted mud above it
from moving through the hopper.

When it gets built up like this,
you’ve got to shut it off.

Obviously, we want to keep running.

Just hop out.

Alright.
Turn on both of them
and give me a minute.

When I yell,
turn this off.

Okay — ready, Mitch?

Yeah.
Go.

Right now Mitch is shoveling
and putting it on the conveyor,
and I’m ready to stop it
if anything goes wrong.

Boy, am I glad Mitch showed up.

Alright, go ahead and shut it off.

Watch your fingers and toes.

Yep.

Put this on the conveyor
or throw it out?

Oh, just chuck it out.

Yeah.

And go.
You good?

Yeah.
Good.

Looks like it’s clearing out pretty good.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, you’re good, dude.

Okay.
Back on the loader
and start washing rocks again.

I think you can throw
some more on it, buddy.

Perfect.

Phew.
Back running again.
Oh man.

Does he bark at all?

No.

That’s awesome.

Well Mitch,
how was your week?

Oh buddy…
we finished the downstream of the long cut.
Now we’ve got a plant move.

We got Taven in the loader up there,
and he had a pretty good jam in the hopper feeder.

Had to show him
how to get that cleared out.

Getting these green guys used
to the real problems.

David seems to be doing good though.

Yeah, so far.

I told him for like a week —
everything can go fine,
and the second you get comfortable,
that’s when stuff piles up.

So it’s good he caught it.

---

Wash plant Roxan
has been slogging all week
in the new section of the long cut.

After averaging just 138 ounces a week
from the first section,
Parker’s hoping the new area picks up.

Roxan is the big thermostat this week.

Let’s see how we did
after everything up there.

Chris had to grunt picking that up.

We got:
20… 40… 60…
100… 110… 120… 130…
185… 190… 200…
222.5.

Nice.

Worth $556,000.

You want to see
how Big Red did?

Let’s check it out.

Big Red has been running pay
at the bridge cut.

10… 20… 60…
running the top layer of pay dirt.

80… 82.8 —
worth $27,000.

Nothing wrong with that.

Then we got Big Bob.

They probably only have
one or two more cleanups.

Bob has been running 24/7
at Kenan Stewart’s.

260… 280… 290…
300… 310… 320…
330… 340… 346.8.

Worth $867,000.

I didn’t know
that scale went that high.

That must be the best one of the season.

It is.

So this week we got
652.1 ounces.

Season total:
2,345.3 ounces.

She’s climbing fast now.

Everything’s an improvement.

We’ll aim for better
next week.

Let’s do it.

Sounds good.

Thanks, guys.

I’m happy with the result,
but it’s really about sustaining it.

There aren’t many weeks left in the season.

We’ve got to hammer these pits out
and keep the plants running.

I’m Parker Schnabel,
and you’re watching Discovery Australia.

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