Todd's taking on this huge risk and potentially bigger reward with the team he trusts most. Todd's father Jack and his son Hunter will be making the long trek to Alaska along with a veteran crew of gold miners including Jim Thurber, foreman Andy Spinks and bush mechanic Randy Hubler.
Todd must deliver 300 ounces of gold in just seven weeks. To make it happen, his first step is getting Hot Mess, a massive broken-down wash plant, up and running. Later, Todd goes rogue and opens a new cut behind the mine owner's back.
Desperate to run more paydirt, Todd fires up Big Trommel but the plant is so worn-out, Todd's nicknamed it Hot Mess. The team chases fix after fix to keep the plant running and chase their million-dollar goal.
It's Jack Hoffman's birthday but if they want to reach their season goal there's no time for cake. Todd and his crew must solve why the Big Trommel, aka Hot Mess, is leaking out more than half the gold in the pay dirt.
To hit his million-dollar goal, Todd pushes his team to get a third wash plant delivering gold.
The crew is surprised by plummeting temperatures and a frozen wash plant.
Hunter takes on the arctic tundra when a geologist's lead points to crazy gold on the edge of the Hoffman claim. Back at camp, Andy works to turn paydirt from an ancient river channel into a big payoff.
The Hoffmans rush to get a vein of gold that could save their season.
With their million-dollar goal in sight, the Hoffmans' best working wash plant breaks down and can't be repaired. Todd's last shot is to get the Hot Mess up and running during an arctic freeze.
Todd gets a jump on next season by shipping his best wash plant to Alaska.
Determined to mine a daunting 1,000 ounces of gold this year, Todd Hoffman brings a hand-picked wash plant and all-star crew to his remote Alaskan claim. When they struggle out of the gate, his son Hunter has a bold fix -- he wants to run his own plant.
Todd gets Holy Roller running and catching nuggets. Looking to make his mark, Hunter transports the largest wash plant the Hoffmans have ever used to the site. Unloading the mammoth wash plant leads to a mammoth fight between father and son.
Smoke from a nearby fire has the Hoffmans on edge and praying for rain. Their prayers are answered, but the torrential storms may flood the mine, leaving the team scrambling to save their paydirt. Hunter pushes to get his wash plant up and running.
As Todd's Holy Roller plant runs non-stop, Hunter's Black Pearl plant is finally ready to wash dirt. But the mine is shut down when Hunter's plant blocks access to rocks from Todd's tailings. An epic father-and-son showdown puts the season in jeopardy.
Hunter fires up the Black Pearl and runs dirt for the first time this season but then is quickly fixing leaks and pump problems. Falling behind on his 1,000-ounce goal, Todd is desperate to find better paydirt and chases an old-time miner's drift.
With both plants running, the competition between Todd and Hunter is on. Pushing to get ahead, Hunter works into the night, but a damaged waterline shuts down the Black Pearl. Todd is looking to pull ahead, but hose problems force him to make a quick fix.
A transmission issue threatens to shut down Todd's Holy Roller, but Randy and Tater come up with a bush fix to get gold moving. Chasing better paydirt, Hunter takes a big swing with a new cut. The Hoffmans push through for the season's best weigh-in.
When a grizzly stalks the mine, Jack springs into action. Finding Holy Roller leaking gold, Todd races to get it fixed. When a government inspection threatens to shut the mine, Hunter sacrifices his gold count and scrambles to keep the site running.
Working around the clock to hit their 1,000-ounce goal, tempers flare among the crew. When a rookie mistake shuts down the Holy Roller, Randy and Tater square off about how to get it fixed. Todd must step in to get this mine and his team back on track.
With winter closing in on the mine, Todd rolls the dice and looks for richer paydirt by opening the Lost Cut. The geology looks promising, but opening a new cut this late puts the Hoffmans' season at risk. Tater must keep paydirt running to both plants.
With temperatures plunging and pay dirt freezing, the Hoffmans scramble to make their season goal -- but machines across the mine shut down when water is detected in the fuel supply. The team races to drain and refuel engines across the site.
As winter closes in on the mine, paydirt dwindles and the Black Pearl is down, Todd's 1,000-ounce goal looks out of reach. The Hoffmans gamble by running the Holy Roller day and night. Hunter races to find a new clutch for the Black Pearl.
Three generations of the Hoffman family risk the harsh Alaskan tundra, hoping to mine $5 million in gold. But when old-timer Jack declares it his final season, mine boss Todd and son Hunter rally their crew to devise a plan for their biggest season ever.
As melting permafrost makes mud out of pay dirt, Andy devises an engineering longshot to prove the Lost Cut is rich with gold. As Todd and his crew dial in the wash plants, anticipation grows for what could be the Hoffmans' biggest gold weigh of all time.
Hunter treks into the tundra to prospect for new paydirt before the Lost Cut runs dry. Todd secretly ships Jack's 1980s-era washplant to Alaska to fulfill his dad's original gold-mining dream, but reassembling heavy steel on-site brings its own surprises.
The Hoffmans are succeeding on an Alaskan mine site that ruined generations of miners before them. But when muddy meltwater infiltrates their wash plants, Andy must re-engineer their entire water circulation system to keep their gold from floating away.
A shift in the weather turns Andy's routine mining decision into a potential disaster when melting ice threatens to contaminate the nearby creek with silt. Hoping to avoid a million-dollar loss, Todd attempts an engineering solution to help save the mine.
When state inspectors make a surprise visit to the mine, Todd braces for citations and fines. But when it appears the government could shut them down completely, the Hoffman team races to save their operation before the inspectors return with a verdict.
When the government orders a long list of fixes, Todd's crew questions if they can work with little hope of a gold bonus. Frustrations reach a breaking point between Chambo and Andy. For Todd, it comes down to a single gold weigh to keep his crew intact.
As the Hoffman crew completes a marathon of government fixes in record time, Todd promises a gold bonus to everyone who completes the season. When Todd hires new miners to get the plant into operation, one greenhorn struggles with the rigors of the job.
As pay dirt from the Lost Cut Mine runs low, Hunter runs dirt from a promising new location called the Plateau. Framer disappears after heading out on a solo caribou hunt, forcing Todd to turn to the Alaska Troopers for help with the search and rescue.
When the motor in Todd's Black Pearl trommel catches fire, the Hoffman crew attempts to modify the smaller wash plant Jack built decades ago to run more pay dirt. But after Todd orders round-the-clock mining to hit their goal, failures begin to mount.
Ice sets in early, threatening to freeze the operation. In a desperate search for unfrozen ground, Andy creates a novel solution: digging up the road they built at the start of the season to harvest the gold-rich Lost Cut pay dirt it was built from.
Todd's crew races to beat 1,000 ounces and make a profitable final season for Grampa Jack. But with a season-ending snowfall in the forecast, the rich pay dirt they need may be in the last place an old-school miner would ever look.
