walnutqueen November 14, 2015 Share November 14, 2015 When you consider the large contingent of workers and their families on the Hoffman crew, and the tons of equipment they have purchased or leased over the years, the gold mining is certainly not what is supporting this enterprise. Just look at some of the facilities they've built for filming, cooking and living - it's like a small town these days, I'm sure. I wish someone would write a tell-all book about their dirty laundry. ;-) 3 Link to comment
HalcyonDays November 17, 2015 Share November 17, 2015 Episode synopsis: At McKinnon Creek, Todd Hoffman and his crew are doing their utmost to extract 2700 ounces of gold, but the pressure is beginning to get to them. Link to comment
tehach November 21, 2015 Share November 21, 2015 Yep, the Hoffman's are frauds at mining and mediocre as reality actors. Their cost of operation looks to be astronomical. Beets nailed it when he said they are buying gold. 3 Link to comment
Liberty November 21, 2015 Share November 21, 2015 What is going on with the downward spiral of this show. The content itself should still be interesting, and the possibility should always exist to explain more sophisticated elements of a mining operation. Toad tell Dave to lower the conveyor belt, and Dave dutifully follows the holy instructions. Neither of those guys has a shovel in hand when the belt was jammed, but their leadership status assures they will be engaged when moving their hands in a circular motion and saying 'keep 'er coming'. Where did Parker go? Seriously going to leave someone with 4 years of experience in a strip mining operation in charge. Hey, how'd they get to "Treasure Island" if it was an Island. Tony, do you have any idea why people don't use dredges anymore? 2 Link to comment
HalcyonDays November 25, 2015 Share November 25, 2015 Episode synopsis: With business flourishing at McKinnon Creek, Todd and his father realize it's now or never to prospect at El Dorado Creek, where a fault line could make history. Link to comment
Jenkins November 28, 2015 Share November 28, 2015 (edited) Wow, this forum sure is dead for a show that is "cables highest rated show on Friday!". Well, we got to see what greed gets you...didn't we Todd? GREAT ground, but that just isn't good enough! NEED MORE GOLD! Seriously, the Hoffmans are a great example of "gold fever". Guarantee they would have been the type killing other miners for their claims/gold in the old west. I know the Hoffmans are the golden boys of the show, so we will probably never have a season without them...but I can dream... Edited November 28, 2015 by Jenkins 2 Link to comment
walnutqueen November 28, 2015 Share November 28, 2015 Oh, but Todd is just all about fulfilling nasally Jack's dream of El Dorado - the Motherlode of all Motherlodes, because he wants to make other people happy. Go play Santa Claus, Jack, or devote some of your time to charity instead of doing your gold fever dance. I hope the Hoffmans go bust, because they are such unlikeable and undeserving buffoons. 2 Link to comment
Quilt Fairy November 29, 2015 Share November 29, 2015 Wow, this forum sure is dead for a show that is "cables highest rated show on Friday!". Well, we got to see what greed gets you...didn't we Todd? GREAT ground, but that just isn't good enough! NEED MORE GOLD! Seriously, the Hoffmans are a great example of "gold fever". Guarantee they would have been the type killing other miners for their claims/gold in the old west. I know the Hoffmans are the golden boys of the show, so we will probably never have a season without them...but I can dream... Well, you can do what I did - stop watching. Link to comment
AndreaK1041 November 29, 2015 Share November 29, 2015 Where is Parker this season? Last year he was running machines and this year he's pulling a Todd and showing up to either (1) count gold or (2) tell people they need to work harder. 1 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes November 30, 2015 Share November 30, 2015 Did we ever get the results of the cleanout of the dredge's lower catch boxes? How was it that Mer. Klondike, Tony Beets waited weeks into the season to do something about the water flow? Gene wouldn't have been all over that within a day? Trumped-up stoopidity is not a good look for them. Parker just blithely takes off with the newbies screwing around? Wasn't it just last week they started working better? What on earth was the deal with the frozen pay? The crane guy purposefully loaded it on the truck? Senseless. Senseless that he still had a job, too. Link to comment
Liberty November 30, 2015 Share November 30, 2015 Lots of good comments, it's difficult to add anything insightful! Parker's absence is irksome. I used to hope he was successful when he was working, now he's just another "Hoffman". So if the Hoffman El Dorado saga is legit, they waste resources to indulge the old man's 'dreams'. No one runs a business like that, it would be so interesting to know where 316 Mining really gets its money, it's sure not from gold mining. I like those Beetz kids. 3 Link to comment
HalcyonDays December 2, 2015 Share December 2, 2015 Episode synopsis: The sons of the Klondike return for more gold digging; the Hoffmans try to rebuild their reputation; the Beets family attempts to rise again. Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes December 5, 2015 Share December 5, 2015 Wow, was Rick shown to be a true moron. Of course, this never really happened as we were presented. I loved the return of Tony as mentor to the young whippersnapper, Parker. Again....yeah, right. That wasn't a little bit of checking after. That was massive. And again, Rick would never have quit with that much pay to be had. 100% phoniness, including the size of the cleanout, as I see it. I have to admit, I totally loved seeing Tony cashiering those malcontent and sloppy engineers off his dredge. Yeah, I know...they were playing characters and not themselves. I get it. I still enjoyed the heck out of it. So, I ask again, where is the pay coming from? The dredge is just sitting in the manmade lagoon. If it were tearing out thousands and thousands of yards of pay, it would have moved quite a distance by now. 3 Link to comment
Liberty December 5, 2015 Share December 5, 2015 Parker's cleanout was at 14 1/2 pounds of gold if I divided correctly. The water bottle Tony complimented him on might not have been quite big enough to hold 14 lbs. Totally down with Lonesome Rhodes about the show being contrived, but have a difficult time seeing all aspects where fantasy enters. Probably means it's all fantasy. Todd takes another week off to drive around north America with his son. Even grandma is on the mining site to hug her grandson. When Toad returns he's ready to crack the whip, what a guy. And now, they might not reach their goal ;-( . But they found a mastodon tusk, and you know what the old-timers say. Honestly I would have guessed if they found ice age relics that they Canadians would shut them down to investigate the site for more remains. Maybe the tusks are so common it's no big deal. What the hell is Parker doing when he should be on the job? Maybe they will address that on one of the "Dirt" shows. 2 Link to comment
Rock knocker December 5, 2015 Share December 5, 2015 (edited) Parker's cleanout was at 14 1/2 pounds of gold if I divided correctly. The water bottle Tony complimented him on might not have been quite big enough to hold 14 lbs. The specific gravity of pure gold is about nineteen times that of water, so even just a pint bottle, which would hold just one pound of water could contain almost twenty pounds of gold. And the bottle shown was at least a liter or two in size, which if full of pure gold would weigh between thirty eight and eighty four pounds. Honestly I would have guessed if they found ice age relics that they Canadians would shut them down to investigate the site for more remains. Maybe the tusks are so common it's no big deal. In the US, mammoth and mastodon tusks found on private property and the exclusive property of the owner. In Canada, the owners are required to notify the government, but the tusks are still the property of the owner in most circumstances. In Todd's case, since they are on land leased for gold mining, it could be argued that the tusks could be the property of the landowner and not the Hoffman's, but that would likely be a contractural issue. In both the US and Canada, normally tusks found on state, federal, provincial or Crown land remains the property of the government, this could be interpretated differently in placer mining operations where the leasee is granted license to remove all minerals and rock material. Acheological artifacts are covered by completely different statutes in both countries. http://www.yukon-news.com/news/illegal-mammoth-ivory-trade-impossible-to-monitor Edited December 5, 2015 by Rock knocker 3 Link to comment
AndreaK1041 December 5, 2015 Share December 5, 2015 Both Rick and Tony made references to Parker not being on the claim, but as a matter of fact, not complaint. So where is he? Does he have another not-for-TV mine? Or some other business? I would really appreciate some explanation. 2 Link to comment
Jenkins December 5, 2015 Share December 5, 2015 It has become almost laughable... So Tony only shows up to count gold. Todd never did work much. And now we find out Parker hasn't been on the site (according to Rick). So the "stars" of the show are either away from the site or twiddling their thumbs and/or barking orders (Todd). I am guessing fame has went to their head and actual work is for the grunts now... And whether that was scripted or not, I am pretty sure Tony is right...I doubt there are 8 hours shifts in mining. You only have a few months a year you CAN mine, so I am guessing 12+ is the norm. Which brings me to my next question. Why is it so important that Todd spend time with his son THAT week? As if he is gone year round. Hell, all his damn kids are AT the site. And if my memory serves...doesn't Todd seem to take a week off EVERY year during mining season? I remember when they were in the jungle he had to fly out for "family reasons". Oh well, guess this more or less proves they get quite a bit of money from Discovery. If they didn't I am pretty sure they would be working a little harder (well, maybe except for Todd). Part of me hates myself for watching this crap and supporting a guy like Todd who does nothing and just collects money from Discovery hand over fist...but yes, I will continue watching and bitching about it. :) 3 Link to comment
Liberty December 6, 2015 Share December 6, 2015 Totally hear and identify with what you are saying Jenkins. I recall wasting time watching a "Dirt" show with Christo and Toad, and Christo offered Toad a critical tweet from a viewer. Toad's reply was something like 'I am popular reality show star, and you are criticizing me'. That suggested Toad's goal was stardom rather than success at mining. Looking at how the capital employed at the mine has increased since Porcupine Creek, along with the season where they wrote in a "backer", it's the promotion and advertising for Polaris and Volvo that suggests they are simply exploited the reality show status. 3 Link to comment
Quilt Fairy December 7, 2015 Share December 7, 2015 That suggested Toad's goal was stardom rather than success at mining. I don't think there's ever been any doubt of that. 2 Link to comment
HalcyonDays December 8, 2015 Share December 8, 2015 Episode synopsis: Parker goes from a fifteen-year-old boy who learns from his grandfather to a twenty-one-year-old major player in the Klondike. Link to comment
HalcyonDays December 8, 2015 Share December 8, 2015 Episode synopsis: Todd's crew discovers that finding prehistoric mammoth tusks brings good luck; Tony rebuild his wash plant; Parker opens the biggest cut of his life in an attempt to get more gold than his rival. Link to comment
HalcyonDays December 8, 2015 Share December 8, 2015 Episode synopsis: The sons of the Klondike return for more gold; the Hoffmans try to rebuild their reputation; Parker could be on borrowed time. Link to comment
AndreaK1041 December 12, 2015 Share December 12, 2015 If Todd cannot pull a weight of gold out of the ground greater than Parker with his insane amount of resources, that is just sad. 2 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes December 12, 2015 Share December 12, 2015 (edited) So, Parker is trying to squeeze 10 seconds a trip out of his workers, but takes off for days at a time? Slag is typically ~20% of gold submitted to the assayer. Parker walked in the door and declared he had 300 ounces. Darned if he didn't predict precisely how much slag his gold had! Of course, saying he had 360 clean-out ounces and then seeing only 300 in the smelted/purified bar would cause a major disconnect for many who are watching. 360 = 300? Huh???? TPTB are barely even trying anymore. The main reason keep watching is to see the fixes/engineering. We got a great example in this ep with Gene and Tony reconfiguring the trommel. of course, TPTB have to go and ruin it by telling us it led to a clean out 10X greater than the one the previous week. If the tailings were really THAT rich? Tony would stop EVERYthing to run it again through the upgraded trommel. If. Yet and still, impressive engineering. Great stuff. Edited December 12, 2015 by Lonesome Rhodes 4 Link to comment
Liberty December 12, 2015 Share December 12, 2015 Stumbled into this when trying to watch last night's episode On-Demand. Pretty interesting and some quite clear differences in how this young man was raised compared to the way I was raised. The sections that included Granpa's involvement with Parker's development were generally quite positive, although I suspect quite a few of Parker's stupid actions and bad decisions were hidden by Granpa and the producers. He certainly had many advantages to get this far with his career. Some BS is going on this season, and am wondering what Parker is really doing. 1 Link to comment
Rock knocker December 12, 2015 Share December 12, 2015 On the talk show, Todd told the audience how the mammoth tusk was worth about $70K. Looking up on the internet, it looks like he is wrong by up to a magnitude of ten. 4 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes December 13, 2015 Share December 13, 2015 Grandpa Schnabel was shown as the politician he was. He is a great man, but a miner he was not. Handling people in an extreme setting is radically different from a more civilized one. In the wild, where testosterone is a prized commodity, being nobodies' fool is essential. No leader can take crap from his charges and expect to last very long. Parker's genius is his driven nature. It's the spirit that built America westward. Such men have little time for questioning (Does that sound like a certain bearded Norwegian??). There is only the mission. Obviously, there are prices to be paid in living that philosophy. However, without it, major advances are impossible. My guess is that Parker will lose it all in a futile attempt to squeeze out every last flake of gold in a region which has been stripped of significant pockets of the stuff. Link to comment
Liberty December 13, 2015 Share December 13, 2015 I must relax a bit and not be concerned about how I think Discovery insults its viewers. The race for the gold between Toad and Parker is quite similar to the Ice Road Truckers Race for the Loads. A big part of business operation is ignored, as the viewer Disco is aiming for does not consider total cost as part of the profit equation. It's a fun show, doing things I'd like to do in an environment I'd like to experience. Toad has difficulty with reality (and numbers) and Parker has difficulty with people. Tony pretty much seems to get what he wants. It was interesting to see 'Dozer Dave shoveling mud from the clogged wash plant, not certain I have ever seen Toad get involved with something as menial as a shovel. In Toad's defense, he may be able to name a shovel. I enjoy everyone's comments on the forum, and respect the knowledge being displayed in these posts. 2 Link to comment
Rock knocker December 14, 2015 Share December 14, 2015 Parker has difficulty with people. He's running a big operation at a very young age, I think he'll end up like his dad and grandfather, who clearly appear to be able to run a business and handle employees professionally. It was interesting to see 'Dozer Dave shoveling mud from the clogged wash plant, not certain I have ever seen Toad get involved with something as menial as a shovel. In Toad's defense, he may be able to name a shovel. Todd would choose people to do th work, and then pontificate to the camera "Part of being a leader is finding other people to do crap work that you are to fat, lazy and worthless to do yourself. That's what a leader does, and I have people looking up to me for guidance" 1 Link to comment
AndreaK1041 December 19, 2015 Share December 19, 2015 Parker is back at work! I enjoyed that and I enjoyed the engineering strategy stuff. When Discovery breaks out the engineering cartoons, I'm usually entertained. 1 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes December 19, 2015 Share December 19, 2015 More absurd math detracted from a fun ep. Parker had 11 weeks to sluice whatever pay he could. He decides to spend basically a week to a new setup. OK. He "lost" 10% of running time. Then, we are informed that he already has so much pay, that he would be able to sluice about half of it. Well, if he left things as they were, he'd still have at least a third of the pay left over. So...what exactly were the issues???? If he was all worried about having to wait until next year to sluice leftover pay, why was he still digging and trucking any new pay? Of course, his big thing was to save $$$ on fuel. The problem is that it is an open secret that Disco pays 100% of the fuel costs for their featured miners. The economics of the first dredge are truly horrid, but of course we will now have the drama of a 2nd one, unsupported by sufficient grounds to dredge in the first place! It's all been picked over. I loved the segment about Dozer on the Dirt ep which preceded this ep. Locking out the owner! A doggie dream come true! :) 3 Link to comment
Liberty December 19, 2015 Share December 19, 2015 More absurd math detracted from a fun ep. Each of the mining bosses had the opportunity to talk about producing more in order to 'beat' someone or expand their operation. There seems to be a really strong pull to have decisions made based on hunches. All that valuable equipment, all those employees, all that gold, and they want us to think these decisions are made because Toad wants to collect more gold than Parker, or Parker want to collect more Gold than Toad. Of course Tony is out of their league, and just wants to have his hunches substantiated. Discover really cheapens mining by doing this. There are land grant universities offering courses of study in mining, and they want us to think 21 yr. old Parker is going to outdo Toad because he is competitive. It may enrich the shows drama as Parker pushes his employees hard and Toad expands his outrageous goals or comes up with a new name for something, but it does little to explain the science behind mining. 3 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes December 19, 2015 Share December 19, 2015 If beating Toad were a priority, in what universe would Parker have shut down sluicing operations for a week? 3 Link to comment
Rock knocker December 22, 2015 Share December 22, 2015 That repair of the leaking oil pan is a fantasy 2 Link to comment
Jenkins January 9, 2016 Share January 9, 2016 For the "number one show on Discovery" this forum is DEAD! I blame Todd..... 2 Link to comment
oakLeaf January 9, 2016 Share January 9, 2016 At my house, we blame Toad for everything. 3 Link to comment
walnutqueen January 9, 2016 Share January 9, 2016 Hah! Why not? Everything IS Todd's fault! ;-) I did enjoy watching Tony Beets working with his kids, who both seem extremely competent AND know how to work with others (looking at you, Parker). I had to laugh at him telling Monica to drive that truck "like it's a rental". 2 Link to comment
oakLeaf January 9, 2016 Share January 9, 2016 I actually wish the focus of the show would change to Tony and Freddy and just get rid of Toad. I used to like Parker (I love his family), but he is starting to believe his own press and is turning into a thunderdouche. I used to also love Dave, but him jumping on the Gotta-Beat-Parker (who has fewer workers, less equipment, and fewer handouts from Disco) train that Toad rides was the final straw there. Off Topic: With the recent market downturn, gold prices have gone up, but both my husband and I forgot to check whether the narrator has updated the reported gold value totals. 3 Link to comment
Jenkins January 10, 2016 Share January 10, 2016 Yeah, fame definitely went to Parkers head. He used to be who me and my mom (who also watches it) rooted for, but he has made it REALLY hard to root for him with that attitude. I think we have rooted for him because of his grandpa more than Parker himself though. He pretty much drove off Gene and now Rick isn't getting along with him (though I wonder if the drama there is somewhat scripted). I dunno, I just don't see Rick as a guy who would hate another guy based purely on others peoples word without even meeting him. That is why I suspect a little scripting going on. I honestly wish the Dakota Boys show would actually be made. I really liked them. The show has a name "All That Glitters", but haven't heard anything about it in over a year. 3 Link to comment
HalcyonDays January 12, 2016 Share January 12, 2016 Episode synopsis: Breakdowns cause the Hoffman's day and night crews to be at odds; Parker's washplant continues to produce; Tony and Gene go head-to-head. Link to comment
forum4idiots January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 is that new guy parker's lover or something? that is the weirdest protectiveness i have ever seen. siding with the new guy over the guy who made his operation. sure, it could be editing....... Link to comment
forum4idiots January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 pisses me off. that new guy is an obvious douche and parker is too lovesick to realize what a cancer he is. rick should just quit and join gene with the viking. parker had everything handed to him to start his company...EVERYTHING. and i'm pretty sure that non-compete clause gene had was the idea of his dad. Link to comment
forum4idiots January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 (edited) so from gene's idea and the result of it, one of the 5 days was stripped......they should get about 300-400 ounces next week if they continue stripping for the dredge. on a side note...what does todd do? Edited January 16, 2016 by lovebug1975 1 Link to comment
urusai January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 Say "fricken" a lot? And whine and bitch. 1 Link to comment
Lonesome Rhodes January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 So Tony was shown to be ridiculously skeptical of Gene's no-brainer idea because in the old days, dredges didn't have issues with overburden? PuhLEEZE. The man is not that stoopid. He knows full well that the land he is currently dredging is fractionally as gold-rich. What was his cost? The machine was paid for. His labor is free. He had to have the crane operational anyway and gene's labor is also a sunk cost. Again - so much hooey. Not one mention of Tony's cut on Parker's windfall? Ugh. The phony drama of the bad pans on the boundary cut? Riiiiiight. I'd love to know why the crew was working sooooo hard once Goldzilla was up and running. There was no more overburden to move. The pay was right next to it, so they had a super easy haul and could probably get by with at least one fewer driver per shift. It is, by far, the easiest set-up we've ever seen on this show. So...going forward, where's the tension? Oh. Right. The cooooooontest with Toad. Ay yi yi. Didja notice the first-ever pre-weighed ceremonial pour that Parker did? What was the point of the pour? All that could happen was a loss of some, or many, grains! Just another peak in the looking glass, y'all. 2 Link to comment
Liberty January 16, 2016 Share January 16, 2016 (edited) on a side note...what does todd do? Tells workers what they are doing wrong (he is too busy being a reality show super star, memorizing the flashy lines about getting more gold than Parker.) Checking to be certain there is food available for his breakfast. Some of the shots from the drone of the Toad compound reminded this viewer of Jonestown in Guyana, Wasn't Guyana where they mined in South America? Edited January 22, 2016 by Liberty 2 Link to comment
HalcyonDays January 18, 2016 Share January 18, 2016 Episode synopsis: Todd and Dave get a pair of dozers stuck in deep mud while trying to open a new cut; Parker breaks an excavator while struggling with frozen ground. Link to comment
Jenkins January 21, 2016 Share January 21, 2016 Just got around to watching last weeks episode (funny to think I used to watch it the night it aired). I do NOT get why Parker is siding with the new guy. Other than to create drama? I dunno, Rick just doesn't come off as a guy to hate someone without even knowing them. But hey, we don't truly know these people. And man, I would have had a tough time not throwing a rock at Todds head as he walked away. I DESPISE people that will bark out orders and chew you out and then turn their back on you and walk away as you are trying to talk to them. It is childish and extremely rude. Todd might be the most detestable person on reality television for me at this point. The drama definitely seems ramped up this season. 2 Link to comment
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