Rookie gold miners put it all on the line in hopes of striking it rich in Alaska.
Gold Rush: Alaska premieres Friday, December 3 at 10PM ET on the Discovery Channel. The reality series follows the lives of six men who are struggling in the face of economic issues. They're in debt; their businesses are struggling and they're at the end of their ropes. With the price of gold at the highest point ever, they decide to leave for the wilds of Alaska trying to strike it rich mining for gold.…
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Article comments
126 - peacelover
This show disgusts me! They idiotically destroy the environment and it hurts my soul! They are greedy capitalist and the damage they have done will never be able to be undone!
127 - new prospector
Then DON'T WATCH!!! "Peacelover" Or is it whiney Dirt Worshiper,Hippy Flower Child,Anti-anything? It's a tv show,grow up.
128 - new prospector
Besides if nobody touched this ground again,it wouldn't take more than 5-10 years for the Alaskan jungle to grow back. They get alot of rain up North.In 15-20 years you wouldn't be able to tell they were there at all. Is "idiotically" a word??????????
129 - michael ferguson
todd is a fat stupid fool
130 - bob kay
Todd and crew I was pulling for you guys to get 2oo hundred ounces.Can't stand fred.Pulling for you next season.Good luck
131 - Debbie
I hate this show - saw them sacrifice a innocent goat last night that was so disturbing - will never watch this show again.
132 - RDB
Just watched the last episode (Jan 18-2013) and couldn't believe what I was seeing. All Todd seems to do is stand around and bitch about the equipment. He dumped the only piece of equipment he had running and sat on his ass waiting for the supposedly 'super' trommel to arrive instead of using it until it did. At least he was getting some gold out of it. Them his super trommel arrives and the motor burns out. (What a joke for a new machine and no spare parts). Couldn't they have found an old diesel engine to fit in and work. So they sat around for some more. Then they got is working and the caulking comes out of the reverse helix and lets gold pass through. So what does Todd do? He shuts it down. Didn't he think you put a riffle tray under the back end and keep running? And didn't he think about re-running his tailing? Shoot, I could make a fortune just out of his tailing from the first season, let alone the second. Having mined for gold in the Amazon, far from ANY repair or parts, I had to make sure I had everything I needed before I got on site. No where do I see a mining plan, or an anticipation for future events, such as running out of pay dirt (at either site). It's no wonder their investor is so upset with them. I just wish I had someone to back me on a project like this.
Having built reverse helix trommels, I was never satisfied with how it worked, too many unknown things happen with them. I design and build straight trommels with a good recovery systems at the back end and catch 98 percent of any available gold once you have the riffle tray dialed in for the material you are running. Being a miner as well, I know the ups and down of gold mining, and how to plan and anticipate what might happen and prepare for it, but I guess that doesn't make for a good reality show.
133 - RDB
When it comes to the subject of 'Gold Rush' Alaska, I don't know where to start. Didn't Todd Hoffman think to buy and read ANY books on gold mining before he went charging off to Alaska? In the first season they wasted so much time digging down to pay dirt and them lost the claim to 'Dakota' Fred who claim jumped them using inside information. Didn't any of the Hoffman crew think to use the available bulldozer to cut off the overburden and get down to the pay streak? Come on guys, this isn't rocket science. Maybe it didn't make good TV or something.
Then they go up north to a second claim and couldn't figure out how to get and keep their wash water clean, again missing the gold with a poorly set up sluice. They lost more gold than they caught, and I could make a fortune just out of their tailings. Why they dumped the trommel is beyond me, as a trommel will process more material per hour than that other pile of junk they ended up using, and use a lot less water to do it. Then they go back with an even bigger pile of junk and guess what happens, they lost more gold than they caught, again.
Now it's the reverse helix trommel debacle. So you lost the caulking out of the reverse helix, so what, put a damn riffle tray under the back end and keep running for god sake. But that aside, it's the lack of planning that bothers me the most. Too much of the wrong equipment, too many people standing around with the thumb up their butts. And, please tell me why everyone had to stand around doing nothing instead of getting back to work while they process the recovered material. Clean out the riffle tray, put your back up matting in place and resume running material. Also, what about two shifts? With the amount of daylight during the summer in Alaska (I've been there and done that) they could be running twice as much material... Oh wait, they don't have enough material, and no one is looking to see where they can get more. No miner starts off knowing everything, most learn by doing it, and reading up on how others did it. Yet it seems as if both crews don't lean a damn thing. All in all, I just wish I have an investor that would back me on a project like this, and forget about the TV cameras.