Gold Rush: White Water
Season 6 Discovery (*121) 20:00 Reality
Gold Rush spin-off series Gold Rush: White Water follows The Dakota
Boys – “Dakota” Fred Hurt and his miner team who’re digging for fame and fortune. What sets this spin-off apart from the original series and eight other spin-off shows is its lead star: The raging McKinley Creek. Season 6 that’s set in the wildlands of Alaska is going to push the envelope when it comes to drama. “We have got a lot of trouble coming,” says Fred. “We’re already working in dangerous conditions, then there’s equipment that weighs tons. And dynamite and other explosives… it’s not for the faint-hearted!”
Gold Rush: White Waters focuses on suction dredging, where giant vacuum cleaner-like pipes drop from the side of ships and suck up the ocean or riverbed. “It’s dangerous because we have so many machines working at any given time. Any kind of mistake – and you’re talking about millions of dollars’ worth of damage – and then there’s repair lead time,” says Fred. “It’s not like you can walk into your local mechanic and order a spare. It can take weeks to get the most basic of parts and when you’re in this business, that can ruin an entire mining season.”
Like traditional mining, getting the gold-bearing ore into the refinery is the hardest part of the process. But the pay-off can be like hitting the jackpot in a casino, says Fred.
“It’s not actually that much of a gamble; we test a certain portion of ground and we can estimate the quantity of gold there based on these complex maths equations. The problem is to find the area we need to dredge!”