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‘Alaska Gold Diggers’ go for ‘The Final Haul’ on Animal Planet

The Alaska Gold Diggers know their stuff!
The Alaska Gold Diggers know their stuff!
Animal Planet

On yesterday’s season finale episode of “Alaska Gold Diggers,” SaraJane and her four daughters; Krista, Korre, Kamme and Tori were mining their late dad/grandfather’s Alaska gold mines in Nome and Fairbanks. These California girls never attempted anything like this, but they pooled their money and with help from a few grizzled miners, after five weeks in Alaska, they have acquired over 32 ounces of gold where after expenses, they received a profit of $6,200.

With only one week left of the six-week season, they are headed to the other mine in Fairbanks to see if the crew they left there have found enough gold to finance another season for the women.

In Fairbanks, Clutch and his crew of George, Greg, Aaron and Ray have been busy at the open pit hard rock mine at Gold Run. When they arrived, Clutch was there to greet them with his brother Joe, an expert in the mining industry. The news did not seem as she hoped it would when she left Ester Dome.

As Clutch and Joe told SJ and her daughters, the mine is inconsistent and the property around it has been the same for many years; one time a feast, and the next a famine. Joe stated that with a big company to fund their project, they had a better chance of finding gold than with a few miners. To attract anyone’s attention, they must retrieve 50 ounces of gold from the mine before the season ends, but that is one week or less.

Joe then told them he would consider taking it off their hands for a fair price. Korre seemed interested in the proposition, but the rest of the women were dead set against it. The next morning, Fairbanks was covered in a blanket of snow, another warning that the season is nearing its end. With 24 ounces short of their 50-ounce goal, the women meet with Clutch, who has some insight into where they can find the rest of the gold. He pointed out a quartz vein in the rock wall. These veins travel in a straight line, and deposit gold in the line. Kamme uses the divining rods to locate the gold vein, just as she did when they arrived, and they pulled her to a location where they crossed, indicating there was gold on the spot below where she stood.

With the new dig site chosen, they must work quickly with the five-man crew to dig through the permafrost. This is no easy task going through this heavy frozen ground. The team checks out the rocks from the excavation, and they look promising. Kamme feels that if they do not find gold, it will be on her. Krista took the truckload of dirt twenty miles to the King Crusher to process the ore. Tori and Korre give the guys a break and took over so they can get a much-needed rest. The guys taught the girls how to operate the heavy equipment, and they are doing a great job. As the day draws to an end, Krista and Greg have each made two trips to King Crusher, and Krista heads off with the fifth truckload. Another winter storm engulfs the area overnight, and the temperature is only two degrees. The men know how the equipment can be affected by the cold weather, but the women want to plod on. As the excavator works as hard as possible, the deep frozen ground fights back. If they damage the equipment, it will cost them big time. As the bucket seizes up, with a loud screech, the grease to lubricate the hydraulics starts to fail. With a fresh application of grease, they continue, and as the equipment is straining, they finally call it quits.

Back at their room, the women discuss their options, and selling the mine, is not one of them. However, Tori has to hurry; she has a date with George, who is taking her someplace special. He took her to Aurora Ice Hotel, where the lobby was made completely of ice. With ice sculptures lit up and even a bar with glasses made of ice. Then George gave her a present; her own gun. She asked him to keep it safe until she returned.

The next day, with just a few hours until they find out what their hard work provided them with, SJ reached out to Joe, without her daughters, to find out her options. He knows how much her father’s legend means to her, and felt badly even talking about buying the mine.

As the gold was melted down and cleaned, the total was 37.36 ounces, more than the 24 ounces they had hoped for. The Ester Dome Mine gave them 63 ounces of gold worth $110,250, the expenses were $53,050 leaving them a net of $57,200. With the Gold Run profit of $6,200, their season total was $63,400; enough to attract lots of attention on this and hopefully future episodes of “Alaska Gold Diggers.”

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