Gold Rush

TheBeagle

TheBeagle

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Fidlen;105528._sl said:
And if "The Motherlode" is just Todd getting his 1000 ounces I will feel severely ripped off. Grinding dirt isnt hitting the motherlode IMO.
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Yes.

I don't think people are appreciating how much money Todd's crew is really spending on fuel, equipment and labor. I counted at least three excavators, 2 dozers, 2 loaders, and 2 brand-new washplants. Add that up and even if you are getting used stuff at auction or leasing, you get into seven figures on equip. alone. And once running costs are paid out, what's left of the pie is gonna be sliced up into half a dozen pieces between the investors/lease/Todd/Jack/Dave/rest of the original crew + Fred Dodge that are all probably working for a couple points. Whatever money they get from Discovery is the money that they take home with em.

The Dakota boys are the ones that are set-up to make a nice profit on their gold. They will take home WAY more gold money by hitting 300 oz. than JesusMining316 will take home if they hit 1000oz., there's no doubt in my mind. They have very low overhead, work their asses off, and make very few mistakes that can't be fixed quickly.
 
Fidlen

Fidlen

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Fred also needs to get off this glory hole mentality. Unless he doesnt plan to mine this spot for the next year or 2 then why doesnt he just dig the hole bigger instead of getting progressively smaller trying to find that waterfall spot. He spends all his time/money on fuel to dig a shitty concrete style dirt hole when he has a pile of dirt around him just waiting to be run. In his mind he hasnt hit the glory hole yet but has still amassed over 100 ounces of gold. So why not take it in stages.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Where are you getting 300 ounces for Fred? He's not even at 150 for a season total as of yet?

Also, Todd is close to 300 ounces past break even. Yeah he had more expenses with the fuel with hauling from Quartz but you're nuts if you think anyone is taking home more profit then his crew is. The crew itself gets dick share, like 1-2% on top of their hourly wage which is already factored into expenses. Investors, if they are still owed, are paid for this season seemingly. Fred right now is like...what....25 ounces past break even?

Come on now. I hate Todd as much as the rest of you but lets not pretend like they aren't cleaning the fuck up when this is all said and done.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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Tarrant_sl said:
The crew itself gets dick share, like 1-2% on top of their hourly wage which is already factored into expenses. Investors, if they are still owed, are paid for this season seemingly.
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Do you have a source for this information or are you just making shit up?
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Other then the fact it's been talked about on one of the behind the scenes shows?

Anyway, even with all the gold Todd and crew have pulled out of the ground, even after the TV deals and all that shit, Todd still only has a net worth of around $250,000.

The "break even point" is kinda false advertising because they still have a 10-15% cut to give the claim owner. I'm guessing when everything is said and done the crew has around 35% they they actually get to keep. I guess unknown to me I have a cousin that does this and my dad has been wanting to talk to him about how this shit all works too, I hope to find out more by proxy. I'd bet though that number seems about right though since their goal is in the neighborhood of just over a million bucks and they were just over 600,000 at their "break even point"
 
TheBeagle

TheBeagle

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I doubt Dave Turin, Fred Dodge, Greg, or Thurber are out there for only 1-2%...Dave doesn't leave his own quarry business and run his own crew to get 1% of a possible million dollars. Fred Dodge designed and built Big Red, has the more experience gold mining than the rest of the crew all together, no way he's doing all that for 1% of a possible million. Greg and Thurber are grandfathered in since they've been on the show since season one when they put up their families savings to go to Porcupine Creek.

You'll never convince me that their total running costs are only $600,000. The trommel that doesn't work I think by itself was damn near 600 grand, no? Big Red had to have cost multiple hundreds of thousands as well. They are running two D10s. Those are multiple hundreds of thousands as well. Here's a 2004 D10 that lists for $895,000http://www.machinerytrader.com/listi...x?OHID=8254721

There's just something about the whole Todd setup that screams bullshit for TV to me. They are really getting gold, but the numbers they are throwing around don't add up for me. Can't prove it, just a feeling.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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I'm betting those are on payment plans, like when Fred said he got a new line of credit and got his new machines, so while expensive I'm betting they weren't paid for fully up front.

I'm also betting each member of the team has a different percent of a cut in the end. The 1-2 percent was just a normal laborer if I had to guess.

I guess no one will ever really know, hopefully I can find out some detailed info soon on what a normal operation is like.
 
TheBeagle

TheBeagle

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Big Red was built by Fred and Dave, it's bought and paid for. The trommel was built by a guy out of his garage, I seriously doubt he fronted all the costs to build it himself then offered it to Todd on a nice payment plan. I do suppose it makes sense that the dozers, loaders and excavators are being leased.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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The guy who built the trommel was an ex miner himself and had been shopping around his trommel for awhile they said in an earlier episode. I can't imagine them being full out of the pocket on that thing, it never worked.
 
BrutulTM

BrutulTM

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When you're figuring your business finances you don't necessarily consider equipment purchases a straight expense even if you don't finance it. The equipment isn't used up, you can sell it when you're done and get most of your money back. The only real expense is depreciation and whatever interest you had to pay on it (and the fuel it uses of course).
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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That makes sense I suppose.

Something that did bug me last episode that I just remembered.

When your vehicles are the lifeblood of your operation....who the fuck doesn't have a spare tire for one of them?

Todd. That's who,
 
Merrith

Merrith

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Pretty sure some shitty "sponsored by Cheerios" commercial on Discovery just had a total spoiler for the season finale, but I could be totally wrong and it could just be a random sound bite. We'll see.
 
Agenor

Agenor

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Money is on Fred, but hoping it's Parker. As was pointed out earlier, if they consider grinding 1000 ounces as the mother-lode jimmie russlin will commence.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Well considering they are still like 300 or 400 ounces away aren't they? If they hit that in a single clean out then that would be pretty much the motherload.
 
Agenor

Agenor

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Meh. I guess my vision is skewed on what the mother-lode is. Obviously watched to many old westerns.
 
Harshaw

Harshaw

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Well Gold Rush has been picked up for a fourth season. What they will be doing is gonna be announced tonight. Also, Hoffman is saying that something is going to be shown tonight that's never been seen on TV. Which I take as just Todd being dramatic.
 
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