Melting permafrost makes mud out of pay dirt, and Andy devises an engineering long shot to prove the Lost Cut is rich with gold; Todd and his crew dial in the wash plants.
Hunter treks into the tundra to prospect for new paydirt before the Lost Cut runs dry; Todd secretly ships Jack's 1980s-era washplant to Alaska to fulfill his dad's original gold-mining dream.
The Hoffmans are succeeding on an Alaskan mine site that ruined generations of miners before them. When muddy meltwater infiltrates their wash plants, Andy must re-engineer their entire water circulation system to keep their gold from floating away.
A shift in the weather turns Andy's routine mining decision into a potential disaster when melting ice threatens to contaminate the nearby creek with silt; Todd attempts an engineering solution to help save the mine.
When state inspectors make a surprise visit to the mine, Todd braces for citations and fines. The Hoffman team races to save their operation before a verdict is set.
When the government orders a list of fixes, Todd's crew questions if they can work with little hope of a gold bonus; frustrations reach a breaking point between Chambo and Andy; for Todd, it comes down to a single gold weigh to keep his crew intact.
As the Hoffman crew completes a marathon of government fixes in record time, Todd promises a gold bonus to everyone who completes the season.
As pay dirt from the Lost Cut mine runs low, Hunter runs dirt from a promising new location called the Plateau; Framer disappears after heading out on a solo caribou hunt.
When the motor in Todd's Black Pearl trommel catches fire, the Hoffman crew attempts to modify the smaller wash plant Jack built decades ago to run more pay dirt.
Ice sets in early, threatening to freeze the operation; in a search for unfrozen ground, Andy creates a novel solution, which is digging up the road they built at the start of the season to harvest the gold-rich Lost Cut pay dirt it was built from.
Todd's crew races to beat 1,000 ounces and make a profitable final season for Grampa Jack; with a season-ending snowfall in the forecast, the rich pay dirt they need may be in the last place an old-school miner would ever look.
Determined to mine a daunting 1,000 ounces of gold this year, Todd Hoffman brings a hand-picked wash plant and all-star crew to his remote Alaskan claim; when they struggle out of the gate, his son Hunter has a bold fix to run his own plant.
Todd gets Holy Roller running and catching nuggets; looking to make his mark, Hunter transports the largest wash plant the Hoffmans have ever used to the site; unloading the mammoth wash plant leads to a mammoth fight between father and son.
Smoke from a nearby fire has the Hoffmans on edge and praying for rain; their prayers are answered, but the torrential storms may flood the mine, leaving the team scrambling to save their paydirt; Hunter pushes to get his wash plant up and running.
As Todd's Holy Roller plant runs non-stop, Hunter's Black Pearl plant is finally ready to wash dirt; the mine is shut down when Hunter's plant blocks access to rocks from Todd's tailings; an epic father-and-son showdown puts the season in jeopardy.
After huge wins and epic fails, Todd Hoffman left gold mining four years ago; now he's taking a new gamble at a remote but gold-rich mine in Alaska; Todd and his family have just seven weeks to grab the gold before winter freezes them out.
A transmission issue threatens to shut down Todd's Holy Roller, but Randy and Tater come up with a bush fix to get gold moving; chasing better paydirt, Hunter takes a big swing with a new cut; the Hoffmans push through for the season's best weigh-in.
When a grizzly stalks the mine, Jack springs into action; finding Holy Roller leaking gold, Todd races to get it fixed; when a government inspection threatens to shut the mine, Hunter sacrifices his gold count and scrambles to keep the site running.
Working around the clock to hit their 1,000-ounce goal, tempers flare among the crew; when a rookie mistake shuts down the Holy Roller, Randy and Tater square off about how to get it fixed; Todd must step in to get his team back on track.
With winter closing in on the mine, Todd rolls the dice and looks for richer paydirt by opening the Lost Cut; opening a new cut this late puts the Hoffmans' season at risk; Tater must keep paydirt running to both plants.
With temperatures plunging and pay dirt freezing, the Hoffmans scramble to make their season goal, but machines across the mine shut down when water is detected in the fuel supply; the team races to drain and refuel engines across the site.
As winter closes in on the mine, paydirt dwindles and the Black Pearl is down; Todd's 1,000-ounce goal looks out of reach; the Hoffmans gamble by running the Holy Roller day and night; Hunter races to find a new clutch for the Black Pearl.
Todd must deliver 300 ounces of gold in just seven weeks; to make it happen, his first step is getting Hot Mess, a massive broken-down wash plant, up and running; Todd goes rogue and opens a new cut behind the mine owner's back.
Desperate to run more paydirt, Todd fires up Big Trommel. The plant is so worn-out that Todd nicknames it 'Hot Mess'. The team chases fix after fix to keep the plant running and chase its million-dollar goal.
It's Jack Hoffman's birthday, but if the crew wants to achieve its goal, there's no time for cake; Todd and his crew must solve why the Big Trommel is leaking out more than half the gold in the pay dirt.
To hit his million-dollar goal, Todd pushes his team to get a third wash plant delivering gold; as the mine ramps up, the road system needs to be overhauled so they can keep paydirt moving before the deep freeze.
When Alaskan temperatures plunge, Todd and the team are caught by surprise; their biggest wash plant is frozen and the Hoffman's rush to thaw out their other plants before they're iced out for the season.
Hunter takes on the arctic tundra when a geologist's lead points to crazy gold on the edge of the Hoffman claim; Andy works to turn paydirt from an ancient river channel into a big payoff.
The Hoffmans discover a huge vein of gold that could save their season if they can get it out of the ground in time; as the mine equipment fails, pressure mounts on their mechanic, Randy, to keep it all running.
With their million-dollar goal in sight, the Hoffmans' best working wash plant breaks down and can't be repaired; Todd's last shot is to get the Hot Mess up and running during an arctic freeze.
As Alaska's brutal winter threatens to end his season, Todd only needs 47 more ounces of gold to reach his million-dollar goal; Todd works the night shift to keep paydirt moving; the final gold weigh might be a big win for Todd or another disaster.
Todd gets a jump start on his next season and heads to Colorado to get his best wash plant -- Holy Roller -- shipped to Alaska.