Tony Beets Innovates to Speed Up Gold Production at Paradise Hill

After failing to secure a license at Indian River, Tony Beets, the King of the Klondike, has set his sights on an ambitious season goal of 4,500 ounces. With only one functioning wash plant, Tony’s success depends entirely on Mike’s trommel running at full capacity.

“If we’re going to be stuck here on the hill, I’ll have to keep an eye on the throttle,” Tony says. “We need to get as many rocks through the trommel as we can.”

Battling the Soggy Cut

Tony has been struggling with the Soggy Cut for weeks. Each time the cut floods, the gold-rich White Channel pay dirt becomes too wet to run. This forces Tony to deploy a fleet of excavators to find a dry patch farther from the plant.

“I have no dry dirt to load trucks with, which kind of sucks,” Tony admits. “On the hill, we have to run a steady volume if we’re going to get those ounces. We’ve got all the equipment, all the pay lanes ready—we just need to keep moving.”

Mike and the crew constantly hop between cuts as water fills one section, slowing down operations. Excavators shuttle back and forth endlessly, which eats up precious time.

A Bold Idea to Save Time

Kevin, one of Tony’s crew, comes up with a potential solution. “We could speed that up,” he says. The plan involves using a specially designed dolly to transport heavy equipment quickly.

By balancing a 10-ton trommel or even a 78-ton excavator on the dolly, securing the bucket in a rock truck, and hauling the machine at speeds up to 15 miles per hour, the crew could cut transportation time from half an hour to just five minutes.

Tony immediately gives the green light. The crew loads the dolly, but their first attempt fails—ripping off the tailgate of the rock truck.

Trial and Error Pays Off

Undeterred, Tony switches to an older rock truck without a tailgate. With careful adjustments, the dolly system works flawlessly. Excavators can now be moved around the cut quickly, feeding the trommel with dry White Channel pay dirt.

“This works. That’s all I wanted,” Tony exclaims. “We’ve cut the time down to five minutes. Now we can keep the feed steady and keep the gold moving.”

Running at Maximum Capacity

Tony is now pushing the operation to the limit. Paradise Hill is producing gold-rich material, but with only one trommel running at half power, the team is not meeting the target of 350 yards of pay dirt per hour.

“We’re going to have to run this thing flat out, 24 hours a day,” Tony says. “At high speed, we can finally reach our goal. Every hour counts—if we lose yards, we lose gold.”

Innovation Meets Necessity

Tony Beets’ new method of transporting heavy machinery demonstrates the creativity and adaptability required in the Yukon. With the dolly system in place, excavators move faster, pay dirt flows steadily, and the Beets family gets one step closer to hitting their ambitious 4,500-ounce season goal.

As always, in Tony’s world, ingenuity is just as valuable as gold.