Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/141834
SPECIAL REPORT tal, Turin wasn't as confident, imagining an intern with a smart phone taping the crew's adventures. "As this progressed, I kept helping Todd out — our company gave him some wiring, a pump, we tested the pump, we were helping him with some of his water flows, we wired up his first generator for that plant — and I was doing all this just to help a brother out," he says. "And then they headed up to Alaska, and I thought, 'OK, I won't see him for a while,' and then he calls me at the end of June in that first season and said he needed some help setting up the plant because they couldn't get it going." Turin headed up to the Yukon on his own dime, determined to help where he could, never expecting that his collaboration would reward him with a life-changing opportunity. "When I get there, I get off the airplane and I'm approached by guys with real cameras — and they're big cameras — and a real sound guy and director," Turin recalls. "And that was the first time I realized that this was going to be on TV, and Todd was really going to do a TV show, and I was really, really surprised." knew he couldn't pass up this once-in-alifetime opportunity. When the crew had embarked on this adventure during season one, Turin felt a twinge of sadness knowing he wasn't going to be part of it. "When they left, I was sad, because I thought, 'Gosh, I'd really like to be a part of that,'" he says. "It was a frontier, a new challenge for me. So when I visited them the first season, I really, thoroughly, enjoyed it. It was hard work and rough conditions, but I just loved it. I liked the pursuit of the gold. I liked digging the ground up and taking my knowledge and putting it to a different way of mining, a different process. It stimulated the creative part of my brain." Now stationed in Canadian Yukon territory with his wife during the mining season, Turin worked to organize and train the crew. Turin knew that if they were to be successful, they had to become a team. "My wife and I decided that if I was to go on this adventure, the crew had to work together and become organized," he says. "So we decided that we would feed the guys breakfast in the morning, and share a meal, and do a Bible study. So we would pray together and read the Bible together, and through that process of the morning meetings, we became more organized so we could talk through the issues. "When you live with someone that much, there's friction and discontent," he continues. "But when you meet together, and you pray together, and you work through it, the team becomes stronger. We felt like there was a greater calling to this show than just digging up the ground and getting gold out of it." Back home in Oregon, Mt. Hood Rock continued without Turin's daily supervision, but it was a difficult adjustment for the business and the family. With 25 percent of the management team now focused on another project deep in the Going for gold By season two, Hoffman had officially asked Turin to join the crew, but it was a decision Turin made cautiously through prayer and with his wife's blessing. "To me, it was a dangerous decision to make, because there are some enticements that most of the world looks at, and I had to be careful that I wasn't doing it for the wrong reasons," he says. "You know, the pursuit of gold, TV, power…I had to guard myself to make sure that I was doing it with my wife for the right reasons." But after careful consideration, Turin As the crew sought to mine 1,000 ounces of gold in Season 3, Turin collaborated with KPI-JCI to produce the two-deck vibrating inclined screen used at his primary wash plant. AGGREGATES MANAGER July 2013 SpecialReport_AGRM0713.indd 13 13 6/17/13 12:50 PM