Klondike here...
When I heard Todd settled for $80K, when they spent way over $250K ... sounded kind of weird to me... I have mined in Alaska, ..a few times... I know how expensive it is to get equipment to Alaska, much less a remote area... I once priced out a remote mine I was looking to buy, .. it was so remote, the equipment had to be barged from Seattle to Bethel.... transferred to another barge company, sent up a river a couple hundred miles, then dropped of at a remote landing......and then walked about 60 miles to the mine site... just the transportation cost alone was around $300K... and this was several years ago... when fuel was much cheaper than now.... plus the equipment cost...another $300K... all before I would have turned one pound of dirt into a wash plant...even though it was exceptional good ground, I didn't buy the property..... just too much to risk...
They settled WAY too low for equipment...way too much of a loss... since it was the beginning of the summer... and no cause for alarm that the equipment would get snowed in... if Fred wouldn't see my price, ...I'd moved the equipment off the claim, stage it near the river until I had a place to put it to work in Alaska.... somewhere in that time frame, Fred would meet their price, no matter what it was!!...just because it is so incredibly expensive to transport equipment to Alaska from the lower 48.. and with gold prices so high, there isn't much in the way of equipment just laying around collecting dust in Alaska... it is being used...They had Fred over the equipment barrel...so to speak... Todd just didn't know it...
Not only is Todd an poorly experienced miner... but a very bad negotiator as well.... He'll need much more than $80K for any property and equipment in and around the Canadian Yukon area gold fields with these high gold prices...... for sure....
The whole thing is just unrealistic.... but good for ratings...
Klondike....