What happens when you put together a group of guys who are in search of striking it rich mining for gold… yet none of them have really ever done it? The new Discovery series “Fool’s Gold,” which premiers tonight, follows Todd Ryznar and his ramshackle crew at Shotgun Exploration who are mining the gold-laden hills of Northern Ontario. The eight-part series joins the beleaguered Ryznar and his rookie crew – at the mine and on the town through bug-infested days, frigid nights, and beer-fuelled weekends – as they make a hilariously haphazard foray into the world of the professional gold digger. Would-be miners Ryznar and Jason Whitehead (Roj) let us in on their candid journey of searching for the gold.
CraveOnline: So we want to know – was it a foolish endeavour, or did you scratch the surface of something big?
Todd: I’d say we scratched the surface of something bigger…
Roj: We’re definitely onto something big here… there’s apparently 11,000 ounces of gold there with a value of $15 million, and where I come from, that’s big.
The press release calls you “would-be miners” – do you find this insulting? Do you consider yourselves full-fledged miners now?
Todd: No, that definitely sounds correct to me. I don’t go into things with a lot of hope – whatever happens is better than nothing. If you go into it like that you’re never disappointed.
Roj: No way. Not by any means and I won’t pretend to be a miner. We’re learning as we go – everything we’re doing, the equipment, you have to learn as you go, find solutions for a lot of problems right on the spot. I’m not a miner.
Is mining something that is completely new to you?
Todd: I’ve tried to learn since I bought the mine five years ago how to get the gold out of the rock. It’s not like you see on TV with other shows – this is a hard rock mine, so the gold is inside the rock. It’s a lot harder to get out. I make a mistake and have to go another way… it’s always changing. It’s a difficult kind of gold – it’s locked up in sulphite and you think you have it and it’s pyrite or fool’s gold. It’s a non-stop learning process and I’m not done learning.
Roj: I haven’t done any mining – I worked in a paper mill for the last 15 years. The paper mill where I worked closed its doors permanently and the timing was perfect – Todd was looking to put a team together and I decided, why not?
What was it like having cameras following you around while you worked?
Todd: It definitely added stress. It’s different. You had to get used to them being there. I didn’t care what I said from day one but a lot of the other guys were nervous about what they were saying. It took them awhile to get used to it, but when you do, you don’t notice they’re there anymore.
Roj: It sure took some getting used to and was definitely new to us: the camera guys, sound guys, directors. But they were a wonderful group of people and it was really nice meeting very interesting people.
Did you find yourself censoring what you said?
Roj: No. I was surrounded by my friends – we’re all friends, so there’s a lot of comfort there. We just let them do their thing and they let us do ours. I think it worked out really well and that will show through on the series.
Any embarrassing moments?
Todd: At least five that I know of… there were more than a few that I’m not proud of, but what can you do? It happened.
Roj: Absolutely. We’re just people so things happen. I don’t want to give anything away but there’s definitely some very embarrassing things that happened.
