I can hardly wait to see what drama they come up with next. The entire landscape of the mining industry over the last year has changed dramatically, and so we encountered a lot this season. In perhaps the best-known episode from Jungle Gold, an excavator is ripping up an acre of cocoa trees when an irate cocoa farmer named Akwesi emerges from the bush, machete in hand. The Guyana operation was expanding, and Mishleau valued Wright and Lomus years of mining experience in Ghana. S: That's a great question, we get it a lot. Not a land owner. What do they think of this? Todd Hoffman, Tony Beets, and Parker Schnabel in Gold Rush. In the five years it takes a cocoa tree to fruit, he said, they often make poor decisions that cause them to be economically or physically displaced. The lure of foreign wages, he added, can incentivize village youth to drop out of school. They banned workers from touching mercury, paid workers twice the going rate and hired security. Jungle Gold. Viewers were shocked that Americans would broadcast illegal mining, and activists claimed throwing money at people unused to financial decision-making was a mistake. Lomu and Wright promised to show people more respect and understanding. His first radio story, which cast doubt on the Americans legal status, aired the first week of May. They say theyve learnt from their catastrophic, ratings-winning sojourn in West Africa. Two guys lose their shirts when the real estate bubble bursts and decide to do the logical thing hunt for gold in Ghana! understanding of conducting mining operations in underdeveloped Please subscribe here for answers, 1st video released today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7g-l3-M5k. When the captain took off the seatbelt sign, they roamed the cabin, high-fiving each other and cracking cans of beer. The Friday audience is a different audience. (Raw declined to comment on the incident.) Content Rating. They toiled for 18 hours a day, travelling two hours from a nearby village to the mine, living in a mud hut and battling with storms, broken equipment and constant delays. The production team swore to take a different approach to the second series. Back in Ghana, things were no better. Ready to get to work in Africa!, Jungle Gold may have enraged Ghanaian ex-pats and officials, but it was a hit with Americas 1849-year-old demographic. In April 2013, six months after its U.S. premiere, Jungle Golds first season had debuted in Ghana on DStv, an African satellite network with 8 million subscribers. With Scott Lomu, George Wright. First, their new landowner revealed the mining licence wasnt ready, so they couldnt film any actual work. Scott Lomu. Its author, Amma Bonsu, a Ghanaian activist and investment banker in Toronto, wrote that Jungle Gold reprised the antiquated narrative of Africa as a lawless jungle. [The] under-bed of racism is so alive in this [show]! she later told me. Most of the times one of the celebrity is famous and then because of him/her, other members get famous as well. In November 2011, two things happened. But they only had $35,000 left. George Wright and Scott Lomu, former real estate investors that lost everything in the 2008 crash, make the life-altering decision to travel to Ghana in West Africa to hunt for gold. A soaring Mormon temple, one of only three on the continent, sits in the heart of Accras commercial district, surrounded by European embassies. They had brought in work and money after all. Why anyone would give these clowns a penny of investment capital after all the stupid mistakes these guys have made for two years is beyond me. He was crushed to learn I was not. Take a good look, Scottie, he said. George Wright in 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. On the morning of May 11, the cast and crew arrived at Kotoka International Airport. Ghana challenged their intentions from the start. Ghanas National Security Agency, meanwhile, had yet to contact them. . As chronicled in their The cast and crew pulled into Fahiakobo that March. No way. We say, Yeah, we travel back and forth between here and West Africa. And then they always said the same thing which I felt there needed to be some deciphering after theyd say it theyd always say, I wish I could do that. And I said, Well, I dont think you understand what youre saying. When Lomu suggested removing the miners by force, a chief replied: If you attempt it, they will kill you! The crew captured everything on film and loved it. But they had not received permission from the Minerals Commission to film mining lands. I Am A, where the mundane becomes fascinating and the outrageous suddenly seems normal. It was tempting, but it didnt make sense: Anyone could sell gold to the state-run Precious Minerals and Marketing Company for just 2% under the global price. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. The new operation went as poorly as the first. On the morning of May 9, hours before the first article ran, Wright was in Fahiakobo preparing for the days shoot when he received a disturbing call from Reece. Element United is the first to market in bringing blockchain technology to gold + precious elements. Obviously, wed appreciate it if the gold prices were higher, always; however, were still feeling very good about the price of gold today. They got through it by dreaming up episodes for their nonexistent reality show. When I asked them about this, they said the thought had not occurred to them. The site itself was a wide clearing in the jungle scarred by gaping 20-foot pits, where Ghanaian laborers wrangled the equipment in pools of coffee-colored mud. Viewers claimed the show was racist, portrayed locals in outdated colonial stereotypes, and exploited impoverished Ghanians for money and ratings. How did he come to acquire his assets? That supports been really the lifeblood in this entire operation. Phone calls from furious Ghanaian expatriates poured in. All the details of the secret MAFS boys night are spilt at a boozy dinner party that shocks the experts. Clint Mishleau, the Companys CEO, stated, We are very pleased to have But the sight of two white guys standing by as a half-dozen Ghanaians labored in the heat created a disquieting visual reminder of Ghanas years as a British colony. Prior to the fight, locals had regarded the cast and crew with friendly curiosity. Not everyone celebrated their departure. Sat 07 May PG-VL. He later learned Macias had become dependent on pain medication due to injuries he suffered in a roadside bomb attack. The Mormon miners submitted a proposal to Raw TV, the British company that produced the program, and waited. But no one seemed to recognize them. They feared it would provoke a stampede of greedy foreign gold miners, exacerbating the small-scale mining crisis. Fortune seekers George Wright and Scott Lomu know there are no rewards without risks, but even the gold-mining stars of "Jungle Gold" weren't prepared for the danger they and the show's crew faced . For anyone who thinks their decision to pursue gold mining is utterly insane, they explained to me how they came to this conclusion in a way that sounds entirely logical. According to Lomu, Raw later paid Akwesi $3,000 for his troubles. But once again, the cost of equipment and labor exceeded the meager amount of gold they found. Season 1 Ep 12. Despite their failures, the pair remain hopeful for the future. It mostly comes down to the bravest of us all which is our wives they support us 100 percent. They were convinced theyd be arrested at the airport and imprisoned. I like him every once in a while (laughs) its just really hard to trust him. As many obstacles as theyve faced, theyve also learned from them and made smart decisions as well. Gold, which ran two seasons on the Discovery Channel. It now occurred to him that theyd simply resumed filming after the August meeting. It was a typical move: Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, was one of the earliest African countries to declare its independence from colonial rule in 1957. Desperate for cash, he recruited two men he thought would make enthusiastic gold dealers. What is behind the allure of gold mining? The spinoff series follows the miners from the jungles of South America, to the mountains of Alaska, to the Klondike. The shows first season had been a hit, airing on Friday nights behind Gold Rush, Discovery Channels highest-rated show. Villagers routinely set up roadblocks and demanded hundreds of dollars to pass. I think they just wanted us out of there, Wright said. Thats the last were going to see of Ghana.. There was a sense of disappointment, said Wright. Heres Our Review Of Cocaine Bear: Oh Hell Yes! But it was Lomus identical twin brother, Bill, a divorce mediator then living in Arizona, who finally took action. But Wright doesnt regret fighting back. At the moment I jumped in, he was right over [our security guard] and was going to push his head underwater. To me, reality shows are like watching professional wrestling. They had first heard about the show in July 2012, while the cast and crew were still in Ghana filming Season 1. Theres a lot of feedback we get where people are just really inspired by the idea that we have a goal and were willing to do whatever it takes to obtain that goal. Lomu and Macias had been best friends growing up; as a teenager, Lomu had baptized him into the Mormon church. It looked like we were being mocked, Donkor said. They have to prove the new claim is stacked with gold or their investors will pull funding. Jungle Gold. Nature Treasure Hunting Adventure & Exploration We partner with mines to digitize their precious elements. But for those thinking that theyre bad actors or are, worse, faking the drama, they have an offer for you come to visit them in Ghana for a few days. Other scenes needed no stage-managing. What happens when a government shuts down an illegal camp is it basically displaces 80-100 local young men who no longer have a job. SENT to Ghana for a TV series, the American stars of Jungle Gold were accused of destroying the environment, exploiting workers, racism and even murder. believe Ensurge has the potential to grow into a significant junior The chief warned that if they fought the miners, they would be killed. Scott Lomu and George Wright buying supplies during an episode of Jungle Gold. But they soon discovered a more viable option: gold mining. Under Review. Reeling from the news, Lomu flew to Utah the next day. S: Well, I hope that all the miners that were there illegally are gone. Around the time Lomu saw himself on TV, Evans Mensah was channel-surfing in his Accra apartment when an image of bright green cocoa trees filled the screen. Whether the Information Services Department had instructed Raw to seek the commissions approval is unclear; the permit protocol for foreign documentary film crews in Ghana was somewhat vague in 2012. When we first came to Ghana, we knew our investment could change the lives of people there, Lomu said. Not everything works out how you want it to, said Wright. After rainstorms, locals with nothing else to do had taken to searching the gutters for specks of gold. $1 Million - $5 Million. At any moment, a police vehicle, a military car, can come in and stop this plane, Lomu says in the finale. It sounded like they were the target. But with the chaos of Season 1 fresh in mind, Discovery had imposed new conditions for Season 2. Who gave you permission to work here? Akwesi demands, before tackling the crews Ghanaian security guard. As Richard Bushman, a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, put it: Mormons think things will work out for the best.. In the most cases they also have children. Wright and Lomu considered escaping into the jungle, but Discovery made the final decision. To guarantee cell service in the bush, the company bought Raw a 30-foot antenna. in exploring and developing gold mining opportunities in South and North So now I'm just leaving this thing open . How is the gold market lately? And its worked up to this point. I'm honestly not a fan of Reality tv at all, I want to watch good scripted shows with compelling stories. The Mormons and their production team had paid a village chief $12,500 to mine a large plot of land, but they arrived to find it packed with Chinese miners. A fight breaks out and martial arts-trained angry George, as he was nicknamed, strangles the man until he passes out. Season 1. Primary Income source American Football Player (profession). For fun (I didnt want anything out of it, Bill told me), he learned the format for reality show treatments from a producer friend in Los Angeles. Lomu couldnt believe what he was seeing. Weary of small-scale mining, the men enthusiastically agreed. It was shown because it's the main way of gold recovery in Africa, what they didn't show in the show was us trying to get our workers to wear gloves, our seeking for other separating methods that ultimately we didn't have money for at the time etc. Follows Americans George Wright and Scott Lomu, two hard working men who risk it all to strike it rich as part of a golden plan to recover from losing everything in the real estate crash of 2008. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 62,000 members in Ghana, the second-highest membership in Africa behind Nigeria. That Mormons would choose to deal gold in West Africa may seem odd, but the pursuit of gold carries historical significance in the Mormon church. From left, Victor Kpah, Scot Lomu and George Wright of 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. S: George is a little wordy, here's the short answer. Both men had worked in Utah's real estate market, had young families to support and debts piling up. Filming at home. Its very easy to lose your temper, it very easy to feel like everybodys trying to take advantage of you and trying to take your land. A short video about the incident appeared months later on Discoverys website. By the time the season ended, three Change.org petitions had called for the shows cancellation, drawing a total of 3,000 supporters from the U.S., Europe, South America, Australia, and across West Africa. But the optimistic, God-fearing pair are now back in the game, trying their hand at mining in Guyana, on South Americas Caribbean coast, posting hair-raising videos on Instagram. ", "The stage is being set for a redemptive second season of Jungle Gold., Your weekday morning guide to breaking news, cultural analysis, and everything in between, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. So what do you watch instead? The stars solved the dilemma by essentially pretending to mine, digging in the mud or washing gold by hand when a scene called for it. I don't watch the show, but I'm curious if it makes an attempt to discuss the environmental impacts (bulldozing forests, polluting water with mercury and arsenic, etc.) It's Africa's second largest gold-producing country, so finding the precious metal isn't the hard part. As they prepared for shooting one day in May, they heard that armed militia had attacked miners near their old site. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. What was the viewer reaction following the season premiere of Jungle Gold? And though Mormons make up less than a quarter of 1% of Ghanas 25 million people, they hold a strong symbolic presence in the country. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. It sure could. I feel like its actually underappreciated and underdemonstrated in any medium. Salary in 2020. management team. In exchange, he asked Wright and Lomu to put up $50,000. I thank my parents. As Brigham Young understood, gold mining is an inherently unstable profession. Since completing the series, Lomu and Wright continue to But the incident changed the dynamic in the village. The men said they received tons of outraged tweets and Facebook messages, many from Africans in the U.S., accusing them of deceiving Ghanaians and raping the countryside. They hadnt actually killed anyone, after all, and they were not mining illegally. All times AEDT (GMT +11). Its still higher than when we originally went to West Africa to find it. By August 2012, more than two months into the shoot, the stars joint venture had found only a few ounces of gold. Discovery had ordered 12 episodes, Wright said, but their abbreviated stay produced only enough material for six. (DStv, they later learned, chose not to air the second season in Africa. Whatever it is, thats what we realized they were saying I wish I could do that. Meaning that dream. So they turn to other means. BOOM! Anytime somebody felt we were taking advantage of them, even this idea of colonialism was so off our radar, it felt so out of left field.. The day before, he and the entire cast and crew of the Discovery Channel reality show Jungle Gold had fled a nearby village fearing an armed militia was after them. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 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