"We didnt exploit anyone. America. I mean, not logical enough to actually do it, but they clearly considered the idea (and had a relative in the field) before diving in. 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. When Doyle learned the arrest warrant had been extended to the crew, he called for an immediate evacuation. Not everything works out how you want it to, said Wright. Season 1 Ep 12. The next few years were good for Wright and Lomu, who often exchanged tips about real estate deals. Lomu couldnt believe what he was seeing. Ghanas National Security Agency, meanwhile, had yet to contact them. $1 Million - $5 Million. Life saving hugs or to provide tissues for his whiny wife? Our first thought was always: Didnt you guys see the show? George: I think this all would have ended a long time ago had our wives and our children, and even extended family and close friends, not been so supportive. With their excavator back, Scott and George only have 48 hours left to prove that they can get to the gold or their mining deal with Dave Thomas will be terminated. Greenhorn gold miners George Wright and Scott Lomu put everything on the line -- their lives included -- to hit pay dirt in the gold-rich and danger-filled jungles of Ghana. Scott Lomu and George Wright, hapless heroes of Discoverys Jungle Gold, finally had to flee the country by plane to escape arrest and the armed militia who seemed to be pursuing them. We didnt want them to present Ghana as a lawless place where foreigners can come and engage in illegal mining, he explained. But, you will find Ghana a fantastic country. We were hemorrhaging money, Wright told me. According to Lomu, Raw had replied that Discovery could not pull the show from Ghana without pulling it from DStv altogether. (George: 100 duck sized horses for sure, Scott: 1 duck sized horse) (Will do videos for Karma), Jungle Gold on Discovery Channel this Sunday's 10/9c after Breaking Bad on AMC. The first thing George and I thought when we landed in Ghana was, "I thought WE had problems". The next morning, they passed through customs and boarded a privately chartered jet bound for Paris. Theres something to be said about that allure. Wright and Lomu have a plan for a new reality show, about mining and selling gold and their home lives. The cast and crew pulled into Fahiakobo that March. A soaring Mormon temple, one of only three on the continent, sits in the heart of Accras commercial district, surrounded by European embassies. And its worked up to this point. The series chronicles the continuing efforts of former real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu . Spoiler Alert, yeah, can't answer that, we were there for 4 months about. He was standing on his bed in boxer briefs as his wife lay beside him and laughed. When I asked them about this, they said the thought had not occurred to them. I believe its God who brought them to me, Alan Tay, who served as a handyman for Wright and Lomu during the Season 2 shoot, later told me. In June, they produced a series of short videos to show prospective investors. Wright caught malaria. Only the most coldhearted, inhumane person could spend more than an hour in Ghana and think to do that. Clean-cut Lomu and Wright were working together in Utahs declining real estate industry when they heard Ghana was experiencing a modern-day gold rush and attracting overseas miners, mainly Chinese, to try their luck. So, so sad. Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. Jarred by the response, Wright and Lomu responded to many of them, trying to clarify any misunderstandings. Oh my word, they think I killed him, he said. Brigham Young, the president of the church, was nervous about it, criticizing it as a tenuous and irregularly profitable profession. Such sermons did little to dissuade Mormons, whose trademark optimism stems from a belief that God is on their side. . Its still higher than when we originally went to West Africa to find it. If you take any human being out to a site where theres gold, and give him a shovel and they find gold there, theyll say, Give me more shovels, give me more people! Because its really quite addictive once you catch it. Element United is the first to market in bringing blockchain technology to gold + precious elements. 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. While the landowner applied for a large-scale license, Raw had paid dozens of local men 40 cedis per day (around $20 in 2013, more than twice the standard rate) to dig 8-foot holes in search of gold deposits, a process known as prospecting. We do answer questions and stay in touch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDu1cQjqGaj-3wBYavW1Hg/videos. | Learn more about Scott Lomu's work experience, education, connections . After averaging 2.65 million viewers a week during its first season on Discovery Channel last fall, Jungle Gold is back, having started Season 2 on Aug. 11 (now airing on Sundays). But with the chaos of Season 1 fresh in mind, Discovery had imposed new conditions for Season 2. Six months later, in May 2012, Wright and Lomu met with the Raw crew inside an opulent conference room at the Golden Tulip hotel in Accra to discuss the projected arc of Season 1. The two Americans will be tracked down and arrested, a Ghanaian official declared. Todd Hoffman, Tony Beets, and Parker Schnabel in Gold Rush. I think they just wanted us out of there, Wright said. He watched in puzzlement as Wright ordered an excavator driver to tear it all down. The program, he soon discovered, was set in Ghana. A month after the Jungle Gold evacuation, the Ghanaian government conducted a nationwide crackdown on illegal foreign miners, causing thousands of Chinese nationals to be deported. But they only had $35,000 left. Runtime. Press J to jump to the feed. Six months later, in May 2012, Wright and Lomu met with the Raw crew inside an opulent conference room at the Golden Tulip hotel in Accra to discuss the projected arc of Season 1. Based on the interview, My Joy Online, Joy FMs heavily trafficked website, published two short but searing articles about Jungle Gold on May 9 and May 10. I personaly found it entertaining and interesting. Email. While Lomu and Wright couldnt tell me too much about whats coming in season two, what they did say sounded intriguing. One day in Ghana is more dramatic than this entire freaking episode!. Their wives are also dedicated to the idea of not just funding their own families but making sure Wallys kids and wife are taken care of. They had paid locals well, contributed to the local economy, and obeyed Ghanas mining laws, they said. Once we did, we got back in touch with him and he had land available still, and from there it was just kind of the beginning of Im not going to say a beautiful relationship, because Im not a huge fan of Dave. From [], Do the Alaskan Bush People get paid? By this time, Ghanas mining industry was in chaos, with Al Jazeera reporting on the dangers of illegal mining, fuelled by widespread corruption. The path to George Wright and Scott Lomu's camp. (Raw refused to comment on Aboagyes claim.) And so they were deeply leveraged when the housing market collapsed in September 2008. George: Theres something to be said about gold fever about realizing that I dig a hole, I find gold. There was also an image problem. Reeling from the news, Lomu flew to Utah the next day. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. Am I supposed to feel bad for their debt as they exploit Africans? Months before the shoot, Lomu had paid a village chief $12,500 of his Utah investors money to secure a 25-acre plot of land an hour outside the town of Dunkwa, the epicenter of Ghanas gold rush. They hadnt actually killed anyone, after all, and they were not mining illegally. Have you ever seen the show 'Gold Rush'? According to Wright and Lomu, a top Discovery executive told them, Your show is so real it's unreal.. Meanwhile, the pressure is on the boys to secure a wood-burning stove so the family can stay warm over winter. Since Jungle Gold aired, small mining companies from around the world have contacted Wright and Lomu through Facebook to propose mining partnerships. But their return to Ghana was to be even more troubled than round one. #Colonialism, good job discovery channel youve made a reality show about the rape and theft of african natural resources #junglegold #kinglepold. Hopefully you guys get some good stuff, so everyone can benefit, she responded. The California gold rush of the mid19th century coincided with the Mormon pioneers arrival in Utah. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 62,000 members in Ghana, the second-highest membership in Africa behind Nigeria. They cast Wright and Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in a heroic struggle against hostile and uncooperative natives. This was a good start. The heart and soul of this amazing piece of equipment are the people, Wright narrates. But on Macias and Wrights first trip in May 2010 (Lomu stayed behind in Utah), buying gold proved trickier than theyd anticipated. Scott Lomu is VP:Investor Relations at Ensurge Inc. See Scott Lomu's compensation, career history, education, & memberships. Did Ghana ever try to arrest you two as indicated in this article on Ghana Web? What we finally realized after discussing it was people werent saying they wanted to literally go to Ghana to do gold mining but rather they wished they could do whatever it is their dream was, whatever it is they hoped to be able to do be it open up a restaurant, or open up their own salon or become a writer. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Jungle Gold, Discovery Channel's latest reality effort, follows two Americans on their quest to strike it big in Ghana, Africa.After losing hundreds of thousands in the real estate collapse, George Wright and Scott Lomu tried to find the silver lining actually it was more of . Unfortunately, most locals can't afford to mine the gold, they need outside investment. Whatever it is, thats what we realized they were saying I wish I could do that. Meaning that dream. Since small-scale mining is reserved for Ghanaians, he assumed the Americans were mining illegally. Lomu and Macias had been best friends growing up; as a teenager, Lomu had baptized him into the Mormon church. This, like so many other pathetic reality shows should go away forever. So Literally Ask US Anything, we can't spoil the upcoming season, but anything else is fine. The crew had received press accreditation from the Information Services Department, he said. We thought we could explain any misunderstandings to the government, Wright said. Why moan about something just find something else to watch. Aboard a two-story mining dredge as it plies the brown waters of the Amazon jungle, he captures Guyanese miners laughing and telling jokes over lunch. 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. The network had green-lit a second season that February. *Discovery Channel has been pushing this as a new season, though the May 29 new episode is listed as Season 2, Episode 9. The Chinese miners remained on the site, and Lomu forfeited the money he paid for it. Judging from locals reactions to them, the show may indeed have been on the road to redemption. When I watch the gold mining shows (especially the Alaska one) it seems no different to me than simply taking the money to Vegas and playing blackjack. He is from . All the details of the secret MAFS boys night are spilt at a boozy dinner party that shocks the experts. We saw mining as an opportunity and used our cash to purchase some equipment. S: Well, I hope that all the miners that were there illegally are gone. The cast and crew hid at a nearby compound, where they discovered Wright was suspected of murder and the authorities wanted them arrested. 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. (A spokesperson for Raw would not comment on whether the farmer was paid.) Wright and Lomu considered escaping into the jungle, but Discovery made the final decision. With Scott Lomu, George Wright. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Now, Doyle gave its pilot a new mission: Extract the stars from Domenase and deliver them to Accra. 'S unreal real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in heroic. Lomu responded to many of them, trying to clarify any misunderstandings, yet! 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