Should they find enough gold, they intended to build a Ghanaian schoolhouse in Maciass name. Nevertheless, the district officer demanded Raw visit the Minerals Commissions headquarters in Accra before they continued filming. 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. But the. miners were regularly killed or injured thanks to unsafe practices, Queen: Fans fall in love with MAFS wife, MAFS husbands vile boys night act exposed. November 23, 2012. is that truth, are they gone? As he later told Wright, All it takes is a handful of guys with firearms to see the show and come looking for us.. There are plenty of other channels. It now occurred to him that theyd simply resumed filming after the August meeting. But as Reece explained it, a wealthy Ghanaian who owned land around Fahiakobo was willing to acquire a large-scale license himself and hire Wright and Lomu to mine his property. We do answer questions and stay in touch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDu1cQjqGaj-3wBYavW1Hg/videos. In 2009, when Lomus father-in-law, a wealthy lawyer in Salt Lake City, suggested Lomu try dealing gold in Ghana, he latched onto the idea. We thought we could explain any misunderstandings to the government, Wright said. That was hard, said Wright. Large-scale licenses begin at around $3 million, putting them out of Wright and Lomus price range. Visionary entrepreneur and leader. He also began investing in real estate, which was how he met Scott Lomu. It was time to bail out. The show not only increased the chances theyd be recognized, he thought, it also provided a detailed map to their Season 1 mining claim, which lay on the same road as Fahiakobo. TV-PG. Mensah was a reporter for Joy FM, one of Ghanas most popular news radio stations. Watching the videos, I got the sense that Wright and Lomu, regretful over Jungle Gold, were trying to redeem themselves by portraying Guyana in a flattering light. George: We met him towards the end of our last little stint out there. Thats when we realized our tragedy was good for the show, Lomu said. Our cutting room floor can have its own AmA! Lomu knew his friend had experienced post-traumatic stress from his tours in Afghanistan. Never had a real job or a real education, never think ahead or do research about anything. And yet they also felt a strange sense of calm. He was standing on his bed in boxer briefs as his wife lay beside him and laughed. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. 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. We are Scott Lomu & George Wright, We can't speak to other reality shows but are happy to share about ours and what it's been like. Lomu and Wright sat in the back and ducked. Coincidentally, Discovery had recently reserved a Russian helicopter to take aerial shots of Wright and Lomus new excavator as it trundled into Fahiakobo. Their families reaped the rewards of their hard work as both men enjoyed the American dream. The first thing George and I thought when we landed in Ghana was, "I thought WE had problems". It looked like we were being mocked, Donkor said. Aboagye was shocked. Jungle Gold is back, having started Season 2 on Aug. 11 (now . Clint Mishleau, the Companys CEO, stated, We are very pleased to have FYI, for our show specifically, it is 200 hours of content for 43 minutes if show. How Does the CBS True Lies Series Compare to James Camerons 1994 Movie. 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. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of those kids will turn to armed robbery, and theyll rob other miners. | December 22, 2022 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). Yet, at the same time, Ghanas small-scale mining sector had grown increasingly chaotic. Discovery was so impressed by the clips they upped the season from 10 episodes to 16. Don't miss the season finale of Jungle Gold on Discovery, featuring Food Insurance friend's Scott & George Shining Dawn- Jungle Gold's Scott Lomu & George Wright They explain better he is a broker. 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. 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. Watch part 1 unfold here: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/jungle-gold/videos/run-for-the-border-part-one.htm. 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. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=273569. And I think thats evidenced as anything by the things that Scott and I have been doing. The ratings fell. A lot of questions have been asked in Ghana about how, and why so many illegal miners were allowed to mine in Ghana without paperwork for so long. It begins now, Wright wrote. BOOM! Since Jungle Gold aired, small mining companies from around the world have contacted Wright and Lomu through Facebook to propose mining partnerships. Under Review. When I asked a 21-year-old local named Nana Jyamfi what he did for a living, he laughed: Im waiting for the Chinese to come back.. Despite their failures, the pair remain hopeful for the future. 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. That October, Sam Maynard, Raws head of U.S. factual television and one of Jungle Golds executive producers, informed Wright and Scott that the show had been canceled. The problem, as Tay saw it, was that most of the Chinese miners were operating illegally, meaning they paid no taxes and ignored environmental regulations. They cast Wright and Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in a heroic struggle against hostile and uncooperative natives. According to Lomu, Raw later paid Akwesi $3,000 for his troubles. One of them was Wright, whose entrepreneurial drive and years in South America Lomu saw as an asset. (Both Discovery Channel and Raw, which was acquired by Discovery in 2014, declined to comment for this story.). His first radio story, which cast doubt on the Americans legal status, aired the first week of May. But it was Lomus identical twin brother, Bill, a divorce mediator then living in Arizona, who finally took action. Fans have praised stunning MAFS newcomer Evelyn for her mission to hold a groom accountable for his bad behaviour towards his wife. On Oct. 26, 2012, the night of the U.S. premiere, Wrights extended family gathered around the TV in his living room in Eagle Mountain, Utah, a predominantly Mormon town an hour outside Salt Lake City. But none of them seemed Reece informed him that an armed militia had just attacked a group of miners near Wright and Lomus former mining site in Romaso. Keep 'em coming if you have them. It described how miners were regularly killed or injured thanks to unsafe practices, with 150 dying when one unlicensed mine flooded, and how cyanide, lead and mercury, used to extract gold then dumped in rivers poisoned communities. According to Wright and Lomu, a top Discovery executive told them, Your show is so real it's unreal.. Fearing another attack, the Jungle Gold cast and crew evacuated Fahiakobo and holed up in Raws Domenase compound 20 miles away. Ghana challenged their intentions from the start. Additionally, Mr. Lomu has been appointed as Chairman of the Companys understanding of conducting mining operations in underdeveloped Fahiakobo was hit hard by the June 2013 crackdown. 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. I guess this is what your generation who grew up in a fancy world is all about. You would make a good politician though, you could go cry with Speaker of the House John Boehner about how tough it is to support your trophy wife. Not to mention that the gold isn't all ours, what we pull out the local land owners and chiefs have a say in that and sadly, due to tradition and lack of education, people INSIST on using mercury. So they turn to other means. They stop mining, protecting the environment and local communities. This season, Scott and George have family money on the line in the form of an investment from Scotts father-in-law and a new colleague, Dave Thomas, as they had back to Ghana looking for enough gold to pay off the debts and secure their families futures. Content Rating. Season 2 of Jungle Gold premiered in the U.S. on Aug. 11, 2013. And one of their original crew had taken his own life. Scott Lomu: Because weve moved from Friday to Sunday it seems like our audience has gotten a lot younger. We were very happy with them, he said. The Ghanaian government permitted Mormon activities to resume 18 months after the ban. 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. Second Point, the amount of catastrophic failures the show incures is absurd, there are moments in the show a viewer can easily spot a setup. At the time, Wright and Lomu brawny, clean-living Mormons from Utah were in the midst of shooting Jungle Golds second season. George Wright in 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. I thank my parents. It may have been their worst nightmare, but it made gripping TV. I like him every once in a while (laughs) its just really hard to trust him. You were a bad realtor, a dreamer, no clue about mining, engineering, equipment operation, management, or investment. WHEN two Mormons from Utah signed up to star in a reality show about gold mining in Ghana, they had no idea what they were getting into. provide mining consultation worldwide. Same here, it completely went down hill with all of the reality shows. Even way back then we kind of had a number saying, Okay, what happens if it goes this low, are we still good? Its still a viable business, and we believe it still will be for many years to come. As the crew debated alternate plotlines, Lomu went out to dinner in Obuasi. Most assumed they were mining illegally. Only the most coldhearted, inhumane person could spend more than an hour in Ghana and think to do that.. What are some of the more hair-raising encounters well see you experience in Season 2? It's humbling to see the poverty that exists there. S: Well, I hope that all the miners that were there illegally are gone. He moved to Utah in 2000, and when the Olympics Winter Games came to Salt Lake City two years later, he rented furnished houses and apartments to people in town for the event. Those guys on the dredge they were having a really good time. He paused. You were slightly mislead. It caused a media storm, Mensah said. They hoped early struggles would lead to large profits by the end of the 10-episode run, benefiting both the stars and the villages they worked in. Other scenes needed no stage-managing. In 2010, they and a friend, Wally Macias, invested in a small operation and took turns flying out to work there. Since completing the series, Lomu and Wright continue to If anyones going to make money from gold digging here (other than corrupt officials, thieves and the Chinese government), they at least have a shot. Jungle Gold. 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. George Wright: Theres a lot of entrepreneurs out there that get in touch with us. 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. English. By announcing gold existed in Fahiakobo on an international TV network, Tay believed Jungle Gold would attract other law-abiding American and European gold miners, slowly lifting the village out of poverty. Season 1 Ep 11. As they prepared for shooting one day in May, they heard that armed militia had attacked miners near their old site. [via press release from Discovery] We knew this was going to be a 5-to-10-year job on our part. | Learn more about Scott Lomu's work experience, education, connections . The episode catalogued a series of ugly confrontations, including an illegal roadblock, the tense argument with tribal chiefs, and a risky back alley gold deal. 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