There were more tweets during our reruns that Sunday [during a Season 1 marathon] than we got all of last year. Unbeknownst to the cast and crew, Aboagye requested that Ghanas National Security Agency investigate them. They were told by the Information Services Department that an arrest warrant had never officially been issued. A short video about the incident appeared months later on Discoverys website. Still, they thought the furor would blow over. 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. But we were willing to wear our heart on our sleeve.. By then, they each had two kids and houses in the suburbs. The Companys business plan also includes bringing capital and It sure could. He is from . George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. It was another disaster. They have hatched a radical plan to turn things around; mining for gold. We provide mining consultation worldwide. But the. 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. Haha! Reece informed him that an armed militia had just attacked a group of miners near Wright and Lomus former mining site in Romaso. I talked with Scott and George by phone recently about Jungle Gold, a few days after the Season 2 premiere. And yet they also felt a strange sense of calm. 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. Macias took his own life, and the wheels were set in motion for their star-crossed show. Coincidentally, Discovery had recently reserved a Russian helicopter to take aerial shots of Wright and Lomus new excavator as it trundled into Fahiakobo. 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. The network had green-lit a second season that February. These two are typical failed realtors who have entitlement issues just like the rest of the yuppies of their generation. The influx of Chinese miners had triggered a rise in armed robberies of Chinese mining camps. 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. Prior to the fight, locals had regarded the cast and crew with friendly curiosity. I made a killing, he said. We didnt exploit anyone, Lomu told me. Never had a real job or a real education, never think ahead or do research about anything. (The news site had failed to provide attribution for the murder accusation.). In 2011, an undercover video published by Al Jazeera revealed Ghanaian children as young as 14 working in Chinese-run mining pits. 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. 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. Website: www.ensurgegold.com, Ensurge, Inc.Clint Mishleau, 702-728-5187ensurgeinfo@gmail.com, Internet Explorer presents a security risk. But many viewers of Jungle Gold thought exploiting Ghanaians was precisely what Wright and Lomu had done. Id understand if the kid was in a coma or on life support but for the love of god, he wil still be autistic when daddy does a few weeks work and hopefully finds some gold. Edit 2: It's September 18th 2013, I just went through and caught up with most of the questions here. Whatever it is, thats what we realized they were saying I wish I could do that. Meaning that dream. One of the biggest lessons weve learned is dealing with people. But, you will find Ghana a fantastic country. Wright and Lomu considered escaping into the jungle, but Discovery made the final decision. He reappears with a gold bar he claims is worth $75,000. Maybe little Scottie will have a headache or a hang nail as his next excuse for constant failure. All the details of the secret MAFS boys night are spilt at a boozy dinner party that shocks the experts. Interview from the Chicago Resource Expo with George Wright & Scott Lomu from Discovery Channles hit show Jungle Gold They say theyve learnt from their catastrophic, ratings-winning sojourn in West Africa. He watched in puzzlement as Wright ordered an excavator driver to tear it all down. The program, he soon discovered, was set in Ghana. 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. Wright and Lomu have a plan for a new reality show, about mining and selling gold and their home lives. Gold, which ran two seasons on the Discovery Channel. 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 . But the incident changed the dynamic in the village. They hoped early struggles would lead to large profits by the end of the 10-episode run, benefiting . Thats when we realized our tragedy was good for the show, Lomu said. They cast Wright and Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in a heroic struggle against hostile and uncooperative natives. It was the second season of Jungle Gold set in Ghana that the fans of TV shows about gold prospecting are still talking . They abandon $20-60 thousand dollar machines, ( 2 excavators, and a wash plant) in the jungle while they fly back and forth to Utah for two years to whine and complain about how bad there lives are and to beg more money from really stupid investors. If you cannot answer that for Spoiler reasons, how many months were you in Ghana for, this year? I can say this, the head guy on Gold Rush hates us and we don't know why? 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. Wright quickly ends the fight by locking the farmer in a chokehold, causing him to pass out. 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. Jungle Gold, Discovery Channel (2012 - 2013) Staying international, Jungle Gold sets itself apart by following just one crew, Scott Lomu and George Wright, as they take to the African gold mining industry in an attempt to recover from the 2008 American financial crisis. On the morning of May 11, the cast and crew arrived at Kotoka International Airport. Though vilified in the press, Tay said, the Chinese miners had improved the local way of life: installing electricity in thatched huts, building a public restroom with flush toilets, and putting dozens of unemployed young men to work in the mines. Their timing was perfect. believe Ensurge has the potential to grow into a significant junior When I visited Romaso months after Wright and Lomu fled, a cocoa farmer whod witnessed the fight told me it had been painful to watch. In the final episode of the seven-part series, the struggling pair are offered the chance to work on a large-scale operation for a rich Ghanaian, if they can raise $15,000. Class acts the two of them. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. Lomu and Wright sat in the back and ducked. Additionally, Mr. Lomu has been appointed as Chairman of the Companys So now I'm just leaving this thing open . Then, in December 2014, they met Clint Mishleau. There are plenty of other channels. 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. All were shocked to think Americans would film themselves engaging in illegal mining, let alone broadcast it. We were like, well show them the failures, the terrible, horrible stuff. This, like so many other pathetic reality shows should go away forever. . 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. Furious, Wright and Lomu gathered a dozen local chiefs and tribal elders to solve the dispute. When season two of Jungle Gold aired in August 2013, it flopped, competing with NFL for ratings. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. Alan Tay, Wright and Lomus handyman, was doing something similar. 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). Discovery moved the show from Friday to Sunday nights, where it competed with NFL football for the eyes of American men, their primary demographic. 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. And so they were deeply leveraged when the housing market collapsed in September 2008. In 2011, Scott Lomu saw the Discovery channel TV show Gold Rush and was perplexed that it was a hit. The Guyana operation was expanding, and Mishleau valued Wright and Lomus years of mining experience in Ghana. Lomu responded by saying the things that happen on the show are 100% real, though he allowed that it's a tv show and things will get overly dramatized. But the robbery, which cut the season short at Episode 7, offered a convenient end to a story that was spiraling out of its creators control. Language. In 2010, they and a friend, Wally Macias, invested in a small operation and took turns flying out to work there. It was time to bail out. The crew had received press accreditation from the Information Services Department, he said. Wright and Lomu had never imagined they would end up mining for gold in Ghana. Big props to the crew if they really risked themselves like that to get the footage. They hadnt actually killed anyone, after all, and they were not mining illegally. From left, Victor Kpah, Scot Lomu and George Wright of 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. The next morning, they passed through customs and boarded a privately chartered jet bound for Paris. The kids autism is just another excuse for the idiot to stop working and run home. Thats the last were going to see of Ghana.. Because it really is a joke how nave and unprepared these douche bags really are. The Ghanaian government permitted Mormon activities to resume 18 months after the ban. What shocked me is how much seemingly relevant content never gets used. G: Oh man if Scott sees this, he's gonna have hay day on this question. Am I supposed to feel bad for their debt as they exploit Africans? 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. As Richard Bushman, a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, put it: Mormons think things will work out for the best.. Tens of thousands of foreigners, the majority of them Chinese, had flocked to the countrys rural mining regions since the recession, lured by stories of Klondike-caliber windfalls. 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As far as they knew, they said, Raw had all the required permits. 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. Jungle Gold an action-packed reality show about two Mormons from Utah mining for gold in Ghana was a hit when it premiered on the Discovery Channel in 2012. I think it would shock a lot of people to hear how encouraging they are, and how supportive they are. Can you tell us your secret at being perfect such as yourself. He was standing on his bed in boxer briefs as his wife lay beside him and laughed. Ghanas Minerals Commission had taken to decrying what it called the illegal mining menace., These controversies presented possible PR problems. Upon meeting me, hed asked hopefully if I was with Raw, heralding the return of Jungle Gold. Once the show ended, they pursued a few of the offers, but nothing came of them. A heated argument ensued. Not everyone celebrated their departure. Tall, handsome, and half-Polynesian, he studied business at Arizona State University and did his Mormon mission in Indianapolis. Fans have praised stunning MAFS newcomer Evelyn for her mission to hold a groom accountable for his bad behaviour towards his wife. This time, they mined on the land of a Ghanaian Mormon bishop who had partnered with Lomus father-in-law. What are some of the more hair-raising encounters well see you experience in Season 2? Take a good look, Scottie, he said. Is it worth all the effort and danger youre going through? We just like to do our thing, it's all we can do really. Proof: https://twitter.com/JungleGeorgeVI/status/365907125215576064 https://twitter.com/JungleGoldScott/status/365907460332068864, Edit: We are going to keep this open. He found instead the two articles in My Joy Online ordering his arrest and accusing him of killing people. Why moan about something just find something else to watch. As they prepared for shooting one day in May, they heard that armed militia had attacked miners near their old site. management team. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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. of this type of mining? Onscreen, an overweight guy with a wizardly goatee was struggling to fix the motor of an excavator. In the May 29 midseason* premiere of Discovery Channels Alaskan Bush People, A Wolfpack Divided, the Brown family is ready to move into their new home when Ami requires immediate medical attention and must travel to a big city for surgery. Scott Lomu and George Wright, . They forfeited the cash and moved to a less profitable site. Lomu knew his friend had experienced post-traumatic stress from his tours in Afghanistan. (Both Discovery Channel and Raw, which was acquired by Discovery in 2014, declined to comment for this story.). 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As Wright ordered an excavator driver to tear it all down Doyle set up a `` war room '' the!
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