I got a chance to talk with the pair about how the show came about, how they feel about those that accuse them of faking and what their wives really think of what theyre doing. 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. There are plenty of other channels. In a 2013 Reddit AMA, several commenters asked Wright and Lomu whether the scene was scripted. 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. ", "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. And George and I think as a direct result of the show there are a lot of government and military raids on illegal mining camps, and there are a lot of robberies happening. But none of them seemed In the Season 2 synopsis, Raw admitted the first season had produced disastrous results. But lessons had been learned. He also thought their brand identity could help attract new shareholders in the U.S. Ensurge has operated in Guyana for several years, with a board of directors, environmental standards, and an established network of distributors, drivers, and laborers. The men worked 18-hour days, commuting two hours over rutted dirt roads through poverty-stricken villages. You were a bad realtor, a dreamer, no clue about mining, engineering, equipment operation, management, or investment. A rosy conclusion to Season 1 looked unlikely. They stop mining, protecting the environment and local communities. Inusah Fuseini, minister of lands and natural resources, said the show portrayed Ghana as a jungle, vowing to arrest the Mormons. Should they find enough gold, they intended to build a Ghanaian schoolhouse in Maciass name. Am I supposed to feel bad for their debt as they exploit Africans? That night, Wright and Lomu rendezvoused with the crew at the Golden Tulip, where everything began. How is the discovery of Autism an emergency? We thought we could explain any misunderstandings to the government, Wright said. Though it was never confirmed who the men were or why they had attacked the miners, Wright and Lomu quickly concluded that the militia was looking for them. Just that fast, he blocked me and Scott and never gives an ounce (no pun intended) of support. Thats when we realized our tragedy was good for the show, Lomu said. I must agree sadly that this show is a total farce either that or we are looking at two of the most stupid people on earth (with really bad acting skills). When I asked what they made of accusations that theyd exploited Ghana for their personal gain, the men insisted the opposite was true: They had done good things in the country and could have done even more if they'd been allowed to keep filming. In April 2015, they were hired by Utah-based mining company Ensurge to share their mining expertise in Guyana and help attract investors. He was still there when I showed up six months later. Why is mining for gold better (in your opinion) than taking your initial capital and investing it wisely? Season 2 of Jungle Gold premiered in the U.S. on Aug. 11, 2013. It was terrifying, it was really scary, Wright admitted. Seconds later, a gunshot rings out. Invigorated by this new prospect, the three men invested in a small-scale operation near the mining town of Obuasi, a four-hour drive from Accra, and took turns traveling to Ghana over the next three months. He later learned Macias had become dependent on pain medication due to injuries he suffered in a roadside bomb attack. 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. But as the cast and crews Land Rovers pull out, a pile of logs impedes their path. It's humbling to see the poverty that exists there. We just wanted to show what its like in Guyana from our perspective, Wright said. Wed put our last $50,000 into that site, Wright said. George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. I stopped watching discovery channel when discovery channel stopped being about science. How could I not show that?. We saw mining as an opportunity and used our cash to purchase some equipment. Element United is the first to market in bringing blockchain technology to gold + precious elements. Theyre hoping things will be different this time. Read our interview with the Brown family. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Scott Lomu and George Wright buying supplies during an episode of Jungle Gold. But Alan Reece, a Guyanese mining foreman the men had befriended, discovered a promising alternative in the nearby village of Fahiakobo, a hilltop settlement of around 30 mud huts flanking a red dirt road. Why moan about something just find something else to watch. They just have to survive long enough to go back and tell the world, I guess. Most of the times one of the celebrity is famous and then because of him/her, other members get famous as well. Lomu and Wright sat in the back and ducked. But what you do with that really defines who you are.. The series chronicles the continuing efforts of former real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu . All were shocked to think Americans would film themselves engaging in illegal mining, let alone broadcast it. Steve Wright is to leave his BBC Radio 2 weekday show after almost 24 years, after the station's boss told him she wants to . Visionary entrepreneur and leader. 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. Patchy reception made it hard to hear, but a few words registered clearly: Wallys dead. That morning, Macias had driven into the mountains outside Kanab and shot himself with a rifle. The cast and crew hid at a nearby compound, where they discovered Wright was suspected of murder and the authorities wanted them arrested. 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. It now occurred to him that theyd simply resumed filming after the August meeting. Youre doing this all for your families. His optimistic nature notwithstanding, Lomu saw more cause for hope in Ghanas relationship to Mormonism. 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 signaled for the check. 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. Comments: 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). It shows A side of us, and we're hoping to show another side with you guys. The entire landscape of the mining industry over the last year has changed dramatically, and so we encountered a lot this season. I am guessing season two would have already been recorded when this article came out. Share. But no one seemed to recognize them. The show is such a fake with the pretend dangers all around them meanwhile the camera-production crew is right beside them every second with security and back-up, oooh Im so scared! We were entirely without expectations, Wright told news.com.au. Theres a lot of hostility we ran into this year; quite a few from locals, from other miners, and, unfortunately, from higher authorities, and well just leave it at that. But after Missing the warning signs of a real estate market about to crash and burn, both men lost everything. Not a land owner. (It has since been clarified in the wake of Jungle Gold.) Really angry that certain things would happen here on our soil. Many thought the stars had killed a man a rumor based on a YouTube clip of Wright choking out the cocoa farmer. It was that simple. It was the second season of Jungle Gold set in Ghana that the fans of TV shows about gold prospecting are still talking . The ratings fell. Many people crumble with the fame and do really stupid outrageous things. Airing in the slot behind Gold Rush, it had helped Discovery dominate the Friday night cable ratings. 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. 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. We knew this was going to be a 5-to-10-year job on our part. According to Wright and Lomu, a top Discovery executive told them, Your show is so real it's unreal.. 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. They cast Wright and Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in a heroic struggle against hostile and uncooperative natives. Instead, the men joined a mine support company, run by a fellow Mormon, in the nearby village of Romaso. Spoiler Alert, yeah, can't answer that, we were there for 4 months about. Scott Lomu might have a wife or a husband. 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. 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. It was another disaster. We do answer questions and stay in touch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDu1cQjqGaj-3wBYavW1Hg/videos. Discovery had ordered 12 episodes, Wright said, but their abbreviated stay produced only enough material for six. George Wright and Scott Lomu of Discoverys Jungle Gold (Sundays at 10:00 p.m. (A spokesperson for Raw would not comment on whether the farmer was paid.) Big props to the crew if they really risked themselves like that to get the footage. (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. Lomu learned what he needed to know about reality TV, put . At the time, Ghana, Africas second-largest gold producer behind South Africa, was in the midst of a modern-day gold rush. According to Lomu, Raw had replied that Discovery could not pull the show from Ghana without pulling it from DStv altogether. Despite the possibility of work in Accra, hed stayed in Fahiakobo after the cast and crew fled, guarding the stars tent and praying for their return. Scott Lomu and George Wright join our company. They say theyve learnt from their catastrophic, ratings-winning sojourn in West Africa. Interview from the Chicago Resource Expo with George Wright & Scott Lomu from Discovery Channles hit show Jungle Gold They had paid locals well, contributed to the local economy, and obeyed Ghanas mining laws, they said. Rainstorms and excavator breakdowns caused endless delays. The Ghanaian government permitted Mormon activities to resume 18 months after the ban. 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. Back at Discoverys headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the channel was enduring its own crisis. His first radio story, which cast doubt on the Americans legal status, aired the first week of May. 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. Our first thought was always: Didnt you guys see the show? This was met with disappointment in the first 5 days of our trip to Africa because it's not even CLOSE to easy to get cheap gold in Africa, they know the price of Gold better than anybody! 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. James Weir recaps. Of course theyre concerned for us, of course they worry about our safety. The two are former American real estate investors who lost everything in the 2008 market collapse, and are now over $1,000,000 in debt. As the coastline faded in the distance, Wright leaned across the aisle. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://twitter.com/JungleGeorgeVI/status/365907125215576064, https://twitter.com/JungleGoldScott/status/365907460332068864, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDu1cQjqGaj-3wBYavW1Hg/videos, http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=273569, http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/jungle-gold/videos/run-for-the-border-part-one.htm, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7g-l3-M5k. tailings, improve recoveries of existing milling operations and improve In June, they produced a series of short videos to show prospective investors. 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. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I thought, Why have the authorities not intervened?. Todd Hoffman, Tony Beets, and Parker Schnabel in Gold Rush. He was sawing into an overcooked hamburger patty when he glanced at the flatscreen on the wall. George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. Additionally, Mr. Lomu has been appointed as Chairman of the Company . Haha! I guess this is what your generation who grew up in a fancy world is all about. Jungle Gold. #Colonialism, good job discovery channel youve made a reality show about the rape and theft of african natural resources #junglegold #kinglepold. In one of the shows most-watched episodes, an excavator for Lomu and Wright is tearing up cocoa trees when an angry farmer approaches with a machete. Gold dealing, they concluded, was a scam. We also discussed the fact that they initially started out with another partner who committed suicide just one day before they got the call from Discovery. Both men had worked in Utah's real estate market, had young families to support and debts piling up. 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. 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 . The chief warned that if they fought the miners, they would be killed. 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. What are some of the more hair-raising encounters well see you experience in Season 2? They hired a former special services agent to beef up security and instituted a no-mercury policy, barring laborers from handling the toxic liquid. This show is 90% scripted, the laws they portray in the show are complete non-sense. Season 2 of Jungle Gold airs Sundays at 10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel. As methodical and reserved as Wright is impulsive and outspoken, Lomu, eight years Wrights senior, was raised outside Phoenix. 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. Fahiakobo was hit hard by the June 2013 crackdown. is that truth, are they gone? Jungle Gold. But their new status as wanted men made riveting TV with little effort. 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. Their dreams of getting rich in Ghana faded from view. But as Ghanaian mining activist Daniel Owusu-Koranteng told me, illiterate cocoa farmers are not accustomed to receiving giant sums of cash at once. Sitting on the compounds couch, Wright watched in shock as the clip of him choking the cocoa farmer aired on national television. Those guys on the dredge they were having a really good time. He paused. They have to prove the new claim is stacked with gold or their investors will pull funding. Clint Mishleau, the Companys CEO, stated, We are very pleased to have it was rated as one of the top programs on the Discovery Channel. 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. Weve learned the people of Ghana and weve always known this are great, humble people.. The following year, they tried again, on the land of a Ghanaian Mormon bishop. Afterward, the farmer said, people viewed them more cautiously. For a split second, in between the man hug you could see blonde dude thinking WTF! 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. The disclosure threatened to derail the season. How did he come to acquire his assets? He returned with bad news: The license would not be ready for another six weeks. 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. In a surreal scene, Lomu jumps in the car with a gold bar he says is worth $75,000, before a masked man runs out of the jungle firing a machine gun, steals the gold and runs off. How is the gold market lately? But regardless of their portrayal onscreen, Wright and Lomu believed they had done more good than harm in Ghana. Gold prices were high, getting equipment was cheap. There were things we didnt expect, things that normally wouldnt happen to us happened because the cameras were there, said Lomu. 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. Tay, who at 53 resembles an older version of the actor Idris Elba, grew up in Accra before embarking on a mining career in his thirties. 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What shocked me is how much seemingly relevant content never gets used. The new operation went as poorly as the first. Within months of Jungle Golds U.S. premiere in October 2012, they had become the face of Ghanas foreign mining community, which many blamed for destroying the countrys environment and harming its people. [], On May 1 one day before the first anniversary of Operation Neptune Spear, the special operations mission that led to the killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden Discovery Channel will premiere the one-hour special Secrets of Bin Ladens Lair. In April, Ensurge hired both men: Wright as vice president of public relations, Lomu as vice president of investor relations. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 62,000 members in Ghana, the second-highest membership in Africa behind Nigeria. In 2011, Scott Lomu saw the Discovery channel TV show Gold Rush and was perplexed that it was a hit. His own face stared back. The heart and soul of this amazing piece of equipment are the people, Wright narrates. 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. Nevertheless, the district officer demanded Raw visit the Minerals Commissions headquarters in Accra before they continued filming. Get a job, get a life, get real. A lot of Latter-day Saints did go mining, said David Walker, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. But many viewers of Jungle Gold thought exploiting Ghanaians was precisely what Wright and Lomu had done. Stars of Jungle Gold, George Wright and Scott Lomu, join MSNBC's Alex Witt to talk about their show. And one of their original crew had taken his own life. 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. So if you ask us a question, we'll get you answered. Within minutes, the team slipped through customs and boarded a 30-passenger jet chartered by Discovery. While Ghanaians in the diaspora were railing against Jungle Gold online, members of Ghanas Minerals Commission were quietly fuming about its existence. Wright and Lomu step out to investigate. I thank my parents. Interview: Scott Lomu and George Wright of "Jungle Gold". Jungle Gold is back, having started Season 2 on Aug. 11 (now . Under the section Danger and Risk, Raw wrote: It would be easy to paint Ghana as a dangerous and risky environment, and by our audiences standards it certainly is. FYI, for our show specifically, it is 200 hours of content for 43 minutes if show. A heated argument ensued. Building Element United to lead the mining industry to a profitable + sustainable future. It was a life or death situation.. Bering Sea Gold, a new offshoot, was averaging 3 million viewers a night. Lomu and Macias had been best friends growing up; as a teenager, Lomu had baptized him into the Mormon church. But once again, the cost of equipment and labor exceeded the meager amount of gold they found. ", "This is a disgrace for a brand such as the Discovery Channel to glorify what these bandits are doing in our country. (Both Discovery Channel and Raw, which was acquired by Discovery in 2014, declined to comment for this story.). The next morning, Wright searched his iPhone for news of the incident. Taxis that once passed every 10 minutes, shuttling miners to work, now came a few times per day. 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 /10(). Whose the stupid ones ? I Am A, where the mundane becomes fascinating and the outrageous suddenly seems normal. Proof: https://twitter.com/JungleGeorgeVI/status/365907125215576064 https://twitter.com/JungleGoldScott/status/365907460332068864, Edit: We are going to keep this open. I have never seen the show. Alan Tay, Wright and Lomus handyman, was doing something similar. They found it frustrating that Ghanaian ex-pats, many of whom were out of touch with the realities of Ghanas mining communities, criticized them for exploiting Ghanaians, when in fact, they said, theyd put unemployed Ghanaians to work. We were like, This is the kind of operation we want to be a part of! Lomu said. Wright and Lomu have a plan for a new reality show, about mining and selling gold and their home lives. Ghanaian law prohibits non-Ghanaians from mining on plots of 25 acres or less, which make up Ghanas small-scale mining sector. I feel like its actually underappreciated and underdemonstrated in any medium. Phone calls from furious Ghanaian expatriates poured in. The California gold rush of the mid19th century coincided with the Mormon pioneers arrival in Utah. Cameras or no cameras, we went out there to provide for our families and I feel we let them down with some wrong decisions We didnt properly plan.. Not everyone celebrated their departure. The program reports on currently classified intelligence seized during the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Ladens compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan (pictured above the day after the raid), and is narrated by NBC News correspondent Harry Smith. 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. We met that guy a few weeks back. Whatever it is, thats what we realized they were saying I wish I could do that. Meaning that dream. S: George is a little wordy, here's the short answer. We partner with mines to digitize their precious elements. The next day, Joy FM dispatched its Kumasi correspondent, Erastus Asare Donkor, to gather reactions to the story in the citys streets and markets. I think it would shock a lot of people to hear how encouraging they are, and how supportive they are. Did Ghana ever try to arrest you two as indicated in this article on Ghana Web? But we were willing to wear our heart on our sleeve.. To ensure the most secure and best overall experience on our website we recommend the latest versions of, Internet Explorer is no longer supported. These two are typical failed realtors who have entitlement issues just like the rest of the yuppies of their generation. ), Earlier this year, I met Wright and Lomu at Wrights four-bedroom house in Eagle Mountain, Utah. But the. Content Rating. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of those kids will turn to armed robbery, and theyll rob other miners. Theres more chance if drippy wife getting off her ass and getting a part time job, Dru kelly why so bitter? Not that Id recommend it, but theyre pretty sure they can school any critics. The camera catches a masked African man dashing into the jungle, a submachine gun in one hand and Lomus gold bar in the other. Salary in 2020. They needed to find money, fast. . Not everything works out how you want it to, said Wright. Tay saw the show itself as a good thing for the village. Two guys lose their shirts when the real estate bubble bursts and decide to do the logical thing hunt for gold in Ghana! 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. Its still higher than when we originally went to West Africa to find it. 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