He later learned Macias had become dependent on pain medication due to injuries he suffered in a roadside bomb attack. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 62,000 members in Ghana, the second-highest membership in Africa behind Nigeria. I think it would shock a lot of people to hear how encouraging they are, and how supportive they are. The holes revealed a high concentration of gold in the ground. To ensure the most secure and best overall experience on our website we recommend the latest versions of, Internet Explorer is no longer supported. to possess the upside potential we considered to be a prerequisite. As a nationwide manhunt ensued, Discovery ordered Wright, Lomu, and the shows 20-person British film crew to evacuate Domenase and head to the airport in the capital city of Accra. S: That's a great question, we get it a lot. Prior to the fight, locals had regarded the cast and crew with friendly curiosity. Youre doing this all for your families. Back home at 21, he got married and landed a spot on the Utah Jazz Stunt Team. Big props to the crew if they really risked themselves like that to get the footage. It now occurred to him that theyd simply resumed filming after the August meeting. According to Wikipedia, Forbes, IMDb & Various Online resources, famous American Football Player George Wright's net worth is $1-5 Million at the age of 72 years old. The next six episodes unfolded in similar fashion. These two are typical failed realtors who have entitlement issues just like the rest of the yuppies of their generation. 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. mining company with profitable operations., Ensurge, Inc. is a Colorado-based holding company that has been engaged As reggae music jingles in the background, Wright pans his GoPro across the sunny streets of Georgetown, Guyanas capital, remarking on its laid-back Caribbean vibe. Worst of all, popular radio station Joy FM claimed Wright had killed the man he was filmed choking. The Guyana operation was expanding, and Mishleau valued Wright and Lomus years of mining experience in Ghana. By this time, Ghanas mining industry was in chaos, with Al Jazeera reporting on the dangers of illegal mining, fuelled by widespread corruption. He was sawing into an overcooked hamburger patty when he glanced at the flatscreen on the wall. What was the viewer reaction following the season premiere of Jungle Gold? They hoped early struggles would lead to large profits by the end of the 10-episode run, benefiting . They watched as the title card flashed onscreen to the sounds of an explosion and a screeching howler monkey. When season two of Jungle Gold aired in August 2013, it flopped, competing with NFL for ratings. We were very happy with them, he said. We split the gold with the village, the farmers make a ton of money from us, we employ many, many locals, paying them 10X what they would normally make, we pay taxes, and contribute a ton to the local economy. It was clearly time to go. I Am A, where the mundane becomes fascinating and the outrageous suddenly seems normal. We asked! There is no such thing as an emergency with a diagnosis of autism. 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 Hes a gentleman whos a land broker. 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. Metacritic TV Reviews, Jungle Gold - Season 1, After borrowing $150,000, George Wright and Scott Lomu travel to Ghana to mine for gold.. The cast and crew hid at a nearby compound, where they discovered Wright was suspected of murder and the authorities wanted them arrested. Net Worth in 2021. We met him last year. 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. Weve learned the people of Ghana and weve always known this are great, humble people.. 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! 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.. In 2009, Macias was working as a private security contractor in Afghanistan, but hed grown tired of war zones. I personaly found it entertaining and interesting. 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. George Wright and Scott Lomu of Discoverys Jungle Gold (Sundays at 10:00 p.m. Heres Our Review Of Cocaine Bear: Oh Hell Yes! Share. We met that guy a few weeks back. 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. 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. (Raw refused to comment on Aboagyes claim.) But after Missing the warning signs of a real estate market about to crash and burn, both men lost everything. People were actually angry! Donkor told me. But they soon discovered a more viable option: gold mining. The shows first season had been a hit, airing on Friday nights behind Gold Rush, Discovery Channels highest-rated show. But he dropped out after a year to serve a Mormon mission in Buenos Aires. Onscreen, an overweight guy with a wizardly goatee was struggling to fix the motor of an excavator. Focused on the action, the show failed to explain the complicated licensing process, causing many to assume they were mining illegally. Judging from locals reactions to them, the show may indeed have been on the road to redemption. But many viewers of Jungle Gold thought exploiting Ghanaians was precisely what Wright and Lomu had done. 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. Most of the times one of the celebrity is famous and then because of him/her, other members get famous as well. 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. All the details of the secret MAFS boys night are spilt at a boozy dinner party that shocks the experts. 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. 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. A theatrical streak led him to join his high schools cheerleading squad senior year, and he wound up with a cheerleading scholarship to the University of Utah. We were hemorrhaging money, Wright told me. Couldnt agree with Dru Kelly more. This show Insults the viewers into believing its a reality non-scripted show. At the moment I jumped in, he was right over [our security guard] and was going to push his head underwater. 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. There was a sense of disappointment, said Wright. Content Rating. Edit: added second related question. Seconds later, a gunshot rings out. To me, reality shows are like watching professional wrestling. Maybe little Scottie will have a headache or a hang nail as his next excuse for constant failure. Both men had worked in Utah's real estate market, had young families to support and debts piling up. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of those kids will turn to armed robbery, and theyll rob other miners. 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. The Friday audience is a different audience. I think they just wanted us out of there, Wright said. believe Ensurge has the potential to grow into a significant junior In April 2015, they were hired by Utah-based mining company Ensurge to share their mining expertise in Guyana and help attract investors. The following year, they tried again, on the land of a Ghanaian Mormon bishop. Lomu and Macias worked construction for a Mormon homebuilder in Utah. Only the most coldhearted, inhumane person could spend more than an hour in Ghana and think to do that. He watched in puzzlement as Wright ordered an excavator driver to tear it all down. The program, he soon discovered, was set in Ghana. The new reality show Jungle Gold started broadcasting across Africa on MultiChoice's DStv from the . Lomu and Macias had been best friends growing up; as a teenager, Lomu had baptized him into the Mormon church. 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. 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. He found instead the two articles in My Joy Online ordering his arrest and accusing him of killing people. 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. Clint Mishleau, the Companys CEO, stated, We are very pleased to have 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. Wright and Lomu had never imagined they would end up mining for gold in Ghana. 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. _________________________________________, Scott Lomu, George Wright and Dave Thomas of Jungle Gold: Credit Discovery Channel, The money was given to Dave so they could mine that land,I even think it a bit suspicious that he walked away Scott free and no-one says anything, Really enjoyed watching but what about the money they gave to Dave Thomas are they not wanting it back,after all it wasnt their money it was the father in laws. As the crew debated alternate plotlines, Lomu went out to dinner in Obuasi. A short video about the incident appeared months later on Discoverys website. You were a bad realtor, a dreamer, no clue about mining, engineering, equipment operation, management, or investment. While Lomu and Wright couldnt tell me too much about whats coming in season two, what they did say sounded intriguing. He earned the money being a professional American Football Player. Press J to jump to the feed. We work really hard and its really dangerous at times. This was never a get-rich-quick scheme. He returned with bad news: The license would not be ready for another six weeks. Interview: Scott Lomu and George Wright of "Jungle Gold". They hadnt actually killed anyone, after all, and they were not mining illegally. Big fan of the show, one my friends is from Ghana and I got him watching the show as well. Keep 'em coming if you have them. His own face stared back. How is the gold market lately? S: George is a little wordy, here's the short answer. Todd Hoffman, Tony Beets, and Parker Schnabel in Gold Rush. I hate Todd fat arse lazy Hoffman because hes a total tool, I cant hate these guys, I just scratch my head at their stupidity and hope Discovery will stop insulting our intelligence and cancel this ridiculous show. I talked with Scott and George by phone recently about Jungle Gold, a few days after the Season 2 premiere. But they only had $35,000 left. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. They cast Wright and Lomu as hardworking family men engaged in a heroic struggle against hostile and uncooperative natives. Not everything works out how you want it to, said Wright. I have never seen this dude, Marie remembers thinking. I saw Tickle hit the front page today, that is pretty silly. 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. of this type of mining? When the captain took off the seatbelt sign, they roamed the cabin, high-fiving each other and cracking cans of beer. He is from . They got through it by dreaming up episodes for their nonexistent reality show. That was hard, said Wright. On the morning of May 11, the cast and crew arrived at Kotoka International Airport. But as Ghanaian mining activist Daniel Owusu-Koranteng told me, illiterate cocoa farmers are not accustomed to receiving giant sums of cash at once. As he later told Wright, All it takes is a handful of guys with firearms to see the show and come looking for us.. Please subscribe here for answers, 1st video released today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7g-l3-M5k. G: When the show gets edited they are continually making editing choices between our daily life choices and events. This was a good start. Now, Doyle gave its pilot a new mission: Extract the stars from Domenase and deliver them to Accra. Back in Ghana, things were no better. The Lomu brothers then drew up a three-page final draft outlining the premise and sample episodes, in which three American entrepreneurs in dire financial straits would grapple with Ghanaian tribal chiefs, gold robbers, rival miners and each other. It was a humbling experience. They wanted to know how we had allowed such a disgusting program to air on TV, a spokesperson for the commission told me. 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. I'm honestly not a fan of Reality tv at all, I want to watch good scripted shows with compelling stories. 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. Soon we will be creating games and NFTs based on real elements. Salary in 2020. Its a sad story, but their determination to continue in Wallys honor is one you have to hear. When I visited Aboagye in his cluttered office the following year, he told me hed requested a synopsis of the program the crew planned to make. In Jungle Gold, Discovery Channel's hit reality series, George Wright and Scott Lomu try their best to climb out of a mountain of debt.Their loyal families wait at home while the two toil away in Ghana, hoping to strike gold and solidify their financial futures. Under Ghanaian law, Wright and Lomu could not physically mine. *Discovery Channel has been pushing this as a new season, though the May 29 new episode is listed as Season 2, Episode 9. 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.. The new operation went as poorly as the first. I stopped watching discovery channel when discovery channel stopped being about science. As Richard Bushman, a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, put it: Mormons think things will work out for the best.. George: When we first originally went to Africa gold was actually lower than it is today, even though its taken a hit over this last year. English. Not everyone celebrated their departure. It's really frustrating because we have the same production company and we hear all sorts of stories about him, but all I know of him is the first tweet I sent to him when our show started was a thank you, "thanks for forging the way in gold show so that our story and show could have a shot, thank you!" 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 . 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. The path to George Wright and Scott Lomu's camp. Back at Discoverys headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the channel was enduring its own crisis. I was astonished, Mensah said months later. Alan Tay, Wright and Lomus handyman, was doing something similar. Theres more chance if drippy wife getting off her ass and getting a part time job, Dru kelly why so bitter? So Literally Ask US Anything, we can't spoil the upcoming season, but anything else is fine. In 2011, Scott Lomu saw the Discovery channel TV show Gold Rush and was perplexed that it was a hit. The heart and soul of this amazing piece of equipment are the people, Wright narrates. Bering Sea Gold, a new offshoot, was averaging 3 million viewers a night. But nothing prevents foreigners from investing in small-scale companies owned by Ghanaians. There are plenty of other channels. 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. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . If the global gold price plummeted, many more would leave Ghana voluntarily, depriving poor mining villages of what had become a crucial source of support. (Both Discovery Channel and Raw, which was acquired by Discovery in 2014, declined to comment for this story.). (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. His first radio story, which cast doubt on the Americans legal status, aired the first week of May. 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. The series chronicles the continuing efforts of former real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu . Do you guys take any measures to minimize your impact? It was a life or death situation.. 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 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. Lomu and Wright sat in the back and ducked. They had first heard about the show in July 2012, while the cast and crew were still in Ghana filming Season 1. We knew this was going to be a 5-to-10-year job on our part. We kind of shed a pretty big spotlight on the activities of illegal miners in Ghana. But Wright doesnt regret fighting back. Upon meeting me, hed asked hopefully if I was with Raw, heralding the return of Jungle Gold. Website: www.ensurgegold.com, Ensurge, Inc.Clint Mishleau, 702-728-5187ensurgeinfo@gmail.com, Internet Explorer presents a security risk. A rosy conclusion to Season 1 looked unlikely. Oh my word, they think I killed him, he said. 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. There was also an image problem. Could their adventures be a reality TV show? He also began investing in real estate, which was how he met Scott Lomu. 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. 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. 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. 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. One of the biggest lessons weve learned is dealing with people. Not a land owner. The men expected to make easy money in Ghana. Lomu knew his friend had experienced post-traumatic stress from his tours in Afghanistan. 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. Two guys lose their shirts when the real estate bubble bursts and decide to do the logical thing hunt for gold in Ghana! The most recent episode where Scottie had to fly home immediately because his boy was diagnosed with autism was just another laughable fake emergency. That February, 5 million people watched the Season 2 finale of Gold Rush, continuing its two-year run as the most-watched cable show on Friday nights.