These two are typical failed realtors who have entitlement issues just like the rest of the yuppies of their generation. believe Ensurge has the potential to grow into a significant junior But Wright doesnt regret fighting back. We didnt want them to present Ghana as a lawless place where foreigners can come and engage in illegal mining, he explained. 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. Sorry we ruined Discovery Channel for you. 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. Maybe Utah poor is different to my poor. He went to a meeting but he'll be back I'm sure. Jed Lipinski is a staff writer for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Why is mining for gold better (in your opinion) than taking your initial capital and investing it wisely? Jungle Gold. Fri 1 Jul 2022 13.18 EDT. But, you will find Ghana a fantastic country. But their return to Ghana was to be even more troubled than round one. They watched as the title card flashed onscreen to the sounds of an explosion and a screeching howler monkey. And yet they also felt a strange sense of calm. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of those kids will turn to armed robbery, and theyll rob other miners. Villagers routinely set up roadblocks and demanded hundreds of dollars to pass. We were in panic mode. Wright found work translating Spanish for an Arizona-based equipment supplier bidding for contracts in Colombias mining sector. George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. As chronicled in their They got through it by dreaming up episodes for their nonexistent reality show. (The news site had failed to provide attribution for the murder accusation.). As he later told Wright, All it takes is a handful of guys with firearms to see the show and come looking for us.. They hired a former special services agent to beef up security and instituted a no-mercury policy, barring laborers from handling the toxic liquid. He was still there when I showed up six months later. George Wright and Scott Lomu, former real estate investors that lost everything in the 2008 crash, make the life-altering decision to travel to Ghana in West Africa to hunt for gold. Wright quickly ends the fight by locking the farmer in a chokehold, causing him to pass out. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=273569. Lomu had heard that Americans could expect to buy gold in Ghana and resell it in the U.S. for a profit approaching 20%. Website: www.ensurgegold.com, Ensurge, Inc.Clint Mishleau, 702-728-5187ensurgeinfo@gmail.com, Internet Explorer presents a security risk. When the cast and crew arrived on the first day of filming, however, they found it crawling with Chinese miners. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. Additionally, Mr. Lomu has been appointed as Chairman of the Company . 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. In the show Dave Thomas is portrayed as a major landowner/prospector in Ghana. (Raw refused to comment on Aboagyes claim.) We met him last year. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has over 62,000 members in Ghana, the second-highest membership in Africa behind Nigeria. A rosy conclusion to Season 1 looked unlikely. 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. . Their dreams of getting rich in Ghana faded from view. these comments make me laugh, if show is that bad stop watching it. Theres something to be said about that allure. There is no such thing as an emergency with a diagnosis of autism. At the time, Wright and Lomu brawny, clean-living Mormons from Utah were in the midst of shooting Jungle Golds second season. 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. I am guessing season two would have already been recorded when this article came out. 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But they had not received permission from the Minerals Commission to film mining lands. Because it really is a joke how nave and unprepared these douche bags really are. 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. In 2009, Macias was working as a private security contractor in Afghanistan, but hed grown tired of war zones. She was crying hysterically. Their timing was perfect. Ghanaian law prohibits non-Ghanaians from mining on plots of 25 acres or less, which make up Ghanas small-scale mining sector. I saw Tickle hit the front page today, that is pretty silly. (It has since been clarified in the wake of Jungle Gold.) It may have been their worst nightmare, but it made gripping TV. 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). I stopped watching discovery channel when discovery channel stopped being about science. 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 feel like its actually underappreciated and underdemonstrated in any medium. Wright and Lomu have a plan for a new reality show, about mining and selling gold and their home lives. understanding of conducting mining operations in underdeveloped The disclosure threatened to derail the season. They forfeited the cash and moved to a less profitable site. But as Ghanaian mining activist Daniel Owusu-Koranteng told me, illiterate cocoa farmers are not accustomed to receiving giant sums of cash at once. ", "This is a disgrace for a brand such as the Discovery Channel to glorify what these bandits are doing in our country. And its worked up to this point. 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. In April 2015, they were hired by Utah-based mining company Ensurge to share their mining expertise in Guyana and help attract investors. 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. Fortune seekers George Wright and Scott Lomu know there are no rewards without risks, but even the gold-mining stars of "Jungle Gold" weren't prepared for the danger they and the show's crew faced . One of the biggest lessons weve learned is dealing with people. I was astonished, Mensah said months later. A decade later, Mormonisms rapid growth and displays of wealth led the Ghanaian government to ban all Mormon activities, suspecting the church was a front for the CIA. Were more committed now than we ever have been. Despite their failures, the pair remain hopeful for the future. is that truth, are they gone? The crew had received press accreditation from the Information Services Department, he said. The entire landscape of the mining industry over the last year has changed dramatically, and so we encountered a lot this season. George Wright in 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. 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. Contact Jed Lipinski at jed.lipinski@gmail.com. Couldnt agree with Dru Kelly more. All times AEDT (GMT +11). As it happened, Akwesi was the brother-in-law of the landowner, who had cut him out of the $5,000 the show paid in compensation for the cocoa crops. According to Lomu, Raw later paid Akwesi $3,000 for his troubles. The Jungle Gold guys had remedied this problem by obeying the law. Tay saw the show itself as a good thing for the village. A heated argument ensued. Big props to the crew if they really risked themselves like that to get the footage. ET) give the term gold diggers a literal spin with this reality show, now in its second season. Season 2. (Both Discovery Channel and Raw, which was acquired by Discovery in 2014, declined to comment for this story.). To me, reality shows are like watching professional wrestling. Upon meeting me, hed asked hopefully if I was with Raw, heralding the return of Jungle Gold. Judging from locals reactions to them, the show may indeed have been on the road to redemption. What happens when a government shuts down an illegal camp is it basically displaces 80-100 local young men who no longer have a job. The Mormon miners submitted a proposal to Raw TV, the British company that produced the program, and waited. Edit: added second related question. He earned the money being a professional American Football Player. He was sawing into an overcooked hamburger patty when he glanced at the flatscreen on the wall. The holes revealed a high concentration of gold in the ground. Wright and Lomu had never imagined they would end up mining for gold in Ghana. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. How did he come to acquire his assets? What is behind the allure of gold mining? 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. Thats the last were going to see of Ghana.. Hopefully you guys get some good stuff, so everyone can benefit, she responded. 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. Gold miners George Wright and Scott Lomu sit down with THR to talk about the mistakes they tried not to repeat and why they keep returning to Ghana despite the life-or-death stakes. 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