Lomu peeked out the compounds window, half expecting a military convoy to break down the gate and haul them away. #Colonialism, good job discovery channel youve made a reality show about the rape and theft of african natural resources #junglegold #kinglepold. Mensah was a reporter for Joy FM, one of Ghanas most popular news radio stations. Messrs Lomu and Wright starred in the popular television show Jungle Rainstorms and excavator breakdowns caused endless delays. The spinoff series follows the miners from the jungles of South America, to the mountains of Alaska, to the Klondike. Lomu couldnt believe what he was seeing. We knew this was going to be a 5-to-10-year job on our part. 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. 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. 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. The next six episodes unfolded in similar fashion. Net Worth in 2021. Email. I like him every once in a while (laughs) its just really hard to trust him. Discovery Channel. But Raw believed they could meet the challenges of filming a gold-mining operation in Ghana; in the Season 1 synopsis, they noted that their contributors would be paragons of responsible mining. Discovery, which had green-lit the show in March, had insisted Wright and Lomu hire locals, replant cocoa crops on mined land, and abide by the rules of Ghanas Environmental Protection Agency. They explain better he is a broker. He had no idea George is an experienced MMA fighter, the shows gravel-voiced narrators says. We didnt exploit anyone, Lomu told me. George Wright and Scott Lomu filming in Ghana for Jungle Gold. Wright and Lomu had never imagined they would end up mining for gold in Ghana. Prior to the fight, locals had regarded the cast and crew with friendly curiosity. At the time, Wright and Lomu brawny, clean-living Mormons from Utah were in the midst of shooting Jungle Golds second season. There was a sense of disappointment, said Wright. 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. That supports been really the lifeblood in this entire operation. Worst of all, popular radio station Joy FM claimed Wright had killed the man he was filmed choking. 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 . Since completing the series, Lomu and Wright continue to Metacritic TV Reviews, Jungle Gold - Season 1, After borrowing $150,000, George Wright and Scott Lomu travel to Ghana to mine for gold.. He was still there when I showed up six months later. [], 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. When season two of Jungle Gold aired in August 2013, it flopped, competing with NFL for ratings. Lomu knew his friend had experienced post-traumatic stress from his tours in Afghanistan. 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. *Discovery Channel has been pushing this as a new season, though the May 29 new episode is listed as Season 2, Episode 9. They needed to find money, fast. 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. Scott Lomu and George Wright join our company. God-fearing pair are now back in the game, trying their hand at mining in Guyana, on South America's Caribbean coast, posting hair-raising videos on Instagram . He is from . I have never seen the show. Haha! 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. Other scenes needed no stage-managing. Ghanas Minerals Commission had taken to decrying what it called the illegal mining menace., These controversies presented possible PR problems. 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. Oh my word, they think I killed him, he said. George: We met him towards the end of our last little stint out there. We kind of shed a pretty big spotlight on the activities of illegal miners in Ghana. It was January 2011, and Lomu had stumbled onto the first season of Gold Rush, a Discovery Channel reality show that follows three men from Oregon as they mine for gold in Alaska. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. But no such vehicles arrived. The series chronicles the continuing efforts of former real-estate dealers George Wright and Scott Lomu . (It has since been clarified in the wake of Jungle Gold.) I personaly found it entertaining and interesting. The little gold they found went directly into equipment costs. What the freak is this? Lomu shouted. 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. 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. Couldnt agree with Dru Kelly more. . But regardless of their portrayal onscreen, Wright and Lomu believed they had done more good than harm in Ghana. The influx of Chinese miners had triggered a rise in armed robberies of Chinese mining camps. The Minerals Commission claimed the crew had pushed ahead without adequate permissions and secretly asked the countrys National Security Agency to investigate them, fearing a stampede of greedy foreign miners, according to Buzzfeed. mining company with profitable operations., Ensurge, Inc. is a Colorado-based holding company that has been engaged Hes a gentleman whos a land broker. Maybe Utah poor is different to my poor. According to Lomu, Raw later paid Akwesi $3,000 for his troubles. Alerted to the situation by Raw, series producer Christo Doyle set up a "war room" as the cameras rolled. But the incident changed the dynamic in the village. 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. On Demand DVD New Releases Aug. 26-Sept. 1, The three crew leaders from Discovery Channels Gold Rush series will be featured in a limited summer series called Gold Rush South America, the network announced today. Lomu signaled for the check. George Wright. When the episode ended, he immediately decided to investigate Jungle Gold. Ref: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1124.html [via press release from Discovery] Wrights wife, Marie, sat in amazement as her unflappably nice Mormon husband imitated Rambo: shouting orders, grimacing at the camera, and heaving logs out of the road, his every flippin' and shoot bleeped out to create a bawdier impression. In April 2013, it premiered on Ghanaian TV. 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. Unfortunately, most locals can't afford to mine the gold, they need outside investment. He and his friend George Wright had gone to Ghana the previous summer to mine gold, and what he was watching on TV was ho-hum compared to the most uneventful day in Ghana. So Literally Ask US Anything, we can't spoil the upcoming season, but anything else is fine. The Ghanaian government permitted Mormon activities to resume 18 months after the ban. What was the viewer reaction following the season premiere of Jungle Gold? But many viewers of Jungle Gold thought exploiting Ghanaians was precisely what Wright and Lomu had done. Many people crumble with the fame and do really stupid outrageous things. Its very easy to lose your temper, it very easy to feel like everybodys trying to take advantage of you and trying to take your land. So, gold fever its addictive. 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. Our cutting room floor can have its own AmA! I can hardly wait to see what drama they come up with next. Primary Income source American Football Player (profession). A short video about the incident appeared months later on Discoverys website. Near the bottom, he noticed a message from his brother Bill. Meanwhile, the pressure is on the boys to secure a wood-burning stove so the family can stay warm over winter. Fans have praised stunning MAFS newcomer Evelyn for her mission to hold a groom accountable for his bad behaviour towards his wife. Jungle Gold. They have hatched a radical plan to turn things around; mining for gold. Not that Id recommend it, but theyre pretty sure they can school any critics. 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. G: Oh man if Scott sees this, he's gonna have hay day on this question. That night, Wright and Lomu rendezvoused with the crew at the Golden Tulip, where everything began. 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. 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. In the Season 1 finale, Lomu stuffs the remains of their initial investment into his backpack and walks into the bush. 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. We were like, This is the kind of operation we want to be a part of! Lomu said. Afterward, the farmer said, people viewed them more cautiously. When the captain took off the seatbelt sign, they roamed the cabin, high-fiving each other and cracking cans of beer. it was rated as one of the top programs on the Discovery Channel. They hired a former special services agent to beef up security and instituted a no-mercury policy, barring laborers from handling the toxic liquid. We were entirely without expectations, Wright told news.com.au. George Wright in 'Jungle Gold' Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel. Around 2.75 million viewers tuned in, making it the fourth most popular primetime cable show that Friday night. One Ghanaian commenter wrote, This is a disgrace for a brand such as the Discovery Channel to glorify what these bandits are doing in our country.. It looked like we were being mocked, Donkor said. Language. The camera catches a masked African man dashing into the jungle, a submachine gun in one hand and Lomus gold bar in the other. Scott receives life-changing news that could change their gold mining futures. You were slightly mislead. When I watch the gold mining shows (especially the Alaska one) it seems no different to me than simply taking the money to Vegas and playing blackjack. Its author, Amma Bonsu, a Ghanaian activist and investment banker in Toronto, wrote that Jungle Gold reprised the antiquated narrative of Africa as a lawless jungle. [The] under-bed of racism is so alive in this [show]! she later told me. Those guys on the dredge they were having a really good time. He paused. But we were willing to wear our heart on our sleeve.. | Learn more about Scott Lomu's work experience, education, connections . So they turn to other means. According to government records, the Minerals Commissions district officer in Dunkwa had discovered Raw filming a mining site without its owners consent. It was the second season of Jungle Gold set in Ghana that the fans of TV shows about gold prospecting are still talking . As Wrights four children bounced on a giant trampoline in the backyard, the men explained that they had returned to Ghana several times since the evacuation, mainly to recover the thousands of dollars in equipment theyd left behind. Back home at 21, he got married and landed a spot on the Utah Jazz Stunt Team. When Lomu suggested removing the miners by force, a chief replied: If you attempt it, they will kill you! The crew captured everything on film and loved it. The dialogue is that of a B-rated actor and not free flowing as a Real conversation would be. IE 11 is not supported. Its a sad story, but their determination to continue in Wallys honor is one you have to hear. First, their new landowner revealed the mining licence wasnt ready, so they couldnt film any actual work. Villagers set up roadblocks and demanded hundreds of dollars. Focused on the action, the show failed to explain the complicated licensing process, causing many to assume they were mining illegally. You were a bad realtor, a dreamer, no clue about mining, engineering, equipment operation, management, or investment. Discovery moved the show from Friday to Sunday nights, where it competed with NFL football for the eyes of American men, their primary demographic. 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. The only money these guys will ever have is the money they get from the producer who pays them at least $20-30,000 per episode. By August 2012, more than two months into the shoot, the stars joint venture had found only a few ounces of gold. 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. 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. 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There were things we didnt expect, things that normally wouldnt happen to us happened because the cameras were there, said Lomu. We initially we went to Africa with the last of our cash to flip gold, arbitrage, we hoped to buy it low and sell it for a bit more and create some velocity with that initial capital secured by a real asset the entire time. George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and. He found instead the two articles in My Joy Online ordering his arrest and accusing him of killing people. Ghana challenged their intentions from the start. They got through it by dreaming up episodes for their nonexistent reality show. Interview from the Chicago Resource Expo with George Wright & Scott Lomu from Discovery Channles hit show Jungle Gold I can say this, the head guy on Gold Rush hates us and we don't know why? But once again, the cost of equipment and labor exceeded the meager amount of gold they found. 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