George Wright has been appointed as Vice President of Public Relations and Scott Lomu as Vice President of Investor Relations. To ensure the most secure and best overall experience on our website we recommend the latest versions of, Internet Explorer is no longer supported. 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. 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. Airing in the slot behind Gold Rush, it had helped Discovery dominate the Friday night cable ratings. This, like so many other pathetic reality shows should go away forever. November 23, 2012. 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. Scott Lomu and George Wright land at a rural airport in Kumasi, Ghana. But their return to Ghana was to be even more troubled than round one. 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 . It shows A side of us, and we're hoping to show another side with you guys. The reality stars of Jungle Gold on the Discovery Channel (DStv 121) face fines, arrest and even possible imprisonment over charges of alleged brutality and illegal mining in Ghana, with the Ghanaian government which now wants to see Scott Lomu and George Wright apprehended and arrested. While Ghanaians in the diaspora were railing against Jungle Gold online, members of Ghanas Minerals Commission were quietly fuming about its existence. Scott: Things have been getting pretty tense in Ghana because our show has shed a lot of light on a lot of illegal mining activity happening in Ghana. As the wheels lifted off, the crew exploded in cheers. George: We met him towards the end of our last little stint out there. 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. The Friday audience is a different audience. BOOM! According to government records, the Minerals Commissions district officer in Dunkwa had discovered Raw filming a mining site without its owners consent. 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. While Lomu and Wright couldnt tell me too much about whats coming in season two, what they did say sounded intriguing. 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. 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). He had no idea George is an experienced MMA fighter, the shows gravel-voiced narrators says. It begins now, Wright wrote. We have a full Biography, Photos, Theatre Credits, and more! Villagers routinely set up roadblocks and demanded hundreds of dollars to pass. To raise the rest, they decided to deal gold in the jungle. And yes, I have heard many of them are gone. But as the cast and crews Land Rovers pull out, a pile of logs impedes their path. In early August 2012, records show, several Raw crew members sat down with Joseph Aboagye, the Minerals Commissions stern director of policy, planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The crew had received press accreditation from the Information Services Department, he said. 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 2008. When the cast and crew arrived on the first day of filming, however, they found it crawling with Chinese miners. Ghana challenged their intentions from the start. The camera catches a masked African man dashing into the jungle, a submachine gun in one hand and Lomus gold bar in the other. Gold prices were high, getting equipment was cheap. I can hardly wait to see what drama they come up with next. Wright, 32, a mixed martial arts enthusiast with long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, grew up in California before moving to Utah at 16. But as Reece explained it, a wealthy Ghanaian who owned land around Fahiakobo was willing to acquire a large-scale license himself and hire Wright and Lomu to mine his property. 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. They say theyve learnt from their catastrophic, ratings-winning sojourn in West Africa. 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. Yet, at the same time, Ghanas small-scale mining sector had grown increasingly chaotic. Visionary entrepreneur and leader. Scott Lomu. It was a humbling experience. 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. I saw Tickle hit the front page today, that is pretty silly. There were reports of armed robberies in Chinese mining camps as locals and foreign rivals fought for land. Theyd spent the past year trying to dramatize their daily lives for the cameras. But what you do with that really defines who you are.. As Richard Bushman, a professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, put it: Mormons think things will work out for the best.. (Raw refused to comment on Aboagyes claim.) 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. How did he come to acquire his assets? Oh my word, they think I killed him, he said. Mensah was a reporter for Joy FM, one of Ghanas most popular news radio stations. 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 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. Weve always felt like maybe we need to have the production company subtitle him with truth. Bottom line, hes surprised us in a lot of good ways, and hes surprised us in a lot of bad ways, as youll see in the season to come. The new operation went as poorly as the first. The disclosure threatened to derail the season. 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. In a 2013 Reddit AMA, several commenters asked Wright and Lomu whether the scene was scripted. 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. We lost a ton of money! Wright said. In April 2015, they were hired by Utah-based mining company Ensurge to share their mining expertise in Guyana and help attract investors. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. At the moment I jumped in, he was right over [our security guard] and was going to push his head underwater. What shocked me is how much seemingly relevant content never gets used. And one of their original crew had taken his own life. Around 2.75 million viewers tuned in, making it the fourth most popular primetime cable show that Friday night. Not a land owner. 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. Maybe Utah poor is different to my poor. As chronicled in their 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. understanding of conducting mining operations in underdeveloped A short video about the incident appeared months later on Discoverys website. to possess the upside potential we considered to be a prerequisite. 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 the crew debated alternate plotlines, Lomu went out to dinner in Obuasi. One day in Ghana is more dramatic than this entire freaking episode!. It mostly comes down to the bravest of us all which is our wives they support us 100 percent. By this time, Ghanas mining industry was in chaos, with Al Jazeera reporting on the dangers of illegal mining, fuelled by widespread corruption. Wed put our last $50,000 into that site, Wright said. I think it would shock a lot of people to hear how encouraging they are, and how supportive they are. The cast and crew hid at a nearby compound, where they discovered Wright was suspected of murder and the authorities wanted them arrested. They forfeited the cash and moved to a less profitable site. It is really pathetic. 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. Within one season, they were being accused of racism, exploitation, destroying the environment and even murder. ), Earlier this year, I met Wright and Lomu at Wrights four-bedroom house in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Given Africans response to Season 1 in the States, Lomu had begged Raw not to air the show in Ghana, fearing retaliation. Scott receives life-changing news that could change their gold mining futures. Villagers set up roadblocks and demanded hundreds of dollars. When season two of Jungle Gold aired in August 2013, it flopped, competing with NFL for ratings. 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. 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. Jed Lipinski is a staff writer for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=273569. So now I'm just leaving this thing open . But the. That summer, the men resumed their former routine, traveling to Ghana in shifts. But where? George: Theres something to be said about gold fever about realizing that I dig a hole, I find gold. 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. Scott and I know we could have done better. We work really hard and its really dangerous at times. This was never a get-rich-quick scheme. 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