Opal Hunters S04 E05

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Travel to Australia, and watch this real life documentary, of people mining the Opal gemstone.

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00:00On Outback Opal Hunters...
00:02Les! Come and have a look at this!
00:04The Bushmen risk it all, mining the rock that holds up their roof.
00:09I think we can make it safe, Les.
00:11Yeah, the roof could fall in on us.
00:14It's not worth dying for a few bucks.
00:18We're spending money faster than we're making it at the moment.
00:20The Poms get their first taste of real mining.
00:24I'm just a bit concerned that he's just not looking after himself.
00:28Struggling to find their first piece of opal underground.
00:32Shows. Absolutely shows.
00:34It's more your mirror on the tree that I'm worried about.
00:37Pete Cook nurses a busted shoulder.
00:40I'm frustrated as hell. I should be down there underground showing Sam.
00:44Forcing rookie Sam to take on more than he can handle.
00:47Gotta be really careful with this one, Dave.
00:52You okay?
00:53♪ Music Playing ♪
01:17Bondi's has ended up being a pretty good claim.
01:20We haven't dug a great deal of it and we've got good money.
01:24But we've had a bloody lot of things gone wrong.
01:27The blower's broken down.
01:30If the blower don't go, there's nothing we can do until we get it going.
01:36Yeah, I don't know what's causing the bloody problem.
01:40In outback New South Wales, the Bushmen's recent run of success is under threat from a broken down rock extractor.
01:50The blower's so important because once you've got a pile of dirt on the ground,
01:55you can't move your digger forward anymore.
01:57So you've got to suck all that dirt out.
01:59So without the blower, it stops everything.
02:08We think it's this coupling.
02:10Until we get it off, we won't actually know.
02:17That's what it is.
02:20Yeah.
02:21This coupling goes onto the shaft that drives the fan.
02:25And all the inside in here is all flogged out.
02:29So to get a new one of these, we'll have to send this away, won't we?
02:31Yeah.
02:32Oh, geez. That's what, three or four weeks, probably? Three weeks?
02:36Yeah, probably.
02:38Not one damn thing, it's another.
02:43You ready?
02:44Yeah.
02:45Whoa!
02:48Yeah, that's money.
02:49That's money, mate.
02:50This season, the Bushmen have steadily closed in on their $60,000 target,
02:55hunting legendary black opal.
02:57Because we haven't found money for so long, I've racked some bills up.
03:01And now we've got a bit of money, we do have to spend it on the machinery.
03:07There's things that need fixing.
03:11Recent family news gives even more reason to find opal fast.
03:15Our youngest daughter, we've just found out that she's pregnant
03:18with our latest grandchild.
03:22Amanda wants to be there at the week of the birth,
03:25so that she doesn't miss anything.
03:27And if we just get a little tiny bit more money, we should be able to...
03:31No, we can do it.
03:33No, I know.
03:34Yeah, I know we can do it.
03:35We'll be doing it.
03:36At the moment, we haven't probably got enough money.
03:39I haven't told Amanda yet.
03:41She still thinks everything's rosy.
03:43But there's no other way to get there than finding more opal.
03:49Well, I've had a bit of an idea come to me, Les.
03:52Yeah?
03:53Now, I don't know whether you remember,
03:55Brian had that claim down there that he called it the maze.
03:58Yeah, yeah.
03:59Well, he got over a million dollars out of that.
04:01Now, when he retired, he told me that there was money
04:05still in the columns down there.
04:07But the columns are a bit dodgy taking it out
04:10because the roof down there is not real good.
04:12How dangerous is this mine?
04:14We can go down and have a look.
04:16Oh, yeah.
04:18Eight kilometres from their Bondi mine lies the maze,
04:22abandoned by a retired Lightning Ridge miner.
04:25No wonder he called this the maze.
04:27God, there's drives going in every direction.
04:29Yeah.
04:30A labyrinth of hundreds of metres of tunnels,
04:32held up only by unstable columns of rock.
04:36This is where he told me, I'm pretty sure, Les,
04:38because he said there's paint on the two columns.
04:41I'd really like to take these out.
04:43I know.
04:44Because I reckon there's money in them.
04:45There might be, but I don't know.
04:47You can only take out a certain amount of dirt.
04:49You have to leave columns in there to hold the roof up.
04:54You can go pillar bashing, which is just that.
04:56You're going to go in with a jackhammer and take the pillar out.
05:00Before you do that, you've got to put props all the way around it
05:03so the roof's still got some support.
05:06We put a double row of props here,
05:09then one row of props, say, here.
05:12I think we can make it safe, Les.
05:14I really do.
05:15We might take them out for money.
05:16Yeah, and a roof could fall in on us.
05:18Well, it could.
05:19Yeah, well, I'm not crazy about knocking the pillars out.
05:22It's not worth dying for a few bucks.
05:24If it falls in on top of you, you can't spend any of it.
05:27Put a plaque up top, he was stupid and he's still here.
05:31So you're in?
05:40500 kilometres to the south-west.
05:46I'm just shoveling and shoveling and shoveling.
05:52So the task at hand at the moment is to dig down another two or three feet
05:56before I can start to make any progress forwards towards the face
06:00to really chase the opal.
06:02It's a big task to be doing on your own with just a shovel at the moment.
06:07School teacher Carl Grice and jewellery maker Mary Macmillan
06:11have sold up their home and most of their belongings
06:14and travelled 3,000 kilometres to seek an opal fortune
06:18in the remote town of Whitecliffs, population 148.
06:24There's no safety net for us.
06:25We haven't got a home waiting for us to come back to if all this fails.
06:28Everything we own is now in an RV.
06:30The last of the rookie miners' savings
06:32have gone towards $3,000 worth of equipment
06:35and a lease on a 120-year-old mine,
06:38hunting for crystal opal worth up to $5,000 a carat.
06:43My profession has been a teacher, so really most of my adult life
06:47I've been in the classroom rather than on the tools.
06:52Mary's in the workshop making jewellery
06:54and the idea is that I find the opal and cut it and Mary sets it.
06:58Carl's been busy digging, digging, digging, digging, digging.
07:02We've left a lot of conventional living behind.
07:05I'm really pleased we've done that because we love this lifestyle
07:08but obviously I need to have opal to create jewellery.
07:14I'm working all the hours that I possibly can.
07:16I'm down there straight after I finish my breakfast
07:18and I'm coming out when it's dark.
07:20This is really hard work because with the self-tipper I'm continually shoveling.
07:25The time it takes to tip and come down, I've shoveled two buckets,
07:28they go in and I'm shoveling again.
07:30So yeah, there's only breaks when you take them.
07:32With limited experience and equipment,
07:34the Palms have barely dented their $100,000 season target.
07:39I'm at a bit of a turning point at the moment
07:41because this drive here, which has already been begun,
07:45is half full of all this backfill,
07:46so it's going to take me at least a couple of weeks
07:48to get all this backfill out before I can continue it to get opal.
07:53But this here, I could start attacking this with the jackhammer
07:57and straight away there's a chance there could be opal there.
08:00Funds are running low.
08:02We need to be finding opal and making a bit of money
08:04because there is no plan B for us at the moment.
08:09It was a little bit apprehensive, I guess,
08:11going down the mine for the first time.
08:13I didn't really know what to expect.
08:15Welcome to our mine.
08:17Ooh, this is cool.
08:20What I'd like to do is go through here and create our own drive.
08:23What do you think?
08:24That's bloody exciting, isn't it?
08:26So I can see ash band.
08:28Ah, yeah, well spotted.
08:30We've been told there's been a lot of opal found around ash bands.
08:34We're in the right place.
08:35We could be finding opal at any moment.
08:39Ash bands are formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago.
08:43The ash is rich in silica, the primary mineral that creates opal.
08:50Next step, jackhammer.
08:53This is virgin ground.
08:54No-one's ever been in here before.
08:57Ten minutes from now, we could have a million dollars.
08:59Who knows?
09:11Just watch your branches.
09:12Straighten up.
09:14Am I going to get past that ladder?
09:17Yeah, the ladder's all right.
09:18It's more your mirror on the tree that I'm worried about.
09:25In Lightning Ridge, outback New South Wales,
09:28Pete Cook and apprentice Sam Westra...
09:30Yeah, over that way if you can.
09:32...are one arm down in the fight to rescue their season.
09:37I'm frustrated as hell.
09:38I don't like this getting wounded.
09:40It slows the whole show down.
09:42It's uncomfortable.
09:43It's painful.
09:44And I'm not doing my bit.
09:47Pete has severe tendon damage in his shoulder
09:50after an epic effort to get their one-tonne digger
09:53into the Alloa Claim.
09:55With my arm out of action, I can't go up and down these ladders.
09:59I'd rather be down there underground
10:01showing him how to drive the digger.
10:03If you're not careful with it,
10:04it can be a bit unpredictable when you're working the levers.
10:08Now he's just got to try and figure it out himself.
10:10Yeah.
10:11So those two are your legs.
10:12Right, yeah.
10:13And they put the feet down.
10:14Yep.
10:15And then that one's your roof ramp.
10:17Yep.
10:18If it falls over, make sure you're not under it.
10:21The digger is now Sam and Pete's best bet
10:24for reaching their $50,000 target,
10:27hunting the most valuable of the rainbow gem,
10:30black opal.
10:33I'm in Lightning Ridge to find opal.
10:36I'm putting a lot of work in.
10:38We go to work eight till five every day.
10:40Don't have too much to show for it, that's for sure.
10:44To make ends meet, Sam has taken a second job at the local pub.
10:49I go to work 16 hours a day, every day,
10:51and at the end of the day,
10:53I could be earning more money doing something else.
10:57If we don't find opal at the end of this season,
11:00I'd be a bit, you know, questioning my choices in a way, I suppose.
11:04I've now got someone else to think about too, my girlfriend.
11:10She supports me doing opal mining at this stage,
11:14but because I still work every night,
11:17it puts strains on our relationship.
11:20We only see each other half an hour for lunch,
11:22half an hour for dinner,
11:24and then one day a week on a Saturday, and that's it.
11:29Really putting a lot into opal mining,
11:31so hopefully it can give something back.
11:35I suppose I'm a bit nervous about the digger.
11:38I've never used one before.
11:40They're just, it's not real well designed and they're dangerous.
11:46I'm a bit concerned.
11:47I'd much rather be down there with him,
11:49showing him how to do it,
11:51but I can't be there to hold his hand.
11:53He'll just have to go down there and do it.
11:56It has been a long time coming
11:58to finally get set up and dig and do it,
12:00It's the start of us being able to come out here and mine,
12:03you know, properly, conventionally,
12:05with a digger and a bit quicker,
12:08and yeah, hopefully pull out quite a bit of dirt,
12:11and the more dirt you move,
12:12the bigger chance you've got of finding an opal.
12:16But this digger's very, very precarious to move.
12:20If you fall back and grab hold of the weavers,
12:23it can be quite dangerous.
12:25It's very precarious to move.
12:27If you fall back and grab hold of the weavers,
12:30it can pin you up against the wall.
12:34Just got to be really careful,
12:36got to be stable on your feet
12:38and make sure you've got a good floor,
12:41because, yeah, this whole thing could come back
12:43and it'd just crush me.
12:56OK?
13:05It's been continuous digging and carrying
13:08and lifting and jackhammering.
13:12It's getting to the point where we need some kind of breakthrough.
13:14Even a little bit of colour would just give me the energy,
13:17I think, to keep going.
13:20I'm probably pushing myself to my absolute limits right now.
13:23I haven't had a day off since we arrived here.
13:26But we are living our dream.
13:29The last piece of that dream is finding the opal.
13:34While Carl still dreams of finding their first opal underground,
13:38Mary's expertise as a jeweller is being wasted.
13:42Carl's done a huge amount of digging,
13:44but we haven't found any trace of opal at all.
13:46We're just kind of keeping our fingers crossed every day
13:48and really trying to stay positive.
13:50It's a very physical game, hunting for opal,
13:53and Carl has very much wanted to go in all guns blazing.
13:59It's very easy to see how people can become obsessed with this.
14:02I'm probably partway there myself.
14:05Because literally as soon as I jump out of bed in the morning,
14:07I just want to be down here and digging.
14:10I will dig until I physically can't anymore.
14:17Oh!
14:23Oh!
14:25Shattered, absolutely shattered.
14:27Barely had enough energy to climb up the ladder then.
14:31We're spending money faster than we're making it at the moment.
14:34I think it's the case of all hands on deck right now.
14:36So Mary's going to come down and give me a hand.
14:39I'm not used to lifting a 15 kilo bucket.
14:42So it's going to be quite hard work going down there.
14:47I'll be going here with the jackhammer
14:49and all the loose stuff will fall down here.
14:55You start clearing some of that, is that OK?
14:57Just mind this cable, darling.
15:00Mary's job is to move the rubble to allow Carl access to the wall
15:04that shows signs of volcanic ash,
15:06a silica-rich material that can form opal.
15:09It's pretty hard work.
15:11I don't know how Carl has the energy to live so long.
15:14I find it hard to stay enthusiastic
15:17when you're just digging through dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt,
15:20you know, and there's no sign of anything.
15:22Hard rock there.
15:23Carl's keeping me going at the moment.
15:26He's just like a tumbling mould.
15:32Just can't stop.
15:36Hey, Mary, look at this.
15:37What is that?
15:38It looks like a really, really thin fault line.
15:41Can you see it's coming down?
15:42Yeah, you can see it.
15:43Yeah, it's quite thin.
15:44This is exactly what we want.
15:45This is a vertical fault line.
15:46OK.
15:47Because if this goes all the way to the surface,
15:49that's the crack that the water can come through.
15:52As it goes through the sand, it picks up the silica.
15:55And then if it hits something like this level, which is harder,
15:59it can pool out and over millions of years,
16:02the water disappears, leaves the silica, which is opal.
16:05So this is a really good sign.
16:06Oh, wow.
16:07Yeah, and it's the first one I've seen since we've come down here.
16:09Oh, that's well exciting.
16:10OK.
16:11We'll get on with it then.
16:12All right.
16:13Come on.
16:17Carl hasn't found any fault lines
16:19since he's been digging all this 7 metres.
16:22So it's a really exciting find for us
16:25because where there's fault lines, potentially there could be opal.
16:41Oh, Mary.
16:42What?
16:43This.
16:44What is it?
16:45Is that a light colour?
16:46Yeah.
16:47Oh, my God.
16:48Oh, my God.
16:49Oh, my God.
16:50Look.
16:51What?
16:52What?
16:53Look at that colour.
16:54And it's green.
16:55Wow.
16:56I'm speechless.
16:57And there's more, Mary.
16:58There's more.
16:59There's a bit of green there as well on the left.
17:01Oh, my God.
17:02Oh, my God.
17:03Oh, my God.
17:04Oh, my God.
17:05Oh, my God.
17:06Oh, my God.
17:07Oh, my God.
17:08Oh, my God.
17:09Oh, my God.
17:10Oh, my God.
17:11Oh, wow, Karl.
17:12We found our first opal.
17:13Proper, proper, you know, underground.
17:14I know.
17:15I can't believe it.
17:16I'm not quite sure what to do now.
17:17There's only four.
17:18I was literally just about to plant my jackhammer
17:19and something green just winked at me,
17:20just at the last second.
17:21It'd be cool to get these cleaned up
17:22and see what they look like underneath.
17:23It would, yeah.
17:24Couldn't really believe it when Karl was like,
17:25Mary, what's that, you know?
17:26I think there's something here.
17:27I just thought, you know, this is crazy.
17:28I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:29digging and finding out what's going on.
17:30I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:31digging and finding out what's going on.
17:32I couldn't really believe it when Karl was like,
17:33Mary, what's that, you know?
17:34I think there's something here.
17:35I just thought, you know, this is crazy.
17:36I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:37digging and finding out what's going on.
17:38I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:39digging and finding out what's going on.
17:40I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:41digging and finding out what's going on.
17:42I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:43digging and finding out what's going on.
17:44I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:45digging and finding out what's going on.
17:46I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:47digging and finding out what's going on.
17:48I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:49digging and finding out what's going on.
17:50I've been smashing at that wall and shifting,
17:51digging and finding out what's going on.
18:05I think there's money in these columns,
18:07and I think if, if we prop it the right way,
18:10it'll be safe enough.
18:11In the labyrinth, of the maze-mine,
18:12Rod's trying to convince partner, Les,
18:13to dig out the columns of rock that hold up the roof.
18:17Just say we took these two out, right?
18:18Yeah took them all the way out,
18:19what have you got here?
18:20Yeah, I know.
18:20Bloody football field.
18:21Yeah, I know, but, well, OK.
18:23Look, we've got a good haul out of the last one.
18:26Why not sit it out for a while?
18:28Stuff that.
18:29The way I figure it out, we're about 80% safe.
18:34Ha!
18:37I reckon it's good odds.
18:39And if I don't come down and help you,
18:40you'll do it on your own, won't you?
18:42Yeah, and I'll get all the money on my own, too.
18:45So you're in?
18:47Good on you, mate.
18:48Well done.
18:49OK, we're doing it.
18:50You beauty.
18:52Rod's promise to wife Amanda to visit their pregnant daughter
18:55700 kilometres away relies on him finding
18:58Opal to pay for the trip.
19:00She'd be devastated if I have to go home and tell her
19:02that, you know, we're not going.
19:04And I'm not going to do it.
19:05I'm going to make it happen.
19:07OK, drop them.
19:09I know, here it comes.
19:14Rod, he knows the consequences if things go wrong.
19:20The only way to be safe down there when you're doing that
19:23is to prop it properly.
19:27A reasonable sized lump of timber,
19:29could be eight foot long or something like that.
19:31Tap it top and bottom.
19:32Drive wedges in so it's tight up against the roof.
19:36Here, give us another one.
19:38You put enough of them in, it should be good enough then
19:41to take the pillars out.
19:43It should hold the roof.
19:46So we'll be able to start jackhammering, eh?
19:54Orange sandstone and that, it's as hard as a hob to hell.
19:58A little jackhammer won't bust through it.
20:00You need something 60, 70 pound.
20:05I haven't been hanging onto it for bloody years.
20:07I've got to get used to it.
20:10After being hanging onto it for a bloody hour or two in the air,
20:14it gets heavy and you wish you'd never seen one.
20:21Jesus, Liz, I don't know how long I can do that.
20:24That's so bloody hard, that up there, and I've got colour up here.
20:27Have a look at this.
20:29That's nice colour.
20:30Jesus Christ, this is so hard, mate.
20:32I don't think I'm going to be able to take all this out
20:35and I bloody know you're not going to be able to do it.
20:40Aargh!
20:50OK.
20:52What's this one do?
20:54Ooh.
20:56Of course you're nervous when you're operating new machinery.
21:00Obviously, probably jumped into things a bit quick.
21:03I've heard of a lot of bikes getting pinned up against walls.
21:08We heard of another bike, I think he broke his arm.
21:11For rookie Sam, Pete's shoulder injury
21:14means he's operating the dangerous digger alone
21:17for the very first time.
21:25I'd really like to see some money come out of Aloha.
21:28Like, that'd just be great.
21:31You do think about it sometimes that I'm just sitting still
21:34and everyone else is sort of moving forward with their lives.
21:38To ensure the one-tonne digger doesn't topple over,
21:41Sam needs to secure it to the roof
21:44with a hydraulic post called a ram.
21:47The roof here isn't really well-defined.
21:50It can just be too soft and when you go to work it,
21:53it can move and when it moves,
21:56it'll rain down clods of sandstone and opal dirt on you.
22:01I was a little bit nervous.
22:04There's bound to be rocks coming down.
22:12Just got to make sure you wear your hard hat
22:15and stay out of the way.
22:18But once I got going, once I worked out what lever did what,
22:21we dug some dirt.
22:24With that digger, I could knock down in one swipe
22:28and that was taking me an hour with the jackhammer.
22:33Pete, I'm sending the first bucket up!
22:36Yep!
22:42Oh, he's getting the hang of it now.
22:45He'll start pulling a few buckets of dirt out
22:48and hopefully we'll get a truckload.
22:52Just so I can remember how many buckets go in
22:55and keep me track on how it's going.
22:58But with Sam due at his second job at the pub,
23:01this shift must be cut short.
23:04I've got to go to work,
23:07so that's the last boys' bucket for the day.
23:10A digger's a bit of a thing to move.
23:13That'll take a bit to get used to,
23:16but that's all right.
23:20We've got some dirt out today,
23:23and I'll go up and call it a day.
23:28Right, mate, so there's a bit of a load in.
23:31A good old aloe vera dirt, mate.
23:34You dug yourself.
23:37Let's see if there's anything in it.
23:40Make all the hard work worth it.
23:50There's colour there. There's very nice colour just there.
23:53And it runs around to here,
23:56but it's in this bloody hard stuff,
23:59and it is hard to get out.
24:02In a desperate effort for quick cash,
24:05the Bushmen are undertaking a highly dangerous mining technique
24:08known as pillar bashing.
24:11If you run out of luck pillar bashing, that's it.
24:14They're going to put a cross on top of the hole.
24:17Above them, 15 metres of solid rock.
24:20You've got to keep your bloody wits about you.
24:23If you're not careful and go stupid,
24:26well, you'll probably be buried down there and stay down there.
24:29To carve through the sandstone,
24:32they use jackhammers weighing 30 kilograms apiece.
24:35These jackhammers are too heavy for us to lift up.
24:38It'll just bust us trying to hold bloody things up.
24:41I could probably make something up
24:45to hold it up there to take the weight.
24:48Well, that might be a good idea. Would you have stuff at your place?
24:51Oh, yeah, I'd be able to find something to do.
24:54Silly question.
24:57Well, we'd have something lying around here.
25:00It's just a matter of finding the right piece, isn't it?
25:03In Lezza's scrapyard backyard,
25:06the Bushmen hope to find parts to create a prop for the jackhammers.
25:09It needs to be strong enough to hold the weight,
25:13and adjustable to accommodate different digging heights.
25:16Let's see if I can find one of them old Ford jacks.
25:19I've got one around here somewhere I've seen the other day.
25:22Here.
25:25Oh, yeah.
25:28She works, Lezz. That's a good idea.
25:31There's only one of these here. What else are you going to use?
25:34I reckon I'll try a Hills Hoist clothesline stem.
25:38Yeah, we can make that work.
25:41A lot of those bits and pieces lying around the place,
25:44people say it's only rubbish,
25:47but rubbish does come in handy at times.
25:50Cool, cool.
25:53Lezz is good value.
25:56He's always got an idea or two on how to dodge things up.
25:59See if she works, Lezz.
26:02Oh, look at that.
26:06Ho, ho, ho!
26:09Hey, that's bloody fantastic, Lezz.
26:15All right.
26:18That works.
26:25It's taken all the weight off me shoulders.
26:28It's easy.
26:31You're not carrying the bloody weight.
26:34But the more dirt they remove from the column,
26:37the more weight has to be taken up by their timber props.
26:46Just while I was jackhammering,
26:49I was getting a fair bit of movement up there.
26:52It's starting to get a bit of weight on it.
26:55We've got 50 foot of bloody dirt on this roof.
26:58The more dirt we take out, the less support there is,
27:02and the more it's going to sag.
27:05Now, if it starts to sag, it'll crack,
27:08and that's when they come down,
27:11so you've just got to keep an eye on it.
27:14You see where it's just on the edge, starting to flare?
27:17I have developed a very hairline crack up here.
27:20Even a rock that big comes down straight on the head,
27:23it's got a chance of killing you, breaking your neck.
27:32If I'm finding opal, I'm moving forward.
27:35I'm saving for a house.
27:38I'm setting myself up for life.
27:41But if we're not finding anything,
27:44well, then I'm just sitting stagnant.
27:47Money, money, money.
27:50Servers ain't gems.
27:53In Lightning Ridge, 20-year-old Sam desperately needs
27:56his load of freshly dug sandstone to deliver opal.
28:00Nothing yet, mate? No.
28:05Oh, there's one.
28:08Ooh, that's got a bit of colour in it, too. Look at that.
28:11I can see a bit of green. Yeah, there's a bit of orange.
28:14Look at this one, mate. He's tiny.
28:17Ty, do you ever look at that pattern?
28:20Oh, right. Nice lines and that in there, isn't it?
28:23Yeah, bright eyes.
28:26That's pretty rare. That's what they call Chinese writing.
28:30Nice blue rolling flash across it, too.
28:33Is it? Yeah.
28:36Well short of their target, Pete and Sam need to get
28:39the maximum they can for this stone,
28:42and polishing the opal can triple its value.
28:45I'm not sure how I'm going to go one-handed.
28:48How do you feel about giving that one a bit of a rub on the wheel?
28:53It might be up to you, mate. You can bang her on the wheel and spin it round.
28:56See how he goes.
29:00When we put the stone to the wheel,
29:03you can make mistakes on it,
29:06and if you recognise a nice stone,
29:09then we'll be paying for it.
29:12I'm not letting you rub too much off. Nah, you'll be all right.
29:15It takes a lot of experience to become a good cutter,
29:18and I'm quite an inexperienced cutter.
29:21Nice journal touch. Slow and steady.
29:24We don't make any mistakes.
29:27What do we do? Just roll it?
29:30Just roll to try and take that edge off it, I reckon.
29:33It's a nice colour coming out.
29:36Yeah, a few blues and gulls.
29:39Might just get a bit of a stone out this one, too.
29:48What do you reckon?
29:51I reckon that's pretty good.
29:55I reckon we leave it like that,
29:58and the buyer might decide to cut a bit more off it.
30:01There'd be four or five grand in that.
30:04I reckon with the colour in that,
30:07I'll bag that up and take it in and see where we can go for it.
30:10Sam and Pete have two cut stones.
30:13The first is Crystal Opal,
30:16predominantly blue-green with flashes of red and yellow,
30:19weighing 10.5 carats or 2.1 grams.
30:23They hope to sell it for at least $5,000.
30:26The second stone is a Black Opal
30:29with green and blue patterning called Chinese Writing.
30:32It weighs only 1 carat, 0.2 of a gram,
30:35with a potential value of $500.
30:38We'll go and get some cash for this opal, eh?
30:41That'll be good.
30:45Mary's entrusted me
30:48with our entire opal find
30:51to go into town and meet a lady called Linda
30:54who knows a thing or two about White Cliffs Opal
30:57and definitely a thing or two about how to cut it.
31:00Money's drying up quicker than it's coming in at the minute,
31:03so it's up to me to try and cut something good enough
31:06to make some from today.
31:09We've found a little bit.
31:13With 10 years' experience,
31:16Linda George has offered to guide rookie Carl
31:19in the art of cutting opal.
31:22I was quite nervous. We only had one really good stone.
31:25I think this is the one to start with.
31:28That's my favourite piece as well.
31:31One mistake and I could wipe out our best stone in the parcel.
31:34What I want you to do is just hold it very gently
31:37against the wheel there and move it around.
31:40Put it on there flat
31:43and move it around like that.
31:46We're just removing that surface, the clay and the staining
31:49so that we can see what the colour is underneath.
31:52Keep moving it.
31:55Always moving, moving.
31:58Keep checking. Don't want to go too far.
32:01Go too hard in the beginning and then you've lost it.
32:04We've got a lot of digging to find there,
32:07but we don't want to lose it.
32:13Let's have a look at that one. I think we've probably almost done it.
32:16With the clay and staining removed,
32:19it's time for evaluation.
32:22It's blue-green. There's a little bit of yellow in there.
32:25It's what we call sheeny.
32:28Sheeny isn't worth as much, but it is pretty,
32:31so I'm going to say $200 a carat.
32:34And it's 5.45.
32:37And my estimation is that it's worth about $200 a carat,
32:40which brings it to $1,090.
32:43Wow, that much? Yes, that's quite a valuable stone.
32:46That is. It's a very good first find.
32:51How are you doing, love? Hello, hello, hello.
32:54We've got something to show you. Have we?
32:57Yeah, have a look at this.
33:00What do you think? Did that really come out of that?
33:03What we found? Yeah, that came out of our mine.
33:06Wow! That is a really nice ring stone, isn't it?
33:09It's a beautiful ring stone, yeah.
33:12Mary will now have to call on her expertise as a jeweller
33:15to turn the opal into something they can sell.
33:18So the first step of the process is to make the bezel
33:21to go around the opal.
33:24This is one of my favourite parts.
33:27I'm going to form the bezel around the stone.
33:30I like this part because it's kind of different with each opal,
33:34especially because I like to use free-form opals.
33:37You're really just reading the stone and reading the metal
33:40and just trying to obviously make them marry up
33:43so they sit as closely together as possible.
33:48When you're wearing it, you know, knocking your hands,
33:51if it's a ring especially,
33:54bezels are just nice and smooth and comfortable to wear as well.
34:01Carly, are you there?
34:06Hi, look, how are you getting on?
34:09Yeah, I've finished. Do you want to come up and have a look?
34:12OK, I'm on my way up. Bye.
34:14I'm really pleased with it.
34:16It's always a bit nerve-wracking seeing what he thinks of it,
34:19but I don't think he's realised that it turned out so well,
34:22so I'm excited to show him, yeah.
34:25Hey, how did you get on with it?
34:29What do you think?
34:31Oh, wow, that is gorgeous.
34:34Do you like it? Yeah, I really like it. Are you pleased?
34:37Yeah, yeah, I am actually. It's stunning, Mary.
34:40Mary's ring features a crystal opal, blue-green in colour.
34:44It weighs 5.45 carats.
34:47Set in silver, it has an estimated value of $1,400,
34:51bringing their season total to $7,900.
34:55It's a really special gemstone
34:57and it's the first staple that we've found
34:59since we were mining here in Whitecliffe.
35:01It's really spurred us on to keep going
35:03and believe in ourselves and know that we can do it.
35:05More than the money, just the boost to morale
35:07is absolutely priceless for us
35:09because now I just want to get down there more than ever
35:11and find the rest of the stuff.
35:20I'd really like to see some money.
35:22That'd just be great to keep everything ticking along.
35:26Yeah, come in. Paul.
35:28How you going?
35:29In Lightning Ridge, Sam and Pete are meeting prominent buyer Paul Sedawi.
35:34They're hoping to get $5,500 for their two stones.
35:39He doesn't undersell his opal.
35:41He knows how hard it is,
35:42so you can't knock someone from being a bit over the top.
35:45He pushes it to the limit.
35:47That's the kingstone there.
35:49There's 10.5 carats in that. Yeah.
35:53The stone's got to sell itself.
35:55I can't really sell it.
35:56It's got to stand on its own merits, you know.
35:59A couple of little bit of sand spots in the middle there,
36:02but it's not too bad.
36:04Basically, what sort of money do you have on it?
36:06Well, I reckon 1,000 a carat, Paul.
36:11It's a nice stone. It's a pretty stone,
36:13but I think it may be a little bit too high for me,
36:17like be interested probably 600 a carat.
36:20600 a carat. Yeah, yeah.
36:23So we're talking, you know, 6,000,
36:26a little slightly better than 6,000.
36:29And what do you have on this other one?
36:31Well, this is a unique little stone,
36:33a bit of Chinese writing in the corner.
36:35Yeah.
36:38And I reckon that's worth a cool $1,000.
36:43Yeah, it's unfortunately got a little chip on the bottom of it,
36:46so it's not actually going to cut a carat stone.
36:49I'd probably go 550.
36:51550. So those two together, 7,000?
36:56Oh, it might be a bit too high. I'd go 65.
36:59I think 65 would pull me up. Yeah, yeah.
37:04Yeah, it's a fair offer.
37:12Oh, well, I reckon we can do business at that.
37:15OK, cool. OK. Oh, that's good. Done.
37:17Perfect. Thanks, Paul. Good on you.
37:19Happy days.
37:20It's a good result.
37:22$6,500 brings Pete and Sam's season total to $24,000.
37:29Yeah, I was really impressed with the bigger stone.
37:31It's a rich crystal.
37:33You see all this colour jumping out, it's dazzling,
37:35and it's just like a trick of nature to delight us.
37:39Oh, happy. Happy enough. Yeah, that's fine.
37:41I mean, you've got to come in a bit high anyway,
37:44and they usually knock you back a bit,
37:46but keep us going a bit longer.
37:49Yeah, pretty happy with that.
37:51It's money in our pocket.
37:53It's good for me, lets me keep on moving forward
37:55when we're actually making a bit of money,
37:57not just covering costs.
37:59So, yeah, a bit on the side, it's nice.
38:11You've got to remember how much dirt's above us, you know?
38:14And the more dirt you take out,
38:16the more weight's coming down on top of you.
38:18At the maize mine, the Bushman's heavyweight jackhammers
38:21are removing more rock from the pillars holding up the roof.
38:25This stuff's extremely hard.
38:27The opal's nowhere near as hard as it,
38:30so the weakest point is the opal,
38:33so it tends to fracture.
38:36Rod and Les need to be careful,
38:39removing one shard of rock at a time.
38:43A single wrong move could destroy the opal
38:47or bury them both under thousands of tonnes of rock.
38:59Some nice bloody stuff starting to appear here, Les.
39:02Oh, yeah.
39:04You got a little bit?
39:06Oh, Les, come here.
39:08Oh, well, that looks good, mate.
39:10Look at this.
39:12Ooh, that's even better.
39:14That's bloody beautiful, Les.
39:16That is. That's a nice piece of bloody rock.
39:18I've still got a bit of colour up there.
39:21Yeah, it's in the roof, Les. Get into the roof, mate.
39:23I'm getting there. I'm getting there.
39:25That's where it's at.
39:30Holy, Les!
39:33Holy...man.
39:35Look at it.
39:38Ha-ha-ha!
39:40Ho-ho!
39:42A couple of bob, bob, bob there.
39:44That's nice.
39:46We've still got the old bloody mother luck on our shoulder, mate.
39:49There it is.
39:51Oh-ho-ho-ho!
39:53It's the end of that other piece, mate.
39:55Jeez, look at the colour in that, Les.
39:59Ooh, that's nice.
40:01We're getting a nice little parcel here, Les.
40:03That's friggin' beautiful.
40:05This is the best opal we've found in a while, actually.
40:07That's the stuff dreams are made of, you know.
40:09Ho-ho, we might be in for a few dollars, Les.
40:14The Bushmen have found high-quality black opal.
40:17Blue-green with flashes of yellow and red.
40:20They have 14 grams
40:22and are hoping it's worth $3,000 to $4,000.
40:28Well, we're in the big smoke now.
40:30Yeah, head to town.
40:32To find out how much their parcel is worth,
40:35Rod, Les and Amanda travel 70km to Lightning Ridge
40:39to visit the Miners' Association Evaluation Service.
40:43Let's see what the verdict's going to be on this, eh?
40:46Oh, no. Yes, hope it's a good one.
40:49I guess the reason why we're bringing it in
40:51is that we've found a bit of opal recently,
40:53but before that, it's been quite a long time,
40:55so we're a bit out of touch with what the prices are.
40:58Oi, put more in there.
41:00All these good ones will go in there, yeah.
41:03It's in our interest, I guess,
41:05to make sure that we're asking enough money for it.
41:09Ah, we'll chuck that filler in for good luck, eh?
41:12If we get three or four grand out of it,
41:14we've paid for pegging the claim,
41:16we've paid for the repairs,
41:18and we've got a little bit left for diesel, so we're in front.
41:21Money's also needed for Amanda to visit their pregnant daughter,
41:25700km away on the coast.
41:28If I told Amanda that we couldn't go,
41:30she's going to be terribly disappointed,
41:32and I don't want to disappoint her, you know?
41:36The Miners' Association is an impartial, voluntary panel of experts,
41:41open just two hours a week, giving free valuations on opal.
41:46Yeah, well, what they're doing in there is looking at our stones.
41:49They're trying to put the same price on them
41:51that a buyer would put on them.
41:53It's pretty bright.
41:55Got a pattern in there.
41:57Goldy green.
42:00Yeah, you sort of are a little bit nervous, actually.
42:03If we're saying it's worth three grand,
42:05and they come back and say,
42:07fellas, it's worth 500 bucks,
42:09that's a bit of a kick in the arse, isn't it?
42:11This has got sand right across there, inside of it.
42:14Yeah, this side, yeah.
42:16Too thin anyway.
42:18Number one, that's us.
42:20That's us, yeah.
42:26And this parcel here?
42:28Yeah.
42:312,500, right?
42:34That's a very good price.
42:36Plus on this one, 350.
42:39That's three grand.
42:41That's enough, yeah.
42:43Maybe three and a half, yeah?
42:45Because you always want to knock it down a little bit.
42:47Oh, of course. You've got to let them knock you down a little bit, don't you?
42:50I appreciate that, mate. Thank you very much, and we'll see you.
42:53Hopefully we'll see you soon.
42:55With their valuation of $3,000,
42:58the Bushmen have a total of $50,500,
43:02putting their season target within reach.
43:05Yeah, I reckon the valuation that they've done at the LRMA there,
43:08I reckon it was, yeah, really good.
43:11So we're still on the ball with our pricing
43:14of what we want for the opal we sell.
43:16I'm as happy as a pig at the moment.
43:19Our season this year is a bloody ripper, you know?
43:21We're real close to our target,
43:23and things are looking fantastic for the end of season,
43:26for us getting away to see the kids.
43:30What?
43:31For the baby.
43:32Oh, yeah, good. That's great.
43:34Oh, beautiful. Yeah.
43:37That don't mean we're slowing down,
43:39but we've got to keep on hammering, you know,
43:41because we've got to catch up on 18 months of no pay.
43:51Yeah.