Opal Hunters S05 E03

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

Season 5 has 8 episodes.

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Transcript
00:00On Outback Opal Hunters...
00:02It's a very steep slope. He's going down at the moment,
00:04so it's a little bit nail-biting.
00:06..rookie miners, the Young Guns,
00:08kick off their season with a new machine...
00:10Push it in, push it in, push it in.
00:12..that could be too powerful for their old mine.
00:16Could make the whole roof come down on you.
00:18And that's death.
00:21Urgh!
00:22..the Blacklighters are plagued by mechanical problems...
00:25No, we're smoking it out!
00:27..as their Opal Bonanza runs dry.
00:29Urgh!
00:30No, that's disgusting, Mark.
00:32..and the Cheels are forced to modify their digger on the run...
00:36Go up!
00:38Go up!
00:39..to hunt for opal beneath their feet.
00:42How's that for a start? Straight up. Straight up.
00:45Straight up.
01:08I feel like digging, digging.
01:10Oh, ****.
01:11I got a new digger and I want to dig.
01:13Digging.
01:14At a buzzer!
01:20I'd like a minimum of 50 grand just for me.
01:22Yeah, minimum of 50 grand for the day.
01:24Like profit sitting in the bank.
01:26I'd probably like even more than that.
01:29We've already spent 12 Gs on a machine.
01:32I reckon that's put us in the minus.
01:35All our money on a digger.
01:37We're going to have to pull out a lot more opal than last year.
01:41Rookie team, the Young Guns,
01:43are starting the new season investing all they have
01:46on this $12,000 second-hand hydraulic digger.
01:50We've spent our entire budget on buying a machine.
01:53If it doesn't pay off, we'll be in trouble,
01:55but I've got high hopes for it. I know the boys are really excited.
02:00I think we've got about $600 in the bank.
02:03We still need to pay for diesel to get all the way back out to White Cliffs
02:07and we need to get food for ourselves,
02:09so we're at the bottom of the barrel again.
02:13We've got 700 Ks to get from Lightning Ridge back to White Cliffs
02:16with the machine intact. If we can do that, put it to work.
02:24Full on.
02:26Our first season was all about learning.
02:28That looks like death.
02:30Holy moly!
02:33All about actually giving it a crack
02:35and going out to the opal fields.
02:38Last season, the Young Guns had little more than jackpicks and big dreams.
02:43Jesus!
02:44Look at that!
02:45I think me and the boys are pretty much all on the same page
02:48when it comes to going bigger and better.
02:53The dreams for the Young Guns this season
02:55would be to set up a really efficient mine.
02:58It's going to cost another $50,000 to $60,000
03:01for the rest of the gear that we need,
03:03which is going to be tip truck, super tipper hoist,
03:06another loader would be ideal, and then a generator as well.
03:11We have been looking into the possibility
03:13of finding someone to help bankroll us.
03:16So season targets, the big 100 K, six figures for the boys.
03:20Jamin grew up hunting opal
03:22in Australia's oldest opal field, White Cliffs,
03:27learning the ropes from father Graeme Doughton
03:31and grandfather Ron.
03:34Every time we make a change and get new gear,
03:37we still need help in the initial stages.
03:40It's just a matter of getting used to it.
03:42It's just a matter of getting used to it.
03:44It's just a matter of getting used to it.
03:46Every time we make a change and get new gear,
03:48we still need help in the initial stages
03:51just to be able to learn how to operate it,
03:53be able to learn how to fix it.
03:55Whoo! Look at that move.
03:57Hey, look at it go.
03:59This is like a very dangerous sort of machine to operate.
04:04Very easy to tip over and obviously very heavy, you know,
04:08so it's going to cause pretty serious injury
04:11if it falls on anybody,
04:12so it's always best to stand behind the operator.
04:16The hydraulic digger is a big step up from hand tools
04:20but will increase their digging capacity ten times.
04:24It's operated using a system of levers.
04:27A ram secures it to the mine roof
04:30while its steel teeth work the face.
04:33You're doing good, JC.
04:35Just take your time, nice and steady.
04:38Unpredictable and unbalanced,
04:40the young guns have never operated one before.
04:43There's a very steep slope he's going down at the moment,
04:45so it's a little bit nail-biting.
04:48I was really, really excited to get on the digger
04:51and to actually learn how to use it,
04:53but after jumping on it,
04:55I realised I'd kind of taken on a bit of a mission.
04:59Having this massive bit of machinery
05:01that could fall any which way,
05:04that was scary, that was very, very scary.
05:08Almost down there, JC.
05:10I'm more worried about the next bit,
05:12around that corner in there.
05:16The young guns' 50-by-50-metre claim,
05:20known as World's End,
05:22has been mined heavily for over 100 years.
05:26Multiple levels of diggings,
05:28some above them, make the ground highly unstable.
05:33We're going to start pinning this into the roof
05:35and this is now going to tell us, you know,
05:37how good a roof you've got.
05:39You've got to be really super careful
05:41that you don't push this up
05:43and loosen the ground above you
05:45into workings above you, you know.
05:47It's going to come down on top of you.
05:49The digger, I didn't know if I'd bit off more than I could chew.
05:52And I will be honest, there were a couple of times
05:54that I full froze up on those controls.
05:56I didn't want anyone to see how frightened I was.
05:59We're listening for a bit of sponginess
06:01and we're watching for movement, you know.
06:04First sign of movement, that's it, you're out.
06:08Oh, wow.
06:10And there we go.
06:12That roof just moved.
06:14Ooh.
06:18We've got a bit of a problem.
06:19I think you're going to have to get the machine out of here
06:22and maybe dig somewhere else.
06:24****
06:38What's happening there?
06:40It's just got stuck, man.
06:43If you look in here, pal,
06:45there's a crack in the side of the bin.
06:49Coober Pedy newcomers, the Blacklighters,
06:52are three weeks into mining their new mega claim.
06:56The bin's just pouring straight down on the rollers.
06:58It's not actually going onto the belt.
07:00And all these rocks here are making their way under it.
07:05A build-up of dirt is stretching an integral $3,000 belt
07:09that feeds their 10-tonne Opel processor, Opel Zilla.
07:13I want to keep digging, but, yeah, we've really got to fix this.
07:17If we tear this belt...
07:23That's a three-inch gap, dude.
07:25The side walls came off
07:27and it's allowing too much of the finer dirt to go in behind it
07:33and that's what seems to be blocking up the wheel at the back there.
07:41Opel Zilla is the heart of the Blacklighters' operation.
07:45It takes previously mined rock and tumbles it to remove loose dirt.
07:50Then, in the darkroom,
07:52missed Opel is spotted and collected in a technique called noodling.
07:57In the darkroom, we've got ultraviolet lights
08:00and it makes the Opel really glow and stand out.
08:05If Opel Zilla has a serious breakdown, it's all hands on deck.
08:10Everyone gets involved and we've just got to get it running.
08:16Grind a bit of metal away to bare so that the weld will stick.
08:20Stitch-weld it all the way along and hopefully it will last us.
08:24So much rust.
08:27Once we get this finished,
08:29I hope we can get on to some Opel and end up having a decent week.
08:34Mark Ianson, Paul Coon and John Nasser
08:38have been forced to find a new place to live and work with their families
08:42after their former home, the Opel town of Minterby, closed down.
08:47Wow.
08:49That's about $116,200 in rust.
08:54Oh!
08:57Yes! Yes!
08:59Their first week on new ground in Coober Pedy was a surprise success.
09:04Whoo!
09:06We had a really good week last week but we've got to back it up
09:09because we've got some plans there
09:12that are going to take a fair bit of fuel and money in that.
09:15We need 250 grand, really, for the season to be a success.
09:20Mark and his crew have pegged four adjoining claims,
09:24totalling 80,000 square metres.
09:29There was a lot of Opel found here
09:31just sitting basically not far from the surface,
09:35so it doesn't look like the old miners have gone looking for it deeper,
09:40so it's sort of given us an opportunity
09:43to maybe hit something quite decent down there, it'd be good.
09:47Encouraged by their big find,
09:49their plan now is to noodle the rest of the pre-mined dirt
09:53sitting over much of their claims
09:55before launching into an expensive open-cut dig
09:59of the virgin ground beneath.
10:02The main game of Opel mining is to hit it big.
10:07The noodling allows you to get the money
10:10to have a chance to try and hit it big.
10:14Yeah, there's literally nothing really left to weld to here.
10:18This plate here is getting pretty thin,
10:20and this 5mm plate here, you've got to put so much heat into it
10:23to try and transfer onto the thin plate.
10:26Yeah, it's a bit of a nightmare.
10:28Eight years ago, Mark built Opel Zilla
10:31using scrap parts from two derelict machines.
10:36Some of its components are now 30 years old.
10:41It is hard because one thing after another after another
10:45just seemed to keep going wrong.
10:54So we'll sand all this down, that and that.
10:58This is what we call a roof ram.
11:00Oil goes in, it pushes the piston out and locks into the roof.
11:06You've got one either side of the digger.
11:08If you're going to put pressure on the face
11:10and you've got no way of locking it in,
11:12the digger will just come back and squash you.
11:14So this is just a repair job.
11:16The hose is leaking, and we just fixed it
11:19and we're just putting it back together.
11:21Oscar can stay up the top here, and we'll lower this down with a crane.
11:24Rory and I will fit it back into place,
11:26put the pin in, and hopefully we can get digging.
11:32One month into an ambitious mining season,
11:35Chris Cheal is scaling up operations with his sons,
11:3920-year-old Rory and 18-year-old Oscar.
11:43So Rory and I were both in Sydney at university,
11:46but Dad said there's a good shot here at this claim,
11:49so we've decided to put our uni online,
11:51come out here and give him a hand.
11:53Dad hasn't had a big sale over the last few months,
11:56so hopefully we can get in and get him a bit of money.
11:59Take your light away.
12:02Whoa!
12:04I've just got to get this other lock pin in.
12:07All he needs to do, he only needs to go up probably a centimetre.
12:11Just jump in just a bit.
12:13Up now.
12:17Up, Oscar!
12:19Go up!
12:21Go up.
12:23Tell him to take it up.
12:25Take it up.
12:27Just go up!
12:29Go up!
12:41Chris's plan this season is to go big.
12:45He's staked a giant 22-claim lease
12:48covering 55,000 square metres
12:51with mining partner Scott Macmillan.
12:53Look at that beautiful, beautiful orange.
12:56Or black.
12:58To reach his season target of $75,000,
13:02Chris has come up with a radical idea
13:05to dig out the entire floor of their mine,
13:08which they believe holds opal.
13:11Well, the plan is to take the floor out.
13:13Yep.
13:14Hopefully, at the end of it, we've got some gems to come out.
13:16Nice payday.
13:17Yeah.
13:18Fingers crossed.
13:20Opal mining's a gamble because you're paying the costs
13:23and you might not get nothing,
13:25so we tend to think that the chances of it making in the floor over there
13:30are pretty high, so we've hedged our bets
13:32and we're going to have a look.
13:36Good kid.
13:38The stakes are high, obviously.
13:40I want to get it headed in life
13:42and the kids to not, you know, go without.
13:45Got it?
13:47Yeah, it's in.
13:48If it pays off, you change your life in one day.
13:51That's why we all do it.
13:53Righto.
13:54Quick, we've got it in.
13:56OK, stand back.
14:00Before it can dig,
14:02Chris's machine needs to brace itself
14:04between the roof and the floor
14:06with its hydraulic rams.
14:08I don't know whether she's going to be able to grab.
14:11Scotto, she mightn't reach.
14:14The mine has been worked by multiple teams over 20 years...
14:18Not going to do it.
14:19..creating a high 3.5-metre ceiling.
14:22Not tall enough?
14:23Nah.
14:25Oh, my God.
14:26No idea.
14:27But the rams only extend to 3 metres.
14:31If you can't lock it into the roof and the floor,
14:33you can't dig any dirt.
14:36What are we going to do?
14:41We have to make something.
14:53You really want to...
14:55You don't want to hear a hollow, a dull hollow sound.
15:01Yeah, no, I'm not liking that.
15:03Over there, yeah.
15:04The number one issue is the roof is spongy
15:08and every time I've pinned the digger to the roof,
15:10it's pushed up, which, you know,
15:12could make the whole roof come down on you.
15:14And that's death, so don't want that.
15:17That's really bad.
15:18Yeah.
15:19Well, where are we going to dig?
15:21This is ridiculous.
15:22The Young Guns have gambled all their savings on a digger
15:26that's struggling to find solid ground in their old, unstable mine.
15:32This pin pins to the roof and it holds.
15:35We can keep digging and if it doesn't
15:38and it pushes up into the roof,
15:40we're going to shut the whole mine down.
15:42We're just kind of seeing our hopes just crushed.
15:46We need to be making money.
15:48We need to find some opal.
15:50It's actually quite a danger
15:52and especially with a machine like this
15:54that pushes on it and flexes it,
15:56that could actually crack it enough
15:58to actually just bring a whole room full of dirt
16:00down on top of yourself, you know,
16:02so it happens that quick.
16:03I'm pretty anxious about the whole thing.
16:05If we can't find a good place to pin this mine and to move forward,
16:08then, I mean, we're pretty much screwed.
16:10After a century of digging on this claim,
16:12little productive ground is left.
16:15Their best chance for opal...
16:17This is the moment of truth.
16:18..lies in one of the most dangerous sections.
16:21Push it in, push it, push it, push it, push it.
16:24Push it.
16:26Solid ground.
16:28Is that solid?
16:30Solid as.
16:31All right.
16:32Well, here we go.
16:34Solid ground.
16:36All right.
16:39This is it.
16:40This is our first proper wall gouge.
16:43Oh, look at that crushing!
16:45Oh, my God.
16:46Oh, yes!
16:48Finally, you're digging, you guys.
16:50Oh, look at that!
16:52That's so satisfying.
16:53Tear into it, JC.
16:59Good luck.
17:00See you later.
17:01See you later.
17:03Now it's time to find some opal.
17:07Yeah!
17:08Yes!
17:09That is so satisfying.
17:11Can you see it peel back?
17:12Nice, clean face.
17:13If we see opal, it's going to be a lot easier to spot
17:16than half-buried wall with a jackhammer.
17:19The boys are chasing white seam opal
17:22worth up to $7,500 a gram.
17:26We're really at the bottom of the barrel.
17:28We've got not even 50 bucks left now.
17:31Definitely in a tight place.
17:32We need to find opal as soon as possible
17:34to keep us in the game.
17:36If not, then, you know, we're going to run out of diesel.
17:47We're building some extensions because we've run out of reach.
17:54Keep flipping it round, do the edges and that.
17:58Chris Cheal and sons Rory and Oscar
18:01are rushing to modify the roof ramps
18:03on their hydraulic digger.
18:05Have it cutting, not too much.
18:07It's unreal, really, to learn off him.
18:10He's just so good at it.
18:13It's unreal, really, to learn off him.
18:15He's just like a walking textbook when it comes to building stuff.
18:18I've had to make extensions up
18:20so that I can actually lock the digger in
18:22and get the force on the face you need to dig the dirt out.
18:27The teeth will go up into the roof and lock it in.
18:30The digger is critical to searching for rare black opal
18:34on the Mega Claim.
18:36But building the one-metre extensions
18:38has cost the Cheals a day's work.
18:41Now...
18:48You got it.
18:52That's it. Good to go.
18:53Well done.
18:54Time to get some digging done.
18:56Hopefully.
18:57Right-o.
19:00See how we go, eh?
19:02How goes that?
19:03Perfect, mate.
19:04Good.
19:05Pretty good start, all right, eh?
19:07Finally, Chris can test his theory
19:09that there's money to be made in the flaw of the mine.
19:12When we started here, we intersected old workings,
19:15got opal, a little bit of trace down deep.
19:18If we dig through here and there's opal in it,
19:21then we've sort of proven that there's money to be made
19:24in the flaw of the mine.
19:26It's a good start.
19:28If we dig through here and there's opal in it,
19:30then we've sort of proven that there's another level.
19:46Oi, oi, oi!
19:47Go away.
19:50Oh, a bit of colour.
19:51That was up for a start.
19:52Straight up's got to...
19:53Straight up.
19:56That's not bad.
19:57Green seam.
19:59Good start.
20:00First little scratch.
20:02Bloody Hawkeye Oscar straight onto it.
20:04Jeez.
20:05A bit above that is where I got a nice stone a fair few years ago.
20:09Yeah, right, eh?
20:10So that's a pretty good sign.
20:16The ground the Cheels are working is famed for knobbies,
20:20small stones of concentrated opal silica
20:24buried within hardened clay or sandstone.
20:30I'm not seeing any,
20:32but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be either.
20:37That's why we wash it, you know.
20:39You get a little stone like that worth a lot of money
20:42and it can be in a big clod, so that's why we wash it.
20:46Their wash plant, or agitator, is a kilometre from the mine.
20:51Built from a 20-year-old cement mixer,
20:54it's the quickest way of washing the dirt.
21:00Nothing.
21:02Excuse me.
21:07Scott's had a bit of trouble with the starter motor,
21:09so, you know, we've got two full trucks,
21:12so we've just got to get this going.
21:14Time is money, you know.
21:16Time is money, you know.
21:18Not ideal for us because, you know, it's costing money.
21:22No idea.
21:24You got me buggered.
21:37I just got out the hopper bin and, yeah,
21:39we had to weld up the big plate on the side that came off
21:42and, yeah, hopefully that'll hold
21:44so we can get some dirt through.
21:47We'll see how it goes from there.
21:49We'll just spin the belt at the back for a little bit
21:52just to straighten it up.
21:55Well, here goes the first bucket up in Opalzilla after the fix.
22:00For the Blacklighters,
22:02it's now been a 10-day dry spell without any Opal,
22:06while costs keep mounting.
22:08Because we've got family and that,
22:10we can't afford to mess up, you know.
22:13Just living expenses for everyone, fuel.
22:16It runs into thousands.
22:19The last thing we need is this lot to work.
22:26That is good.
22:27That belt's come right back across beautifully.
22:30Still a bit of dirt in there, but that'll work its way out.
22:34Wow.
22:35Belt's working fine, guys.
22:37Well done, Paul.
22:38Awesome welding job.
22:41In the darkroom,
22:43the conveyor is moving at one metre per second.
22:47Any stone that glows under the ultraviolet black lights
22:51could contain valuable Opal.
22:53When you're not finding much and you're spending the hours in here,
22:57it does sort of get you down a bit,
22:59but not every day's going to be a good day.
23:07Yeah, we've got a little bit of an issue here.
23:09The shaker's not keeping up with the rocks coming through.
23:12You have to turn the trommel off and just let it all come through.
23:16Yeah, that's an issue.
23:18Turn the trommel off again.
23:20The trommel sieves away excess dust from the Opal-bearing rock
23:25before the shaker feeds a steady stream of tumbled stones
23:28into the all-important darkroom.
23:31The shaker's not keeping up.
23:33It's overflowing.
23:35Is the belt spinning enough?
23:37See what we can pick up.
23:39I'll work it up. I'll see what's around and what we can do.
23:43Yeah, breakdowns cause a lot of pressure.
23:46Another couple of thousand dollars here, there.
23:48It can go just so fast.
23:50Just trying to process rocks, and rocks just wreck everything.
23:54The overflowing shaker is powered by an electric motor
23:58attached with a pulley belt to a deliberately unbalanced spindle
24:02to create a shaking motion.
24:05The belt seems a bit loose to me,
24:07so we might give her a stop and see if we've got a smaller belt
24:12and see if I can speed it up a bit.
24:15Shut it down!
24:17Oh!
24:21That belt was too loose to start with, eh?
24:24Shit.
24:26Shit.
24:34Too tight.
24:38Shaker? Yep.
24:41It's not going on, Don.
24:43Put the shaker on. Shaker.
24:47No, we're smoking it out.
24:49Righto, Wolf.
24:52Is that right? Yep, she's blocking it.
24:54Right.
25:1040 kilometres from Lightning Ridge,
25:13Chris Cheal and mining partner Scott McMillan
25:16are struggling to fix the starter motor on their home-made wash plant.
25:21I just want to feel if this solenoid's clicking.
25:24If it's not clicking, then it's not working.
25:28Nothing.
25:32Their old tractor motor's probably about 80 years old.
25:35Most of the gear on it's original.
25:37As soon as we can get this to fire, the better.
25:43Without the wash plant working,
25:45they can't separate the opal from the mined dirt.
25:49There's no use if you're digging opal.
25:51You need to be washing it to be able to keep digging it.
25:54And the more dirt you move, the better.
25:56So hopefully it won't hold us up too long.
25:59There's no power to get down the starter motor,
26:01so we're going to try... We've got one more solenoid,
26:03which we're going to try now.
26:05Chris is going to grab it.
26:07So hopefully the new one will work.
26:10The solenoid allows a large electrical current
26:13to flow from the battery to the starter motor.
26:16The starter motor will hopefully turn over the engine
26:20and away we go.
26:27There we are.
26:32The team can finally start the 12-hour washing process.
26:38We've lost time, so, you know, we are behind where we want to be.
26:47We'll head back down there now and finish off that other truck.
26:51While the Chills get back to mining,
26:53Scott will keep watch on the problematic agitator.
26:57We'll just keep knocking dirt out and he can keep washing
27:00and hopefully, just hoping we start to see something.
27:08We'd like to get another set of gear going.
27:11I can have both the boys digging and washing
27:15and the three of us keep the two sets of gear going
27:18and, you know, two irons in the fire, double our chances up.
27:23All these things take time and money
27:25and at the moment, you know, we're getting by
27:29and, yeah, we just sort of need a big find if we can get one.
27:36Sometimes it's hard to keep in a good frame of mind
27:39when, you know, you're not sort of seeing anything.
27:42That's my biggest worry is
27:44you just actually haven't really seen anything
27:47except right at the start.
27:58Yeah, she's too tight, needs a looser belt.
28:01In the desert country of South Australia,
28:04the Blacklighters are trying to fix a faulty pulley belt
28:07on Opal Zilla's shaker.
28:09I'll see if this will fit on, eh?
28:12Yeah.
28:17Turn the shaker on, John.
28:19Ready?
28:20Yep.
28:27That seems good.
28:29Keep that going, just turn the belts on, John.
28:31Go.
28:43Back in business. Guilty.
28:48Delays always create pressure amongst everyone.
28:51You know, no-one likes to not be making money.
28:55We need to get a few more bucks under our belt, that'd be good.
28:58We can get a heap more fuel. You've got to go use it.
29:01Whether you find something or not, you've got to pay for it,
29:04so it is a gamble.
29:07Fingers crossed we might have some colour in the bucket
29:11and make the last few days seem a little bit brighter.
29:14Opal Zilla can process 50 tonnes of dirt an hour.
29:18It's up to Mark in the loader to feed it.
29:21When are you going to put some stuff through so we can pick it up?
29:25It's hard to find stuff when there's not even rocks coming through.
29:28Well, maybe you should open your eyes.
29:30I'm pretty sure there's rocks coming through you donkeys.
29:33Um, no, we've got a bit of gravel.
29:36All I've heard is just complaints over the radio, so...
29:40So how are yous going in there, you getting any?
29:45I've found a couple of bits of pot.
29:47The best bit of the day we've got so far, I've found it just walking around.
29:51Right. It's just a lot of topsoil building up on the right-hand side,
29:55just shitloads of it, and that's all we're going through, it seems like.
29:58You need to lift your game, mate.
30:00Yeah, well, I'm trying to lift my game. I'm bloody trying.
30:10SIREN WAILS
30:18We got absolute nothing. Rubbish.
30:26I'm feeling a bit pissed off at the moment.
30:28I can't seem to find any materials.
30:30Yeah, no, there's not much to write home about in there.
30:33No. There's a bit of a shine there.
30:37Something, I guess. A bit cracky.
30:41No, that's disgusting, mate. It's a bit disappointing.
30:44I don't know. I really don't know what to do, eh?
30:47Just got to hope that we've got enough in there to get a few bucks for this week.
31:07Just this bit just slows it back down a little bit,
31:11and it kind of makes us realise
31:14that one bit of machinery doesn't solve everything.
31:17We might need a few more machines to pick the operation up.
31:23After overcoming unstable ground,
31:26the young guns have hit another problem with their new digger.
31:30How to clear away its waste dirt.
31:33We really need some gear to start shifting dirt,
31:36so that's what we're hoping for with an investor or partner.
31:39At the moment, we've just got feelers out.
31:42To set up the mine we'd really like, if we had everything off our wish list,
31:46we'd be looking at probably 50 to 60 grand.
31:50Hopefully, you know, something will come through.
31:53Whoa! Is that colour?
31:56What do you mean? What? Is that colour?
31:58Where? Yeah.
32:00That's colour, baby!
32:02Oh, look at it.
32:04Is that real?
32:06I don't even believe it.
32:08Can you see it? There's a little bit of a seam running through there.
32:11Oh, she's still running, baby. She's still running.
32:14Freaking hell, that is thick.
32:17That's colour.
32:19Look how big it is.
32:21Look at that.
32:23Crystal.
32:25Oh, my God.
32:27Do you want me to lick it?
32:29Whoo!
32:31Yes!
32:33Look at that.
32:35See what we got.
32:37Yeah, I'm keen, man.
32:39Here we go.
32:41All right, boys, you ready?
32:48Whoo!
32:52I think we've got some colour in there.
32:55Look at that colour.
32:57Really good parcel here, boys.
32:5920, 30 grand?
33:01Whoo!
33:03We've got some really nice, big, thick bits in there.
33:05If we can get at least 20 for it, I'd be really happy.
33:07I think this might be our biggest find.
33:09Whoo!
33:12Hey!
33:14Hey, boys!
33:16Whoo!
33:18Finally got some 20.
33:20Found something, mate?
33:22I don't know whether there's any colour in it.
33:24After four fruitless days of digging,
33:26Chris Cheel and sons Rory and Oscar
33:28have finally found the treasure.
33:30We've got it.
33:32We've got it.
33:34We've got it.
33:36We've got it.
33:38We've got it.
33:40Rory and Oscar have finally hit signs of opal.
33:43It's good black potch,
33:45so, yeah, I'm pretty happy
33:47to finally see a bit of...
33:49see a bit of trace, which is good.
33:51Potch is opal silica
33:53with no colour and no value.
33:55Tiny little bit of green in the top there.
33:57It's trying.
33:59But it's often a sign
34:01that gem-quality opal is nearby.
34:03Jeez.
34:05God, why can't there be a colour bar sitting on that?
34:07Jeez.
34:09Potch.
34:11All it takes, one bar to go through.
34:13One of those big black bits of sand.
34:15They're laughing.
34:17Like, it's proved that there's opal down deep.
34:19But the final proof
34:21of valuable opal in their mine's floor
34:23will come at the tail-out.
34:25You know, you don't know what's in it.
34:27It could have already made a lot of money, you know.
34:29You don't know. That's why we've got to wash it
34:31and we'll tail it out. It is easy to miss.
34:33Yeah.
34:37After leaving the wash plant
34:39running overnight,
34:41the Cheels, Scott McMillan
34:43and his daughter Hannah start the tail-out.
34:49Any colour in it?
34:51Not really.
34:53Nah.
34:55No pay yet.
35:03Hey, hey, hey.
35:09Oh.
35:11Scott!
35:17Oh, yeah.
35:19Look at the colour in that.
35:21That'll be worth probably
35:236,000 to 8,000.
35:25It's a real relief, you know, that we've
35:27at least got our fuel money and
35:29we've got enough to buy a bit of food.
35:31A little bit more in there, we might be able to do a couple of repairs.
35:33Oh, yeah, yeah.
35:35Look at this, mate.
35:37Far out.
35:39Finally, a bit more colour.
35:45A bit of red up the side in there.
35:47That's the reason we're opal mining.
35:49Thoughts of that? Bloody oath.
35:51It's bloody good colour, I tell you.
35:53It's nice and bright.
35:55The tail-out has revealed
35:57seam and knobby opal in the
35:59rough, featuring a full spectrum
36:01of colours and weighs
36:0390 grams.
36:05It's a good result. We've got something for our
36:07hard work.
36:09I'm happy. You know, we should get
36:11around 10 grand for that.
36:13It's a really, really solid start.
36:15We've been knocking out pretty big days
36:17out early, back late, but
36:19it's good to get a reward at the end.
36:21Their theory of a deeper
36:23opal level in their mine
36:25one step closer to being
36:27confirmed. While you're getting that sort of material,
36:29you've got to keep looking.
36:31Keep going, we'll dig the rest of that floor out and see how we go.
36:33Made enough
36:35maybe to keep ourselves fuelled up
36:37for the next dig.
36:39That's the most important thing,
36:41because while you're doing that, you're giving yourself
36:43a chance to find that million dollar load.
36:45I'm happy that we're able
36:47to keep going.
36:58Two, cut that sucker.
37:00That one, that one.
37:02After a series of breakdowns,
37:04the Blacklighters' running costs
37:06have hit $6,000
37:08and all they have to show for it
37:10is a handful of stones.
37:12I think these will cut up quite
37:14nice, eh? I'll get over and
37:16start the saw up. Right-o.
37:18Cutting and
37:20polishing opal can triple its
37:22value,
37:24but only if no flaws are
37:26revealed and the stone isn't
37:28damaged by the cutter.
37:30We'll space them up to start with.
37:32Turn these stones into
37:34a nice, polished, finished
37:36piece and value add a bit.
37:38That's the plan.
37:40We put a bit of trust in him to do this.
37:42He's actually quite good at it.
37:44We give it a go, but it's, you know,
37:46he just gets the shapes
37:48and he can just do it from the top of his head,
37:50which, you know, a lot of people
37:52wouldn't be able to do.
37:54I've got a bit of a problem here, so I'm going to have to be careful.
37:56I'll take that off to make a bit of a back,
37:58a nice smooth back for it.
38:04Sometimes you take the wrong way and you wreck the stone,
38:06you know? It gives you a pretty
38:08sour feeling.
38:12Anticipation's killing me.
38:18Those stones come out quite nice.
38:20I think they'll definitely be worth
38:22more now once they're cut than they were
38:24in the rough.
38:26Get them off to Rach and get them sold, eh?
38:28Get a few bucks in. Yeah, they'll be good.
38:30We've got a few stones we've done
38:32today that we've finished.
38:34Mark's wife, Rachel, is the team's
38:36opal seller. Just try and get a bit of fuel
38:38up for next week. It'd be handy if we could.
38:40Yeah, awesome. To move their opal
38:42faster, Rachel has started selling
38:44it online to buyers all
38:46around the world. That's a nice colour there.
38:48High-res photos
38:50of the opal and its details
38:52have been posted online.
38:54For sale are four pieces of
38:56white and crystal opal.
38:58They've been polished and the colours are varied,
39:00including sought-after reds.
39:02The parcel weighs
39:04five grams. I've got a
39:06buyer interested in these.
39:08Ultimately, we would like
39:10$7,000
39:12now. Whether we can get that or not,
39:14we'll see how we go.
39:16Hi, Sinan.
39:18How are you going?
39:20850 kilometres away
39:22in the city of Adelaide is opal
39:24dealer Sinan Kosadag.
39:26Yeah, we've been mining away and we've
39:28got a few good stones here for you that I
39:30think you're really going to like.
39:32Around 25 carats.
39:34We'd really like around
39:3610, 10.5, and
39:38we're hoping, you know...
39:40I need some breathing room with that.
39:42We might be a bit apart,
39:44but I think 5.5
39:46would be about reasonable for what you've
39:48got there. Yeah, that's
39:50really not even going to cover our diesel
39:52costs, so maybe
39:54you could come in at around
39:568.
39:58What about... I'd go to
40:00about 65.
40:02You're really
40:04breaking me there. I don't know if I can
40:06really... Look,
40:08I'm still really not making
40:10a lot on this at all, but
40:12I'll meet you at 7
40:14just because, you know, you're a great
40:16customer and I want to be able to look after you.
40:18Do you think that sounds
40:20fair?
40:22I'll take the 7.7. It would be great.
40:24Awesome. Awesome.
40:26Thank you, Sinan.
40:28Take care.
40:30Hey, boys.
40:32I've got some good news for you.
40:34We just sold that parcel.
40:36And we got 7 grand
40:38for it.
40:40How was that?
40:42Yes.
40:44She's got a buyer, so we'll get some money for those stones
40:46and that'll go straight into fuel and everything
40:48we need. It turned out alright in the
40:50end, but I wouldn't say it was a good
40:52week. If I had to have it again, I'd
40:54skip it.
40:56How's it going, Dick?
40:58I'm good, Jamin. Yourself?
41:00Yeah, good to see you, mate. This is JC and Noah.
41:02Hey, JC. This is probably one of the biggest
41:04parcels we've found so far.
41:06You've done well.
41:08Well, we were bloody cheering, weren't we, boys?
41:10We knew we had something pretty good here.
41:12The Young Guns' start to their ambitious
41:14second season has paid off.
41:16It's been a great year.
41:18It's been a great year.
41:20It's been a great year.
41:22It's been a great year.
41:24Their ambitious second season has paid off
41:26straight away, with what could
41:28possibly be their biggest ever haul
41:30of opal. They've brought their find
41:32to local buyer, Dick Wagner.
41:34We have to sell it. We've got to
41:36make some money. We can't afford to really even
41:38go back down into the mine to keep digging
41:40until we make that sale.
41:42The Young Guns have crystal
41:44seam opal. It's in the rough
41:46and shows a full range of colour,
41:48including highly valued
41:50red and orange hues.
41:52It totals 510
41:54grams.
41:56Initially, we were kind of thinking
41:58about 20 or 30 grand.
42:00Beautiful piece.
42:02You got a price on it?
42:04We just thought, why not? Let's go a little bit higher
42:06with it.
42:08I think me and the boys are coming in and
42:10what we're looking for is going to be about
42:12$37,000 on the lot.
42:14You're a little bit high.
42:16At this
42:18stage, about $30,000 would be
42:20my offer on it.
42:22I don't think we can come as low as $30,000.
42:24Is there any chance you'd be willing to come up
42:26to $35,000? Yeah, the $35,000
42:28mark.
42:30No, not $35,000, but
42:32I'll split the difference with you. $32,500.
42:34$32,500, boys. What do you
42:36think? We put in a lot of hard work to get to it.
42:38It's going to do us really well. Thanks for that, Dick.
42:40No worries, Jamie. No worries, Seeker.
42:42Ooh!
42:44Well,
42:46boys? $32,500!
42:48$32,500!
42:50Yeah!
42:52Hopefully, this is just the beginning.
42:54Hell, yeah. Can't afford to that.
43:00Hold on.
43:02Hello?
43:04Hey, John. How's it going, mate?
43:06You read over it all?
43:08What do you reckon?
43:10You keen?
43:12Yeah?
43:14Nice one, man.
43:16If you're happy to move it forward, we definitely are.
43:18That's exactly what...
43:20No, alright.
43:22Alright, man. Let's make it happen.
43:24I'll talk to you later. Bye.
43:26Boys!
43:28We just got a new vest up!
43:30Really? Yeah.
43:32He's like 100% on board. He wants to make it
43:34happen. Let's do it.
43:36We are bloody on.
43:38Cheers, boys.
43:40That's it, boys.
43:46$32,500
43:48$32,500
43:50$32,500
43:52$32,500
43:54$32,500
43:56$32,500
43:58$32,500
44:00$32,500
44:02$32,500
44:04$32,500
44:06$32,500
44:08$32,500
44:10$32,500
44:12$32,500
44:14$32,500