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00:00At the moment, our season's at a standstill at Fantasy Gully.
00:06We have no water, so I've left Russell to see whether he can rectify our water issues.
00:12But that could be the end of the season there.
00:14So I've decided to come down south 1,500 kilometres where I've got some tenements in the Yalgoo
00:19area.
00:20I know where some good ground is there, and if Russell can't rectify the water, this is
00:24our future.
00:26We need to keep our season alive.
00:31Oh, this is the last thing I want to see.
00:37My flesh is underwater.
00:39Look at all my gear.
00:42This is an absolution model.
00:45The last thing I need.
00:50Looks like I'm back to the drawing board.
00:56Lucky enough to lose all my mats, all my battens underneath.
01:06My trays are in there somewhere.
01:09Well, my only option now is to go work the hard rock.
01:12I've always wanted to work it here, so that's what I'll do.
01:20Well this is plan B.
01:21This is not what a 68-year-old man should be doing.
01:27The last thing I want is half a wall falling on me.
01:32Gee whiz, that wasn't too clever.
01:35There's been big gold found here before.
01:37About 1918, they took out five tonnes of dirt, and they got 300 ounces of gold.
01:42In today's money, that is $1 million.
01:45And it probably took them one afternoon to do it.
01:48So I'm hoping I can find something like that.
01:53Rusty's up another guy, and he's got no water.
01:55So we've got to have a backup plan.
01:57Otherwise, our season is well and truly over.
02:02Rusty, let's start lining her up.
02:04She's running like a dream.
02:06This season, Shane Caligari returned to the gold fields
02:10to help his old mining partner, Russell Nash,
02:13chase down a 30-ounce target at the remote Fantasy Gully lease.
02:19Shane! Shane!
02:21Shut it down!
02:22There's a problem with the water!
02:24We've run out of water.
02:26But with the operation at a standstill...
02:28Without the water, we're beaten. No water, no gold.
02:31Shane has left former plumber Russell to find a new water source
02:35while he searches for potential new ground.
02:39Russell has helped me out a lot over the years.
02:41So if I can find a new resource of gold here on this tenement
02:44and get us back on track, then, well, that's the plan.
02:47Shane has called in geologist Ryan Cahoon
02:50to get them back on the gold.
02:54Shane-o! How you going down there?
02:56How are you, Brydon?
02:58Sure glad to see you.
02:59Let's go and have a look at this fancy gun you've got.
03:04These are the rocks that I have.
03:06These are the rocks that I jackhammered out today.
03:09Awesome. All right.
03:10Let's do a bit of testing on it and see what you've got.
03:12So this is the machine, and it's the best in the business.
03:15It's a portable XRF machine,
03:17and it has the capability to tell us a very quick analysis
03:21of what elements we're finding in the rocks.
03:23Right.
03:24Basically how it works is it sends spectral radiation through the rocks
03:28and it'll pick up on what elements we're seeing in there.
03:30And so hopefully it can pick up on some gold.
03:33All right, so there we go. So that's all done.
03:35So as you can see here, you've got the elements on the left-hand side.
03:38Yeah.
03:39And then PPM, which is parts per million.
03:41That's what the analysis is calculating.
03:43Yeah.
03:44We're looking for, obviously, gold AU,
03:46and then we're looking for tungsten, molybdenum, bismuth.
03:49Those are the sort of pathfinders that you want around a gold system.
03:53During millions of years of seismic activity,
03:56molten minerals from the Earth's core were forced upwards.
04:00When these mineral-rich fluids cooled,
04:02they solidified into deposits of gold, tungsten,
04:05and other pathfinder minerals.
04:09Encouragingly, in this one, I'm actually starting to see some gold already.
04:13Did you say gold?
04:14Yeah.
04:15We're definitely in the ballpark.
04:16Oh, that's good.
04:17OK, Ryan, what do you reckon?
04:19Well, I reckon we need to follow on with what you've already found so far, you know.
04:24So we'll dig a hole down about a metre
04:26and we'll take the readings with the gun, your fancy gun,
04:30crush them up and see what gold we've got in them.
04:32Yeah, 100%.
04:33Right, great. Let's get on with it.
04:35Sounds good.
04:42Righty-o, Ryan, let's get on the gold.
04:44Yeah, let's see it, eh?
04:47Whoa.
04:50I tell you, Ryan, that's it there.
04:52Bit of quartz there, eh?
04:53Yeah.
04:54So he's opening up the structure
04:56and basically he's getting a bit of room either side of it.
05:00Oh, Ryan!
05:01Oh, there he is. He's on the vein now.
05:03I'll throw that one that way, so be careful.
05:07So I got into geology 10 years ago
05:09and just had a love for the hunt to find something that's not been discovered.
05:13I met Shane a couple of years back when I was working for a big gold company.
05:16We've kept a good relationship since then.
05:19It's as hard as hell on this ground.
05:22Hey, Shane, I reckon now that you've got that out,
05:25you could actually move back a bit.
05:27Yeah, I'll try to dig down and try to get down that little bit on the other side.
05:30Yeah, I think so, yeah.
05:34All right, Shane-o, come back and then come forward starting there.
05:37Tell me when to stop.
05:44Look, Shane-o!
05:48You all right, Shane?
05:51Unbelievable.
05:58Yeah, I was just ringing you about that dirt we were speaking about.
06:02That's all right. No, all good.
06:03Thanks for that anyway.
06:04Cheers, bye.
06:08We always push up stockpiles knowing there's going to be wet weather coming,
06:11but the last few weeks there's been a lot more rainfall than we expected.
06:15So this is the last of the dirt here.
06:18The saving is trying to work something out
06:20and hopefully we can come up with a plan.
06:22Because if we're not running dirt,
06:24we're not making any money.
06:25We really need to make some money.
06:27We can't afford not to sit and do anything while it's wet.
06:31Yeah, with all that rain that we've had, our dirt's pretty saturated,
06:34so we just need some dry piles to run through the dry block.
06:38Now I've worked all our piles, so I've got nothing left now.
06:41We're kind of running out of options.
06:54How's it look? Any gold in there?
06:56Nah, none. Not much at all, Simon.
06:59Oh, well, good news.
07:00Just on the phone with Tom, he's got some piles out there
07:03and all the dirt's still sitting out there.
07:05It'll be dry on the inside,
07:06but we don't know whether there's going to be any gold in it.
07:08Well, we've got no other option.
07:09Yeah, something's better than nothing.
07:10We'll go and give it a go.
07:11Okay, let's go then.
07:17So Simon, what deal have you made?
07:20So he's happy for us to work the ground,
07:23and we've got to give him 20% of whatever we get.
07:26So, yeah, let's just hope the gold guy's looking at us
07:29and he's left a little bit of yellow rocks in there for us.
07:35Nothing glamorous about this work, I'll tell you that.
07:38Rookie miners Cheryl Munro and Simon Laws took a massive risk,
07:43leaving behind stable jobs to chase their dream of finding gold.
07:49I used to work as a midwife.
07:50I never would have thought I'd be living this late.
07:54Simon! Simon!
07:56What's wrong?
07:57The duo overcame teething issues with their dry blower...
08:01Pog's up in there.
08:03..pulling in their biggest gold weigh of the season.
08:076.55.
08:086.55. Well done, Laws. We did well.
08:10Yeah, right on track.
08:15So this is it, huh?
08:17Yep, plenty of it.
08:18Desperate to stay on the gold,
08:20they've made a deal with their neighbour
08:22for an 80% cut of any gold they can find.
08:26There's lots of it.
08:27Let's just hope it's got some gold in it.
08:29I hope so.
08:30There's a huge amount here,
08:31so this will definitely keep us going for the rest of the week.
08:34If you have a look over here... Mm-hm.
08:36..it's like there'll be a hard crust on the dirt.
08:39Mm.
08:40But then you get down in here...
08:42It's super dry. See?
08:43Yeah, yeah, I see what you mean. Bone dry.
08:45Yeah.
08:46So all this, we can run it.
08:49Yeah, right.
08:50Get us out of jail card.
08:52Let's get cracking then, hey?
09:06You know, we're trying to hit 50 ounces for the season,
09:09but it's a bit of a gamble running dirt
09:11that you don't know whether there's gold in
09:13because it costs you money to do it.
09:15You can't get anything out of it.
09:17Bet $500 a day in running costs.
09:20No, little pays off in the end.
09:25And again, it's going to do really well
09:27because there's nothing piled up, which is very good.
09:30Pay dirt is fed into the hopper.
09:33A feeder ship then distributes dirt into a series of riffles
09:37where air blows away lighter waste material,
09:40leaving the heavier gold to collect in the trays.
09:46HE WHISTLES
09:55See this tyre on it?
09:57It's really clogged up.
10:02Simon, you there?
10:04Yep.
10:05Can you come and have a look at this feeder shelf?
10:07You know that tyre on down? Yeah.
10:09When the feeder shelf was born, it was really flogging out.
10:12I don't think it's got much time left in it, Simon.
10:16Ooh, nah, that's hanging on just.
10:19Yeah.
10:20That's the last one I've got too. I know.
10:22That won't last. If we don't fix that and that falls off,
10:25that's game over.
10:27What are we going to do? Because we really need to keep mining.
10:30You know those old cars out in the bush?
10:32Mm.
10:33They've all got those tyre rod ends on their steering arms.
10:35That's what makes your wheel turn.
10:37I'll keep running and you can just go out there
10:39and have a look at those old cars
10:41and just see if you can take one of them off.
10:43You know what you're looking for.
10:44Oh, yeah, I know what I'm looking for. I just... Yeah.
10:46That'll get us through until we get back and get another one.
10:48Well, let's hope there is one. Righto.
10:55If that part breaks down, we can't mine.
10:58I need to get this back to Simon as soon as possible.
11:00We really can't justify having any more downtime.
11:03The clock is really ticking now.
11:12CLATTERING
11:16This mine we're exploring,
11:18it's five kilometres from the Fairlady, our main operation.
11:21We've got some there keeping that one running,
11:24but we're over here exploring this lease.
11:26It's got a huge amount of potential.
11:28Plan is, pull this excavator in, dig some holes
11:31and see if this place has got a future.
11:34I've just got to get there first.
11:36That looks like a massive drop.
11:40Way too steep for this machine.
11:42We're not going down there.
11:44Let's find another way around.
11:46We've had a bit of a late start to the season,
11:48building the dry block, getting up and running.
11:51That's the reason we're out here checking out new ground.
11:54You've always got to be one step ahead,
11:56have the projects rolling one into the next.
11:58If you don't have the next thing to move on to,
12:01you haven't got a future.
12:03Oh, clearly lost the right track.
12:05This looks actually much more doable.
12:09Well, that's good to see.
12:14Oh, you finally made it.
12:16Slow and steady, that took forever, but we're here.
12:22What's the plan?
12:24Well, on this lease there are a number of shafts.
12:27Now they're at least 110, maybe 120 years old.
12:30Old shafts like this, for them to be out here
12:32in the middle of nowhere, they'd have to be on good gold.
12:35So how much do we need to find
12:37to be able to make it worth our while?
12:39If it's 3 or 4 grams a ton, we can make a living out of that.
12:42Now our first bit of call is we get to those shafts,
12:45get underground and get some samples
12:47right from where they were working.
12:49Crush them up, pan it out, hope we've got something good.
12:52If they're safe enough.
12:54We'll have a go, though.
12:56You can go down first, then you let me know.
12:59Fire in the hole.
13:01That's it, Olan, we're up and running.
13:03This is awesome!
13:05This season, mining partners Melanie Wood and Alex Stead
13:09invested $400,000 into The Beast,
13:13a one-of-a-kind dry blower
13:15capable of processing 100 tonnes of dirt per hour
13:19at their Fairlady lease.
13:21That's pretty much 50 grand on the table right now.
13:2350 grand? For that, yeah.
13:25Done!
13:27While veteran gold miner John Stevenson
13:29keeps their operation going...
13:31Let's go! Let's get some gold!
13:34..Mel and Alex are five kilometres away
13:37on the neighbouring Ritchie lease
13:39in search of new gold-rich ground.
13:41Check this one out.
13:43I think we can climb down there and have a look.
13:45What do you reckon?
13:47Well, doesn't look the safest place to go down, but...
13:50I think, yeah, in and out as fast as we can.
13:53Yeah. Just this front I don't like, it's overhanging.
13:56That's very loose.
13:58Ugh!
14:00OK, there's a bit of a tunnel down here.
14:02Yeah. Yeah.
14:05Jeez, these old boys did a lot of work.
14:08During the gold rush of the 1900s,
14:11old-timers hand-dug networks of interconnected tunnels here,
14:15reaching depths of over 30 metres.
14:20I reckon go down and get some samples.
14:22OK. Just go steady.
14:24Don't hit the roof on your way down.
14:26I'll try.
14:27Don't I take you on the best adventures?
14:29This is wonderful.
14:33Oh, wow.
14:34That's pretty cool, isn't it?
14:36Yeah.
14:37What is that smell down here?
14:39Oh, that'll be the dead kangaroo.
14:42Ugh!
14:43Be careful.
14:44Just get down there, get what you need and get out.
14:47Yep.
14:50Nice quartz here at the entrance already.
14:53But I'm going to go in deeper, see what I find.
15:00CLANGING
15:04Jesus, that goes for ages.
15:07That's a big spider.
15:10Oh, I love spiders in a small place.
15:12I'm glad I didn't go down there.
15:14But the tunnel goes on, so I guess we carry on a bit further.
15:18Yeah.
15:19This underground stuff, it's definitely not for me.
15:24Even skulls of dead things down here.
15:26And this is not a place you want to hang around.
15:30I don't want Alex down here too long.
15:32You know, there's a lot of unstable rocks.
15:34It could potentially be hazardous.
15:36And there's spiders and...
15:40That kangaroo smells so bad.
15:46All right, this looks as good a place as any.
15:49Right at the end of the diggings.
15:51Probably, like, 10 metres or so down now.
15:54Hope it's got some gold for us.
15:56This rock actually looks pretty juicy.
15:59It's all rusty and rotten.
16:01Shows all the minerals just seeping out of it.
16:04This looks pretty good to take a sample,
16:06but knocking anything down here, you've got to be careful.
16:09You just don't know what things are supporting.
16:12Domino effect, you take a small rock out
16:14and then the bigger rocks fall.
16:16But this stuff all looks really good.
16:19Going to grab some out and take it to the surface.
16:24I don't need to get much of a sample.
16:26I just need to prove it's holding gold.
16:29Yeah, that's really good-looking stuff.
16:31If this is carrying gold,
16:33then this tunnel could well be worth excavating.
16:40What the f*** is that?
16:51Unbelievable.
16:53That's what happens when you rush.
16:55What have you done now, Shano?
16:57Well, what's it look like, Ryan?
16:59What are you going to do about that now, mate?
17:01What do you think I'm going to try, John?
17:03I'll try to get the bloody thing out.
17:05Okay, good luck, mate.
17:11Let's do it!
17:19Come on!
17:24Yes, yes, yes!
17:30How's that, Ryan-o?
17:32Yeah, you're out there, mate. Clear as gold.
17:34I'll give it one more ride.
17:39There it is.
17:41That's a good one.
17:42Yeah, that quartz has come up real nice.
17:45Well, I think, Ryan, if you can't get a rating on that,
17:47you want to give it away.
17:49Well, let's have a look.
17:54Yeah, it's not looking bad, Shane.
17:57The reef is not as deep as what I thought,
17:59and it's very, very good for me tired old machine
18:02and tired old driver,
18:04but it's looking pretty promising.
18:06All right, there we go.
18:08Yeah, cool. So you're starting to see some good alteration in that, Shane.
18:11I think we need to get the XRF on this.
18:13Yeah, let's get onto it.
18:15All right, Shane.
18:17That's looking pretty good, mate.
18:19We've got 1,200 ppm,
18:21which is parts per million.
18:23That's gold.
18:25That's 1,000 grams per ton on that XRF there.
18:27You nailed a bit of gold there, me boy.
18:29Okay, Ryan, I'm an old-fashioned prospector,
18:31and the only way I'm really going to find out
18:33if this is fair digging
18:35is by crushing it,
18:37pan it off, and see what gold we've got here.
18:39That sounds good, Shane. Let's have a look.
18:41Let's get on with it.
18:43Will that do it, Eurican? That'll be enough?
18:45That's oodles.
18:47All right, we'll get these bigger ones here.
18:49We'll break some of these pieces up.
18:55Oh, good look, Ryan.
18:57I'm happy with that. Let's take this over here.
18:59I'm glad you're happy with that, mate, because my shoulder's about to gush.
19:01Hard enough, princess.
19:03Come on, grab that dolly.
19:05Let's bring it over here.
19:07Okay, Rhino.
19:09This is the moment of truth.
19:11I'll just start shaking it up there a little bit.
19:13We're going to get a colour here.
19:15I'm very confident.
19:17That looked like a colour
19:19maybe you just threw off the side a bit.
19:21I think I just threw a colour over the edge.
19:23Oh, Ryan.
19:25Looking all right?
19:27You kidding me? There's gold there, Ryan.
19:29Yeah, there is too.
19:31That's not bad, Shane.
19:33That's not bad at all.
19:35That would be about
19:3710 grams a ton.
19:39And I reckon there'd be about $1,000 a ton
19:41in that. The thing is that
19:43there's some larger particles there.
19:45You've got a bit of potential there.
19:47Yeah, definitely. I think that's one of the things
19:49that really gets me excited, because these areas
19:51can hold a lot of alluvial gold, and I think
19:53if you get in here with a grader and free up some of this
19:55topsoil, I reckon there's a good chance
19:57that you'll probably find a bit more around there.
19:59I'm happy with that.
20:01I'm going to give my old mate Jimmy a ring
20:03and open some ground up.
20:05I'm going to see if I can go and chase this.
20:07I'll take some bags, I'll take the gun with me,
20:09and I'll see what I can find.
20:11Sounds good.
20:13For an old fellow like you, come on.
20:15Whee!
20:19Starting to build a bit of a picture.
20:21Just looking south of Shane's working
20:23and hopefully we can find something
20:25a bit further along. We know there's gold
20:27in the area, and if I can identify
20:29the areas that are the most prospective,
20:31then I can come back and we can probably have a look at
20:33either some dig in or some alluvial work.
20:35Billions of years ago,
20:37tectonic activity fractured the Earth's
20:39crust, creating north-south
20:41fault lines that acted
20:43as pathways for mineral-rich
20:45fluids to rise to the surface
20:47and solidify, forming
20:49gold-filled quartz structures known
20:51as reefs. While I'm doing this
20:53at least Shane can keep going, and
20:55hopefully he has luck finding some alluvials
20:57so the boys have got something to go on with.
21:03There's Jimmy!
21:07We call him the troubleshooter.
21:09He's always pulling me out of trouble.
21:13Shane?
21:15How we going, Jim? Thanks for coming, buddy.
21:17What I need you to do is to
21:19get your grater up there. There's some good
21:21gold being found on that corner over there.
21:23We just need to get down about another
21:25300mm and have another layer of gold there.
21:27No worries.
21:29Not every day of the week you get a grater turning up.
21:31The quartz is here, and we're
21:33going to grate straight down here, back
21:35up, over, over, over,
21:37and that blade will basically scrape
21:39the top 30cm of soil
21:41off, and that'll be brand new dirt again.
21:43Shane does
21:45owe me a bit, but that is the way it works
21:47with him, and nothing's
21:49going to change. I'll give him some
21:51soup and some ravioli, he'll be happy.
21:53Okay, Jimmy,
21:55let's get the show on the road!
21:57Righto.
21:59We've got the fine gold
22:01here in the rock, but now it's time to see
22:03if there's any big nuggets too. Then we'll
22:05really know if this spot will save our season.
22:07I can now grab the detector and get
22:09into it!
22:17What's that?
22:19Ah! There's bats in here!
22:21Ah!
22:23Oh my
22:25God! Look, bats just
22:27buzz me. Oh, there's everything
22:29in here. Alex,
22:31are you alright? Yeah.
22:33Can you see coming out now? Yeah, I think it's time
22:35to call it.
22:37Be careful of your head.
22:39Let's get out of that place.
22:41Spiders, bats...
22:43I heard you yell out a few times
22:45and scream a little bit. Like a big girl?
22:47Yeah. Yeah, that was definitely me.
22:49Alright, come on, let's go. Good idea.
22:53I'm hoping these samples I've got
22:55are actually loaded with gold.
22:57Yeah. Right, what we're going to do is
22:59get those rocks, put them through this machine,
23:01crushes it all up,
23:03and makes it really fine, and hopefully
23:05liberates all the gold into this pan.
23:07The portable impact crusher
23:09uses four bars spinning
23:11over 1,400 revolutions per
23:13minute inside a drum
23:15to pulverise rock into fine
23:17powder.
23:19Okay.
23:21Let's just
23:23turn that stone just to complete
23:25dust. As, yeah. So now that that's
23:27powder form, hopefully it's released
23:29the gold.
23:31Alright, here we go.
23:35Oh, yeah, we've got
23:37gold. Oh, yeah. That's like
23:39ten bucks right there, and that's just one
23:41handful of rocks. Well, we know where we're
23:43digging. Yeah. Yep, we've got a plan.
23:45Let's dig some holes. Alright, sounds good.
23:49I'm hoping this lease is going to deliver
23:51us some gold. I've seen a bit of gold from
23:53our samples.
23:55Too dangerous to stay down there and
23:57keep chipping away.
23:59So if we want to go deeper,
24:01the excavator is our only hope.
24:03I know there are good quartz veins around
24:05here, but the old timers,
24:07they've done a really good job of digging them
24:09out. And now we've got to try and find something
24:11that was either missed or they never found.
24:15Yeah, so this
24:17is a new lease, and obviously while Alex
24:19is digging, that gives me a chance to come out with
24:21my detector and just have a good look around.
24:23If this pays off, we'll have
24:25two operations running and hopefully
24:27find a larger amount of gold.
24:31Well, we're digging, but
24:33it's slow going.
24:35The more we get into the project, the harder
24:37this one's appearing. The ground's hard,
24:39burning a lot of diesel digging these
24:41things up. It's fine coming out here
24:43and spending a few days, but
24:45it's got to really pay. At the moment,
24:47money's just going out.
24:55Okay, what's just gone
24:57wrong?
25:01No power.
25:03Melanie, got a copy?
25:05Yeah.
25:07Excavator's just lost all its power.
25:09I don't know quite what's happened,
25:11but not good.
25:13Oh, God.
25:15It's completely dead.
25:26I'll check out
25:28how this tie rod end's going.
25:30See if it's hanging in there.
25:35Yeah, that's just hanging on.
25:37The old ball joint's
25:39just sitting in there, so
25:41it won't hang on for much longer.
25:45You got a copy, Cheryl?
25:47Yeah, I copy.
25:49How are you getting on out there? You
25:51found anything?
25:53I just looked at one car, but it was
25:55really old and not really stable, so
25:57there's a pile of other cars up
25:59around here we looked at before, so I'll go and check them out.
26:01Yeah, this one here, it's only
26:03just hanging on, so just get back
26:05as quick as you can. Alright, no worries,
26:07I'll try my best.
26:09Just trying to
26:11keep the blower going, keep this dirt going
26:13through. Hoping to hit our
26:15six ounce target
26:17this week, but
26:19lots of ground to get through and
26:21got flogged out tie rod
26:23end in there that's feeding the dirt down
26:25over the brickle trays.
26:27They're on most cars on your steering arms
26:29that turns your wheels down the
26:31bottom, so really hoping
26:33that Cheryl can find a part out there in the
26:35bush somewhere. If that breaks,
26:37the show stops.
26:39Our local store is
26:41seven hours away to get parts, so we're
26:43often away to the dump
26:45scrounging out in abandoned cars to find parts
26:47for our machines. That's just how it rolls.
26:49You've got to be so resourceful and think about the things.
26:53Brilliant, there's a good few cars in here, so
26:55hopefully we'll maybe get something
26:57out of these.
26:59An old one, that.
27:03This one's on its back, which is good because
27:05it's easier to see the bit.
27:07And there's heaps of abandoned cars on this lease.
27:09And we've took bits off the cars
27:11for other bits before. So this is
27:13the bit we're looking for, the tie rod end
27:15there. And as you can see, it's got the same
27:17bit here. And this is the bit that was working
27:19into the feeder shelf.
27:21But it's pretty rusted.
27:23So I don't think it's probably worth replacing
27:25it with the one we've got, because it's probably going to
27:27break in no time.
27:29Not ideal.
27:31Just trying to look
27:33and see what car is going to look in the better condition.
27:37We'll have a look at this blue one.
27:39And see if that's suitable, maybe.
27:41This car looks newer,
27:43so hopefully it won't be as rusted.
27:45There's the tie rod end there.
27:47Yeah, that looks good.
27:49It's not even got a bit of rust in it at all.
27:51Alright.
27:53Well, that should work.
27:55But the only problem being
27:57I can't get to it.
27:59So I'm going to have to flip it
28:01onto its roof, I reckon.
28:03I'll give that a shot.
28:07Ah, that's better.
28:11Alright, so I've got the chain here.
28:13I'm going to flip that over.
28:17I've seen Simon do this plenty,
28:19but I've never actually done it myself.
28:21So let's hope it works.
28:23And we don't get the
28:25chain going through the back window of the ute.
28:27I've heard of chains coming off before
28:29and causing serious injury.
28:31So I've got to be really careful here.
28:35Alright, here we go.
28:44Come on, come on, come on.
29:00What's happened, Mike?
29:02The machine was running
29:04and it's just lost all its power.
29:09No, the isolator's still on.
29:12It shouldn't be dead.
29:16No, still no power.
29:23That could be it.
29:27Yeah.
29:33Mel, got a copy?
29:35Yeah.
29:37It was just a kill switch.
29:40I'll be whaling out you.
29:43Yeah, cheers.
29:45Oh, I'm pleased it was just that.
29:47It did its job.
29:49I just didn't realise I pressed it.
29:57That sounds alright.
29:59Wow.
30:05Alright.
30:07The fun part.
30:09That sounds amazing.
30:15Oh my God, I can feel it hit my hand.
30:17Check that out.
30:19Yeah, this one feels like about $200.
30:21You always get a bit nervous when you
30:23start out on a new lease, but
30:25when you're finding pieces like this,
30:27this is a really good sign.
30:29I'm just hoping Alex has some luck with the mine shafts as well.
30:31If we can find a decent resource,
30:33then that's where the big payday could be.
30:37Yeah.
30:41I've got some good quality rocks to get crushed.
30:47I'm a little bit deeper down,
30:49so this should give more of an idea.
30:53Spent too much money, too much time.
30:55This has to pay off for us.
30:57If it's not carrying gold,
30:59it could be bust for this lease.
31:01We're really going to come down to this.
31:03This should be good.
31:05If it's not, back to the drawing board.
31:13The idea now is to find nuggets.
31:15We've got the machine here.
31:17The day's sunny and we're going to find gold.
31:19I'm going to go grab the detector
31:21and get into it.
31:23We've proven there's fine gold here.
31:25Jimmy's scraping off the top
31:27and hopefully we'll have some detectable gold
31:29here that's shed off the reef.
31:32I used to sing myself a little song.
31:34Magic wand,
31:36find me
31:38some gold.
31:42So I followed that reef along a little bit more
31:44to the south.
31:46This is what we're looking for.
31:48Awesome.
31:50I'm confident that this is the same structure
31:52that we're seeing along from Shane's workings there.
31:54I'm just going to break that zone
31:56over there.
31:59Yeah, so this is looking really promising.
32:01So I'm pretty keen to get this XRF on it
32:03and confirm that we actually do have something
32:05in there.
32:09So that result's just come up now
32:11and it's looking good.
32:13We're seeing some low levels of gold.
32:15So I think this is definitely the structure
32:17along from Shane's workings.
32:19So yeah, this is a good result.
32:21I'll take a sample of this and I'll take that to the lab
32:23and we'll get an accurate analysis.
32:26Chuck that in there
32:28and I'm going to keep moving along, see if we can find some more.
32:36Come on, magic wand.
32:41Oh, got a sound there, boys.
32:43Got a sound there.
32:45Magic wand.
32:47Come on, where are you?
32:50OK.
32:52Very delicate, this, finding gold.
32:55There's nothing delicate about me.
32:58Whoa, listen to that.
33:03Whoa!
33:05It's in me hand.
33:10There we go.
33:12Look, a little bit of gold.
33:14First little piece.
33:16First little piece.
33:18That's a good sign.
33:20This is going well now.
33:22That's going in the kick.
33:24Come on, I've got to find more.
33:26More, more, more.
33:34Give me some gold.
33:38Oh, nice sound there.
33:40I can listen to this
33:42every day of me life.
33:44OK, let's have a look.
33:47Something here real good.
33:52That big, I've got to be able to see it now.
33:56Gee whiz, look at that.
34:00That's a great piece of gold.
34:02Look at it.
34:04This one here, about $300.
34:06We're on the gold.
34:08Now we're making some real money.
34:11Nice piece of gold.
34:13Going right in the bin.
34:15Nothing better
34:17than listening to the
34:19jarratlin.
34:21This is great. We've got gold in the rock.
34:23We've got detectable gold.
34:25This is looking very promising.
34:35Alright, come on.
34:38Gold.
34:42Come on, come on, come on.
34:46Wheels are spinning.
34:48Come on.
34:52OK, she's coming.
34:54She's coming.
35:00And she's over.
35:02High five, she is.
35:05Alright.
35:07I can get that grinded off, I reckon.
35:09It looks really good.
35:11The rubber's all intact.
35:13There's not a bit of rust on it.
35:15It looks actually really good, Nick.
35:17I'm sure Simon will be happy with that.
35:19Alright.
35:29Woohoo!
35:31Got it!
35:34Very different from your average day
35:36as a midwife, although
35:38similar in many ways, as in it can be
35:40very unpredictable, it can change very quickly.
35:42So we've got that in common.
35:44But I love it. I love living out here.
35:46I enjoy it. I really like doing physical work
35:48and I like doing challenging work.
35:50I've learned heaps of new skills.
35:52Woohoo!
35:54Got it out.
35:56Let's get it back to Simon.
36:04Woohoo!
36:06Here's my Cheryl.
36:08See how she went.
36:16Look what I got.
36:18What a hero.
36:20I deserve a bonus for that.
36:22You had some good neck too.
36:24It's not even rusted or anything.
36:26I did the job.
36:28So you're going to change it now?
36:30Yeah, I'll go sort this out now
36:32and you want to check those trays
36:34because they don't want to be running all day
36:36and then you go, we'll do that and have no gold in it.
36:38So just pull one tray out, shake it off
36:40and we can give it a little test pan or something
36:42and while you're doing that, I'll quickly swap this one over.
36:44Oh yeah, no worries.
36:46Alright, cheers.
36:50Lucky Cheryl
36:52found the right size.
36:54Looks like it's going to do the job, which is perfect.
36:56Just in the nick of time too.
37:03This is a really useful indication to us
37:05on how the grind is.
37:07So we empty the tray spray
37:09and then we'll pan it afterwards.
37:11Take some dirt off at first, shake it off.
37:17Hopefully that's got fine gold.
37:21It's been a really tough week for us
37:23with the weather, it's been so wet
37:25limited grind to work on, the part and the dry blower.
37:27So we're really hopeful
37:29that this is going to pay off
37:31and we're going to actually get some gold
37:33and it's going to be workable grind for us
37:35because we've really got limited options at the moment.
37:37Our season target is 50 ounces
37:39and that's an ambitious target
37:41so we have to get something out of this.
37:45You can see a little bit of colour
37:47just appearing at the sides there.
37:51Oh thank god, there's some there.
37:55And after the really crap week we've had
37:57it's just refreshing to see that in here.
37:59You there Simon?
38:01Yeah, got you.
38:03So I've just finished that pan
38:05and yeah there's gold in there, a few nuggets
38:07and a bit of fine stuff
38:09so quite happy with that actually.
38:11Beautiful, I'll keep running it
38:13we'll make as much as we can while we can, that's good.
38:17Never would I have thought when I was in the
38:19hills of north east of Scotland that I'd be
38:21in the bush, flipping cars
38:23digging for gold, but I absolutely love it.
38:25So I've just been to check on the Fairlady lease
38:27we've had John out there running things for the week
38:29and everything's tracking well
38:31so I'm just heading back to Alex now
38:33to where we've been doing a bit of exploration
38:35on the Ritchie lease
38:37and I'm hoping he's got good news for me.
38:41Dove deeper in the same quartz vein
38:43that had a bit of colour
38:45so I'm hoping it's carrying more gold.
38:47If it's not carrying gold
38:49it could be bust for this lease.
38:51If it's not carrying gold
38:53it could be bust for this lease.
38:55It's got gold
38:57I should start to see it now.
38:59Not as much as I'd like
39:01but it's definite gold.
39:03It's probably only $15
39:05for about 5 tonnes of rocks
39:07so sadly it doesn't look like this one
39:09is going to be payable for us.
39:11Well, looks like Mel's
39:13back from Fairlady.
39:17Hey! Hey, how's it going?
39:19Good! How's it been here?
39:21Got some digging, done some sampling.
39:23Well?
39:25What have we got?
39:27Look at that. That's actually really good.
39:29Yeah. How did the sampling go?
39:31Well, not as good as I'd have liked.
39:33There is gold
39:35but it doesn't look like it's going to be a big win for us.
39:37Pretty tough digging
39:39and you'd want to see a lot of gold.
39:41At this point in time, I think we
39:43just put that one to bed.
39:45Alright.
39:47Fairlady?
39:49It's producing. Let's see what we've got.
39:53Wow, that's really good.
39:55I think you've got some.
39:57Alright, well that's
39:593.1.
40:01Despite poor sampling results,
40:03Mel and Alex's main operation at Fairlady
40:05has delivered nearly
40:07$11,000 worth of gold.
40:09That's covered
40:11the cost of exploration.
40:13Whatever Fairlady can produce gold like this,
40:15we stay there. As soon as the numbers drop,
40:17we're going to need another place.
40:19Let's get this gold back in the jar.
40:21There you go.
40:23Precious.
40:25That's for you.
40:27Alright, back to Fairlady?
40:29Yep, back to Fairlady.
40:35I've had a pretty good week.
40:37Jimmy's gone home. Ryan's gone home.
40:39I've managed to get myself some very good finds
40:41and I'm keen to weigh it all up
40:43and see what I've got.
40:45I think there's going to be a good result here.
40:47That's 0.1 of an ounce of
40:49fine gold. That's a very good result.
40:51I'll tip my nuggets
40:53in here.
40:550.63 of an ounce.
40:57That's really telling us we've got some good
40:59material here for the future and that's
41:01very exciting.
41:03I'm very upbeat about this.
41:07Shane's effort to prove up the Courts Hill
41:09lease has brought in
41:11over $2,200
41:13worth of gold.
41:15I'd better give Ryan the geo a ring
41:17to see how his test samples went
41:19from the lab.
41:21Shane-o.
41:23How's it going there, Rhino?
41:25Good fella, just got home.
41:27The first thing I want to say to you is
41:29thanks very much for bringing the gun up
41:31and thanks for your efforts here.
41:33Cheers mate, good times. I've got those results
41:35back from the lab and I'm pretty excited
41:37about it, Shane. It's looking good.
41:39We've got up to 10 grams of gold per ton
41:41in some of those veins that we're sampling
41:43so I think you need to look at trying to move
41:45some earth, you know, and see if you can find a bit more.
41:47Well, Ryan, that's great news.
41:49That's exactly what I want to hear.
41:51Good on you, Shane. Good luck and yeah,
41:53talk to you soon. Thank you, mate. Cheers, mate.
41:55This is looking very promising.
41:57It's looking very promising for Russell
41:59and I. All we've got to do is get
42:01some more heavy machinery, bigger crushes
42:03and you never know what can happen.
42:05It looks like I've got a few more
42:07labours to call in to see whether we can
42:09open this area up.
42:15What a week. Yeah, we got through though.
42:17Good old gold guard was being good
42:19to us. Yeah. And good that
42:21you got that deal for those dirt piles.
42:23Oh yeah, we'd have been stuffed if we didn't get that.
42:25And then that tyre would end just to throw
42:27it all in there. Yeah, well you did a good job
42:29finding it though. I know I did. Kind of impressed myself.
42:31Flipping it all by yourself.
42:33Do you want to see how we went?
42:35Yeah, let's see how we went.
42:414.6, 4.7,
42:435 ounces.
42:45Not bad.
42:47That's not bad. Minus Tom's
42:4920%. Yeah, still.
42:51Well, we had no other option. Roughly 4 ounces.
42:53It was either nothing or that. That's it.
42:55I'm happy with that. Yeah, so am I.
42:57We make a good team.
42:59Cheryl and Simon's gamble to
43:01process new ground paid off
43:03with over $17,000
43:05worth of gold.
43:07Alright, good stuff. Happy with that.
43:09So hopefully we can get back to
43:11our normal pushing up and stuff next week, hey?
43:13Yeah, it's not going to rain now until next winter.
43:15That's what I'm telling myself. Yeah, we'll go with
43:17the positive thoughts. Fingers crossed.
43:19Now, happy with that, let's go and have a red
43:21wine by the fire. Sounds perfect.
43:23Let's go.
43:33Music
43:35Music
43:37Music
43:39Music
43:41Music
43:43Music
43:45Music
43:47Music
43:49Music
43:51Music
43:53Music