Travel to Australia, and watch this real life documentary, of people mining the Opal gemstone.
Season 5 has 8 episodes.
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
Season 5 has 8 episodes.
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
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TVTranscript
00:00On Outback Opal Hunters...
00:03Go, you zealot! Come on!
00:05..in a desperate bid to reach opal-rich grounds...
00:08Easy! Easy!
00:10..the Blacklighters risk moving their 10-tonne processing plant.
00:14Hold up, hold up!
00:16Look at the pole I'm standing in.
00:18If we do fall in there, it's game over.
00:21In their dangerous underground mine...
00:23They don't like it.
00:25..the Cheels operation grinds to a halt.
00:28Voice won't come back down.
00:29..as their only dirt-moving truck breaks down.
00:32If they can't get this going, we're in trouble.
00:35Jeez, that looks a bit ominous.
00:37And determined to expand their mining empire,
00:40the young guns hunt for a new claim on an old field.
00:43Easy does it. Oh!
00:45When you put a ladder into place and the bottom rung drops off...
00:48Grab it, grab it!
00:50..one slip and broken bones.
00:53MUSIC PLAYS
01:13Yeah, let's go find some opal, eh?
01:17Bit dismal in the little hole we're digging at the moment,
01:20but if we can locate a bit of a nice patch tonight,
01:23we'll head for that tomorrow.
01:25See what we get tonight, eh?
01:27Yeah.
01:29Come out to the claim tonight
01:31to have a bit of a scratch around with the blacklights
01:33and hopefully we can find a new dump to get stuck into tomorrow.
01:37Be good.
01:39Experts in sifting through old mine dirt to find missed opal,
01:43the blacklighters are using ultraviolet torches
01:46to find surface trace difficult to see in daylight.
01:50We're using a little blacklight.
01:52As soon as we put it on, any opal around it glows like crazy,
01:55so we're just going to wander around with this
01:57and if there is any opal on the surface,
01:59we'll pick it up straightaway.
02:02There's a bit there, you can see it.
02:06It's like in the day, it's just the same as everything else,
02:09but at night, with the light, it's just glowing.
02:12When hit with ultraviolet light,
02:14the water electrons inside the opal become excited,
02:18releasing energy and fluorescing.
02:20I'll definitely give this spot a dig tomorrow
02:23because, like, that's a sign there's definitely material here,
02:26so hopefully we get a stack of them.
02:30That's just stunning top opal.
02:32Oh!
02:34Yes! Yes!
02:36Mark, Paul, John and their families
02:39were forced to relocate to Coober Pedy
02:42after authorities shut down the opal town of Minterby.
02:46So far, they've pulled out $123,000 worth of opal
02:51by noodling or sifting through old mined dirt
02:54with their processing plant, Opalzilla.
02:57Where we're getting it, they only went to eight feet.
03:00Our plan is to noodle the dirt away that they mined to eight feet
03:04and then go down.
03:06But with running costs in the thousands every week,
03:09their reserve funds are depleting fast.
03:13No, we're smoking it out.
03:15Righto, Wolf?
03:17Parts are expensive.
03:19Fuel's gone up a lot. Everything's gone up.
03:21We do need to find opal or we're going to go backwards fast.
03:25In my own family, we've got six mouths to feed.
03:28They're all relying on it, and Paul's got a new baby
03:31and a little fella as well, so two or three claims, you fail,
03:35you're down 100 grand like that, you know,
03:37and try and recover from that's very hard.
03:4040 kilometres from their home,
03:43the Blacklighters are working Jess's trench,
03:46one of their four 100 by 200 metre claims.
03:50We're going to cut a slot through another dump
03:53to head towards where we were last night
03:56and pretty well trying a bit of fresh dirt
03:58because it takes so much to set up here,
04:00we want to make sure we get everything we can reach before we move on.
04:03We're just waiting for Mark to push some of the opal-bearing dirt
04:06that we found some stuff in yesterday, put it through Opalzilla.
04:09He's a little bit hungry this morning.
04:13You load it up into the hopper and it goes through a trommel,
04:16shakes all the dust off.
04:18Darkroom's got ultraviolet light.
04:20You've got your pickers there and they're just picking it off the belt
04:23as it glows through, so it's very efficient.
04:26Oh, the trommel's stopped running, Matt.
04:29Turn everything off or we're going to have a f***ing mess.
04:33The trommel's not working.
04:35Turn the hopper off.
04:39Jesus louises.
04:48You need to be digging dirt to generate some money
04:51by selling opal, but at the moment,
04:53we're not getting the production out that we should be,
04:56and, of course, we've got to live,
04:58so we need to find the money to do that,
05:00but we've also got to keep up with fuel bills,
05:03so it makes it hard, it's a bit stressful.
05:06After a slow start to the season,
05:09Chris Cheal and sons Rory and Oscar
05:12are moving their unstable two-tonne digger
05:15towards a more promising opal-bearing fault.
05:18I got traced down on the lower side of it.
05:21It was only when we actually did some more work here
05:24that we discovered it.
05:26As far as the digger goes, it is dangerous.
05:28If you don't know what you're doing,
05:30I don't have anyone in close around it
05:32because they can fall over.
05:34I've had one crush me once and it did a bit of damage to me.
05:37If it gets you in the wrong spot, then she's all over,
05:40so you just don't want to put yourself in a position
05:43where you're going to get crushed.
05:49Once in place,
05:51the digger needs to brace securely against the roof
05:55for mining the rock face.
05:57Don't like the roof up there?
05:59There's a little bit of crap up there that's dried out.
06:02I'll just get you to stand back.
06:04Yeah, I don't like it.
06:06This was a little layer there that had come away.
06:09There's not much dirt in it, but if it falls
06:12and hits you on the shoulder or hand or something,
06:15you know, it could break your hand.
06:17Happy with that?
06:19Happy as can be.
06:23Hey, hey, hey!
06:25Whoo!
06:27It's OK.
06:29It's OK.
06:31It's OK.
06:33It's OK.
06:36Chris is relying on opal mining for his income
06:40after drought destroyed his grain-hauling business.
06:44But so far this season,
06:46he's found just a fraction of his $75,000 target.
06:51Obviously, you always hope for more.
06:53It'd be unbelievable if we hit a big pocket
06:56and the boys had enough money
06:58to help themselves out at college and uni
07:01and, you know, I was able to get back on my feet a bit.
07:04Believing his claim could hold a lucrative pocket of black opal
07:09worth up to $43,000 a gram,
07:12Chris has pegged 22 claims
07:15covering a massive 55,000 square metres.
07:21That's our route there at the moment.
07:25And it starts coming back down.
07:27If you see the sandstone, it finishes about there
07:30and then comes back.
07:32That's what we will have for our roof.
07:35The Cheels have discovered
07:37that the opal level they were following in the ceiling
07:40has been forced downwards into the floor
07:42by a massive earth movement,
07:44resulting in a z-fault.
07:47With z-faults, because there's that massive disruption,
07:50if you've got big kind of open spaces underground
07:52from, like, an earthquake or whatever,
07:54more water can get in there and compress to make opal.
07:58I've heard a lot of good stories about z-faults.
08:01I've never really worked around one,
08:03so it's a new opportunity for me.
08:05And, you know, we've got opal on the high side of it.
08:08So, you know, we're kind of hoping
08:10that the bottom side might be even better than the top side.
08:14It's pretty vital that we find something.
08:17It's been a while since we've got a big hit.
08:19OK, here we go.
08:29Don't go with it if it's going.
08:32Don't hold on to the controls. Just let it go.
08:35And watch your feet around the wheel, JC.
08:40Watch your feet around the wheel, JC.
08:43Watch your feet around the wheel.
08:45Watch your feet around the wheel.
08:47Watch your feet around the wheel, JC.
08:55Oh, thank God.
08:57All right. We're in a pretty good spot now.
08:59In just their second season,
09:02the Young Guns, JC, Jamin and Noah
09:05are learning the ropes on their 10-year-old digger
09:08in their century-old unstable mine.
09:11Just before we move back in, I'll just bar a little bit more of that,
09:14make sure the side pot is good and solid.
09:17Don't want another big old bopper on JC's little noggin.
09:21Look at this.
09:23Dude, I think it's a glacial stone.
09:25Is that actually a glacial stone?
09:27I think it's a glacial stone, dude.
09:29Sometimes you can get opal around them, sometimes you can't.
09:31They are cool to find, though.
09:33So we've just found a glacial stone in the roof there,
09:35and sometimes opal can pull in around those,
09:37so JC's going to bring the digger back a bit
09:39and just pop that little shelf down where the glacial stone's sitting.
09:43Glacial stones were carried by drifting icebergs
09:46on Australia's inland sea 100 million years ago.
09:50The melting of the ice exposed cracks and voids
09:53in between the glacial stones.
09:55Silica-rich water can drain into the gaps
09:58to eventually form opal.
10:00Just go directly, yeah, into the glacial stone, like above it.
10:04It'll probably, yeah, just go straight through it
10:06and it pops down, pops down.
10:08This could be the million-dollar piece.
10:11What have we got, anything?
10:13Ah, look at that. It's just all, like, concretion-y stuff.
10:17Is that him?
10:19No colour, no opal.
10:21A million-year-old ice thing.
10:24That's exactly what it is.
10:26It's just shit.
10:29Here we go.
10:3332 and a half.
10:35We'll take that, man. I think we're very happy with that.
10:37In the first week of their season,
10:39the Young Guns have already had their biggest opal find to date.
10:43All right, man, let's make it happen.
10:45Boys, we just got an investor.
10:48The week got even better
10:50when they secured an investor
10:52who's put in $50,000 for mining equipment
10:55in exchange for 25% of any opal found.
10:59We've got the loader, we've got the truck and we've got the tipper.
11:02Everything we almost need.
11:04Whoo!
11:07Hey, John. How's it going, fellas?
11:09Yeah, good, mate. All the gears turned up.
11:12That's good, that's good.
11:14I mean, we're pretty much, you know,
11:16we're trying to get this gear up and running as soon as possible
11:19and hopefully pulling some opal sometime soon.
11:21Yeah, sounds good. The sooner we start pulling opal,
11:23the better off we'll all be.
11:25We need a bit of money back in the kitty,
11:27so we get it sooner rather than later.
11:32It's definitely a lot more responsibility
11:35now that we have someone else that we are responsible to.
11:38He's put down a lot of money to get us going
11:42and, you know, put his faith in us.
11:46The goal with this machinery is to, you know,
11:48move more dirt, find more opal.
11:50This is a massive opportunity for the Young Guns.
11:52This is a chance to expand, go bigger and better
11:54like we've been talking about, trying to upgrade our situation,
11:57trying to become real opal miners out here.
12:01The mine we're in at the moment has definitely, you know,
12:03a very limited shelf life.
12:05A lot of the ground is dug out and unsafe to work.
12:07We can't limit ourselves to one claim.
12:09We need to expand our operation as much as possible
12:12to give ourselves more options.
12:16You got to do it, Niles. Scary.
12:18Yeah, JC, you went.
12:20What was that? Did you just hear that?
12:23Yeah, it clanked a bit, didn't it?
12:25It sounded like a snap.
12:27No oil pissing out nowhere?
12:29It was a big snap, wasn't it?
12:31Oh, it's full out. Wait.
12:33That thing there, that screw's supposed to be in there.
12:35It's supposed to be connected to that. It moves the arm.
12:37The arm won't even move now. It's in a really bad spot too.
12:49But, yeah, have a look at this. It's just jammed.
12:51And all the rocks got on and popped the belt off.
12:54Probably going to need the shovel too, I think.
12:58The fines here, man, it's just buried the whole wheel.
13:02You need to keep on dumping it a bit more.
13:06Desperate to find Opal,
13:08Blacklighter's leader, Mark,
13:10has forgotten to clear away tonnes of dirt,
13:12known as fines,
13:14that Opal Zilla's trommel has shaken off the processed rock.
13:18I've been running around trying to find some fresh spots.
13:22Neglected the most important job.
13:26It's to keep Opal Zilla nice and neat.
13:30Bit frustrating, and now I haven't got to the fines in time
13:33and it's throwing the belt off.
13:35It's not moving, is it?
13:37Yeah, we're just going to shovel out the trommel,
13:39get rid of all the fines and, yeah, put the belt back on.
13:44Opal makes our world go round,
13:46so we need Opal Zilla to find our way for us, really.
13:50You can lose all your assets and that
13:52if you start having to borrow a bit of money
13:54to keep yourself going,
13:56and then you don't find it again after that,
13:58you can lose everything.
13:59We're almost there.
14:01Just going to try and stretch this belt on.
14:09There she has it.
14:10There we go.
14:12Like a hamster.
14:14We'll start it up now and hopefully she'll spin.
14:17Are you ready?
14:18Yep.
14:19Shaker?
14:21Yep.
14:22Trommel?
14:24Yep.
14:25Beautiful.
14:27Do we like to see it rolling around?
14:29Good news.
14:32Righto, Marge.
14:33She's all running again now.
14:34All good.
14:35Well done, guys.
14:36Awesome effort, man.
14:38I think it's time to go look for some more dirt.
14:41We're going on the search at the moment.
14:45Yeah, just coming around the back.
14:46This is sort of like tunnelling towards where we were
14:49getting some stuff for the blacklight last night,
14:51so we'll see what that eventuates into.
14:55Opel Zilla can process 50 tonnes every hour,
14:59but right now it's a 200-metre round trip
15:03for every 2-tonne load.
15:05Yeah, it's a pretty hectic trying to keep up the pace
15:08when you're having to get the dirt from so far away.
15:11So I've kicked into another gear at the moment.
15:15Yeah, just got the first piece coming through for the day.
15:18It's a bit hard to see under the blacklight
15:20because it's dark in there.
15:22Everything looks the same.
15:24It's been a bit slow, not that much coming through,
15:27so, yeah, hopefully it can pick up soon,
15:30or, yeah, we'll have to rethink this plan of ours.
15:39Don't feel confident in the Spy any more all of a sudden.
15:42Every little spot I try, every corner seems to be empty.
15:49Yeah, there's not all that much in my bucket,
15:53and what is in there looks like it might be mainly rocks.
15:59I just don't know where to go, man.
16:01I'm tunnelling straight into that dump
16:03that we walked around last night,
16:05and nothing, nothing, nothing.
16:07Yeah, I reckon start making plans to get out of here.
16:10Yeah, let's do it, eh?
16:12I reckon the party is just about over.
16:20No point digging dirt that's not giving us any reward.
16:23It's, um...
16:25Yeah, the machinery costs a lot to run.
16:27We just can't afford to stay stagnant.
16:29We've got to just move on.
16:31You can't just sit there forever and just keep digging
16:34cos you're just burning diesel and putting a hole in your pocket.
16:38If this was the only claim we knew about
16:40and the only place we could dig for the rest of our lives,
16:42we'd stay here, wouldn't we?
16:43You know what I mean? And keep persisting.
16:45But it's not.
16:46Then we're just probably going to have to bite the bullet
16:48and go look for something a bit more productive.
16:50Off to the next claim.
16:51Off to the next claim, eh?
16:54The plan is to tow the 10-tonne Opel Zilla
16:58to their other claim, Bedframe.
17:00This new claim's about 700 metres from our last claim.
17:03You can see where the old guys really had some success.
17:06Cos it was one cut after another after another.
17:09They were definitely following a run.
17:11Moving Opel Zilla, it takes days.
17:14Sometimes it can take weeks.
17:16That's our moneymaker.
17:18We need to be able to move it.
17:26So we're thinking the Opel might be carrying down deeper.
17:29So the only way we can get to it is to dig down.
17:32At the moment, we're heading down
17:35towards the bottom side of that Z fault on a decline.
17:38We've filled probably half the trough.
17:41We're probably going to have to dig down another six foot.
17:46Chris Cheerle, sons Rory and Oscar
17:49are excavating to find the Opel level
17:51beneath an ancient geological formation
17:54known as a Z fault.
17:57Our family's had a rough few years.
17:59I want to be able to help the boys and my daughter out
18:02more financially.
18:03They're sort of putting themselves through uni and college at the moment.
18:06We can find a pocket.
18:08Well, I guess I can help the kids out a bit more.
18:10Yeah, I just want to be able to keep digging, basically.
18:13And I can't dig without the money coming in.
18:20There is a possibility, you know,
18:22that we could see something on our way down to the level.
18:24It'd be absolutely unreal if we did.
18:26I guess it'd kind of solidify our thoughts
18:28about what could be down there.
18:30So, yeah, fingers crossed we see something.
18:32To get to the level two metres below their feet,
18:35the Cheels have to excavate at least 60 tonnes of rock,
18:39then remove it with the bogger...
18:43..dumping it into the 600 kilogram capacity hoist
18:47which is sent 13 metres up the shaft
18:50to the waiting truck.
18:52What's that, Rory? 19?
18:5419, yeah.
18:55Three more till we move the truck.
19:03Hey, hey.
19:05What?
19:06Check this out.
19:07What is it?
19:08It's a bit of green seam.
19:09Oh, ****.
19:11This too.
19:13That's not bad, hey?
19:14That's unreal.
19:15Yeah.
19:16That's good trace.
19:18Yeah, we've come across a little bit of seam,
19:20so that's a really good indicator.
19:22It's telling us that there's coloured seam down here.
19:25Pretty happy at the moment.
19:27Seeing good coloured trace,
19:30Seeing good coloured trace like that
19:32is a very, very good sign for where you're headed.
19:34Pretty happy to see that, not gonna lie.
19:37Every load the Cheels excavate
19:39needs to have the sandstone clay cleaned off to reveal any opal.
19:44Their agitator wash plant, or AGI, is 40 kilometres away.
19:49Each load costs $200 to process.
19:55So we've just decided to dump the dirt that we dug yesterday.
19:58It costs a lot of money to drive that big truck
20:00all the way into the AGI and back.
20:02The chance of it having opals is a lot less
20:04than other loads we might dig today.
20:07Time-wise and cost-wise, it's the best option for us
20:09just to dump it and come back to it later
20:11and hopefully get some better dirt in the AGI.
20:19Went to dump that load and the voice won't come back down.
20:22Controlling is, I think it's done a little overing.
20:25So, yeah, I'm just in the middle of trying to fix it.
20:28Obviously, if the back doesn't come down, then we can't dig a load.
20:32A bit frustrating, but nothing you can do about it.
20:35If Dad can't get this going, we're in trouble.
20:50Something's popped out of place on the digger,
20:52so we're not too sure exactly what's gone wrong there.
20:56So just more mechanical problems that we don't really need.
21:00The Young Guns' second-hand $12,000 digger
21:04has torn an arm off one of its hydraulic rams.
21:08I think that's just free-swinging now, is it?
21:10Yeah. Well, I can't...
21:12Yeah, I wouldn't be able to control left or right.
21:15I feel it. I feel how bad it is.
21:17So the problem is a little bit more serious
21:19than we initially thought.
21:21The thread is pretty much all worn out,
21:23except for a little bit left at the end.
21:25So the chances of that popping back off again are quite high.
21:28So to fix that, basically,
21:30we're just going to weld the eye directly onto the ram there
21:33so it doesn't happen again.
21:36Having an investor now has raised every stake.
21:39Not only do we need to find Opal,
21:41but we need to find more of it than before.
21:43We're covering a fourth person as well.
21:45Unable to mine until the digger is repaired,
21:48some guns are taking the ram to Jamin's grandfather
21:51and Opal mining veteran of 47 years,
21:54Ron Pop Doughton.
21:56How's it going?
21:57Better than you.
21:58That's my bet.
21:59Already five at this time.
22:01They arrive.
22:02Put it on the bench.
22:03I think this is actually...
22:04Pop, you know, he's considered a bit of a mining legend
22:07out in Wycliffe's here.
22:08He's put in some solid hours as a young bloke.
22:11You know, always helpful with a lot of people starting out.
22:15Obviously, he's my grandfather,
22:17so he gives us a little bit extra help.
22:19Thanks very much, Ron.
22:20That's going to keep us digging.
22:22Yeah.
22:24Look at that.
22:25We're good to go.
22:30The mine we have now at the back of our camp,
22:32it's definitely frustrating.
22:34It's on its last legs, very limited,
22:36going one direction because of how unsafe it is on either side,
22:39you know, with the roof,
22:40and you don't want to be wasting time
22:42in a mine that's not producing anything.
22:44The opal level is, you can see this white band
22:47running, like, all the way around the wall here.
22:50It's this one direction, and there's this one opal level.
22:54At the moment, we're digging a big old hole,
22:57but we're not finding much opal.
22:59As in any.
23:00There's no opal coming out of the ground right now.
23:03So I think the best option for us at this stage
23:05is just going to be look for some new ground
23:07and set up a whole new mine in there
23:09that's hopefully going to produce some opal
23:11and give us more options.
23:15OK.
23:22Moving opal zilla is not the easiest task to perform.
23:26It's a few hard days of labour.
23:28You're pretty much going to get on your hands and knees
23:30and dig it out.
23:32Recently forced to leave their homes in the town of Minterby,
23:35the Blacklighters and their families
23:37are relying on Coober Pedy's opal fields
23:40to start a new life.
23:42We spent a lot of money in moving, yeah.
23:44We basically had to start a lot of stuff from scratch.
23:48With the first of their four claims running dry of opal,
23:51the plan is to tow their 10-tonne processing plant,
23:54Opal Zilla, to Bedframe Claim.
23:57I've seen a lot of crystal come from the area,
23:59and it's, like, really good quality,
24:01so you don't need a lot from there
24:03to make a decent amount of money.
24:07But, yeah, Opal Zilla is very buried.
24:10It's just the way it goes.
24:13You don't want to dig too much underneath it.
24:15Yeah, it could tip it over, and, yeah,
24:17if it turns over, it's a bad day for everyone.
24:23She's a bit out of balance,
24:25so it takes a lot of dangerous work.
24:28Anything could go wrong, really.
24:33Oh, shit.
24:34Master that.
24:37It's all about just keeping everything flat and straight.
24:42Get stuff out from under these wheels
24:44so we can actually get it to move.
24:48How is it not falling yet?
24:51Oh, there we go.
24:55Yeah, I can see daylight under there,
24:57so that's pretty good news for us,
24:59so hopefully by today we'll have it moving
25:01and punching through some dirt tomorrow would be good.
25:07How the f*** did that happen?
25:09I don't know.
25:10That can't be good.
25:12That's pretty holey, eh?
25:15So it's just caught a bit of the edge of the bucket
25:18where it's been dug out.
25:19It's so easy to do.
25:20There's that much dirt over it.
25:22You don't know where the tyre is and...
25:24Yeah.
25:25The ruptured tyre will make dragging Opal Zilla out
25:29with the six-tonne loader even more difficult.
25:32This is the plan anyway.
25:34We're going to hook the loader up,
25:35pull it forward, get it free.
25:37Should be right, I reckon.
25:38Just be worried about that flat tyre over there, you know.
25:40It would help to have your tyres pumped up
25:42when you're doing something like this, eh?
25:43A little bit, yeah.
25:44Yeah, don't tip it over, eh?
25:45Oh, I don't want to.
25:49Yeah, it's pretty scary stuff now.
25:51We're about to try and pull Opal Zilla out.
25:54I just don't want to roll it
25:56because, yeah, that'll be pretty hard to get it up.
25:58There's no bulldozers around the place,
26:00so we're on our own out here.
26:02We're going to have to be careful and sensible.
26:04We're ready to go?
26:06Good to go.
26:07Ball's in your court!
26:08Ball's in my court!
26:09Righto!
26:24No, she ain't going to go.
26:33All right, she's not going to go.
26:38Went to dump that load and the hoist won't come back down.
26:41I've got another old control here with me.
26:43I'll try and rig it up so we can get the body to come back down
26:46and hopefully dig another load and get it to town.
26:50The hydraulic hoist on the Cheels' only truck
26:53is jammed at full extension.
26:57I'm a bit frustrated with it.
26:59We've got to get some dirt in the truck
27:01and get it back to town to wash it,
27:03and when the truck's like this, that's not going to happen,
27:05so it's quite worrying.
27:07What did you do?
27:09You were just standing there.
27:11It was definitely in there when I sat it back down.
27:13Well, it should be here then.
27:15To make matters worse, Chris's eldest son Rory
27:18has lost a small but vital part of the replacement controller.
27:22Not there, bro. We need it.
27:25It must be on the ground.
27:28It must be on the ground here.
27:30I was cleaning a piece there and dropped a little ball bearing,
27:34and we can't get the truck started without it,
27:36so it's on the ground, having a look around for it.
27:42All I needed was just to put that back together and plug it in,
27:46so I need to find that ball bearing.
27:50Pressure's on a bit, you know, we just want to get going
27:53and get digging and get down in there further
27:55There's over there.
27:59I feel like it would have been shredded down by now.
28:03Oh, yes!
28:05Rory?
28:06Yes.
28:07Ha, ha, ha! Rory, eh, Oscar?
28:09Where was he?
28:10Eagle Eye Oscar found the ball bearing that I dropped, so it was good.
28:14Well done, buddy. Back in business for you.
28:19Right.
28:21Replacement controller assembled, Chris needs it to work,
28:25or he could face costly, time-consuming repairs.
28:35There she comes.
28:38With the truck working again, the Cheels can head back underground
28:42to continue filling it with dirt from the promising Z Fold.
28:47We've gotten into the Z Fold far enough where we can open it up
28:51and at least by the end of this load we should be on that opal level,
28:55you know, deep enough where we should start seeing stuff,
28:58so fingers crossed we do.
29:08Nothing, mate?
29:10No, I thought I saw a little flash.
29:13Mate, we'll start seeing something pretty soon, mate.
29:16Yeah, me too.
29:19There's a few loads in there now, I made a fair hole,
29:22so it'll be disheartening to think there's nothing in it,
29:25but you don't know until you wash it.
29:27I'm thinking I'm not really liking the lack of trace.
29:31That's not going to pay the bills.
29:34We've got deadlines to meet, we've got an investor to look after,
29:38and we haven't seen opal, you know, all week.
29:42So obviously the problem with the mine we're working at right now
29:46is that now that we're using the hydraulic digger,
29:49you know, we're finding a lot of the areas are unsafe to use
29:52by pinning into the roof, so we definitely want to open up our options
29:56and look for, you know, another claim at least.
30:00With their current mine not producing,
30:02the Young Guns are relying on Jamin's grandfather, Pop,
30:06to help find a new opal-bearing claim.
30:09And all that round there is your virgin ground,
30:11that's getting right up the top end.
30:13And this was near this claim here?
30:15Yeah, that claim there.
30:17So go for a drive round up there and have a look and see,
30:20see what you think.
30:22Pop's advice is Westfield,
30:24three kilometres from the Young Guns' camp,
30:27scattered with mines up to half a century old,
30:30surrounded by virgin ground.
30:32It's like going through the forest to get there.
30:34I know.
30:36If the Young Guns think a potential mine shows promise,
30:39they can claim it for $230.
30:42Jeez, that looks like a big one.
30:44Yeah, that's a big one.
30:46That's a big one.
30:48They can claim it for $230.
30:51Jeez, that looks a bit ominous.
30:53A bit scary looking.
30:55Jeez, look at that dead kangaroo.
30:57Look at that. Smells a bit.
30:59Sussed it out.
31:01So far it's not looking too good.
31:03Who knows inside?
31:05Oh, it's a bit tight.
31:07There's bones everywhere, man.
31:10Freaking hell, look at that.
31:12Oh, I don't want to see that.
31:14Look at that.
31:16Keep going.
31:18What is this, dug by a midget or something?
31:21Old timers, man.
31:23Small and skinny.
31:28So far I'm not seeing much hope here.
31:30My legs are kind of cramping up.
31:32Not much space to do anything, really.
31:34Look at that. The only...
31:36The worst part is it looks sketchy. How long down there?
31:38The whole thing's caved into the road.
31:40We're looking for safety, not...
31:42I don't like it.
31:44I don't like the wall here at all.
31:46I have a feeling this has been dug and left.
31:48Because there was no opal in here at all.
31:50I'm not seeing anything down this end either.
31:52We move on.
31:54The roof here looks a little bit sketchy as well, which I'm not liking.
31:56Yeah, over here it's heaps sketchy.
31:58I don't like it.
32:00It's just too much work to even turn it into a mine
32:02that we can use all our stuff in right now.
32:04Yeah, I don't think this is the place for us.
32:08I think screw that.
32:10No way.
32:12We've found something that's decent
32:14and that's just horrible.
32:32Yeah, I think we need more digging, man.
32:34The first of the Blacklighters'
32:36four claims has run dry.
32:38They're now struggling
32:40to move their 10-tonne
32:42processing plant, Opalzilla,
32:44to the next claim.
32:46Didn't quite get
32:48the axle dug out enough
32:50before, so
32:52give it one more go, eh?
32:54Still a little bit underneath here, so
32:56it might take us a little bit of shoveling, but
32:58we'll get it done.
33:06Righto, looks like we've got a second attempt here.
33:10Yeah!
33:16Yeah!
33:18Yeah!
33:24Keep going, just keep going.
33:30Like that, baby.
33:32Dirty. It's moving.
33:34They now have to tow
33:36the 13-metre-long,
33:385-metre-wide Opalzilla
33:40It's got a bit of a wobble there.
33:42Stay upright. Please
33:44stay upright today.
33:46700 metres over narrow, broken
33:48roads to the new claim.
33:50You've got open cuts on either
33:52side of this little road.
33:54Don't have to stop in a hurry
33:56and have it push me over the edge of the cut,
33:58which would really suck.
34:02Not much room here.
34:04Can we just go for it, or what?
34:06Yeah!
34:08Why not?
34:12Just got to make sure
34:14the back wheels get around.
34:16Oh, oh, oh.
34:18Easy.
34:20Hold up, hold up, hold up.
34:22I'm just about through, man.
34:24Yeah, I know, but the
34:26arse ends could possibly come down here.
34:28Yeah, if we
34:30do fall in there, it's game over.
34:32I don't think we'll ever get it out.
34:34Are we going to stay on the road or not?
34:36Well, you're on the edge here,
34:38right, and there's a big mound here, and look at the pole
34:40I'm standing in. That slides
34:42down in there, just up the front here.
34:44It's all over.
34:48You just have to take it a bit higher.
34:50Yeah, I can go back.
34:54Straight back.
34:56Don't bother turning. Just keep going.
35:04Watch.
35:08Just take it really wide
35:10and really careful.
35:12Come on, Zilla.
35:14Oh, oh, oh.
35:16Keep going that way.
35:18Go, you, Zilla.
35:20Come on.
35:26Looks like we're through.
35:28Yeah.
35:30Beauty.
35:34There she is.
35:36Come on.
35:38Yeah.
35:40Yeah, you beauty.
35:42We made it.
35:44Oh, that is gold. Well done, mate.
35:46Well done.
35:48That is bloody good. What a relief,
35:50eh?
35:52Now we can start thinking about getting some opal again, eh?
35:54I'm thinking about a drink. I'm thirsty.
35:56Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm thirsty first, too.
35:58It was an awesome
36:00relief to just be
36:02on the claim we want to be on.
36:04Very exciting. Yeah.
36:06There's a lot of good-looking dirt there.
36:08It's a pretty good feeling
36:10because we've all worked pretty hard to get it there,
36:12so we're all pretty happy and, yeah,
36:14I think everyone deserves a nice cold beer
36:16after the day we've had.
36:18Fingers crossed.
36:20The next few weeks, we're sitting on the opal.
36:22I'm trying
36:24not to let any stress or pressure
36:26get to me, but there's definitely
36:28an underwriting feeling of
36:30we've got a lot more on our plate now.
36:32We're not just trying to cover our own
36:34backsides. We've actually got to pull opal out
36:36and pay back our investor
36:38and hopefully get him a really good
36:40return.
36:42With their mine running out of opal,
36:44the young guns are searching for
36:46a new home.
36:48It's time to go.
36:50The young guns are searching for
36:52a new claim in Westfield
36:54on the advice of Jamin's grandfather,
36:56a Whitecliffs mining
36:58veteran. Ooh, there's a mine.
37:00I mean, it's always dangerous
37:02when you're going down these, you know, old shafts.
37:04You don't know what's at the bottom. You don't know what's waiting for you.
37:06You don't know the condition of it.
37:08Hopefully, we've got
37:10enough ladder to get down there.
37:12Easy does it.
37:14Watch out. It's in there.
37:16Grab it. Grab it.
37:20That was our bottom rung that just fell off.
37:22Bottom two rungs of the ladder
37:24hit the ground and bounced back off.
37:26So me and Noah are going to stay up here.
37:28JC's just going to quickly climb down, you know,
37:30so that's probably, what, 15 foot
37:32or so from the bottom? So he's got a 15 foot
37:34drop between him and the last rung of the ladder
37:36and he's got to reach across, grab that,
37:38hook it back on.
37:40How you going, JC?
37:42Hanging off the ladder, trying to pick it up
37:44and turn around. This is scaring
37:46me right now.
37:48If JC falls and
37:50is injured, the closest major
37:52hospital is 240
37:54kilometres away.
37:56They're definitely going to butterflies.
37:58That was a bloody rung.
38:02Going down a mine is sketchy
38:04in itself. Just hopping on a ladder.
38:06So when you put a ladder into
38:08place and the bottom rung drops off,
38:10it's hard to deal with, but
38:12somebody's got to get down there and grab it.
38:14And going down, you need
38:16to have your wits about you because
38:18it can be terrible. One slip and
38:20broken bones.
38:28How's it looking down there, JC?
38:30Alright, I think it's good to go.
38:34See you down there, buddy.
38:40How you going, Noz? You're about
38:42halfway now, I reckon. I'm scared.
38:44I think I'm almost there.
38:46I'll come down now.
38:52There is a bit of space down here,
38:54isn't there, boys? It's huge.
38:56That roof's nice and solid.
38:58Yeah, it's a solid roof. If I can't knock
39:00it down, then nothing's going to knock it down.
39:02Alright, first one to find a bit of opal
39:04wins, I reckon, boys.
39:06You know,
39:08X marks the spot.
39:10Ooh,
39:12I found opal.
39:14Yeah, that's actually nice, hey?
39:16There's a little more opal around this
39:18side too, running straight through the wall all here.
39:20Crystal opal.
39:22Oh, nice. That's some blue-green.
39:24Nice bit of trace.
39:26The Young Guns
39:28have found crystal opal.
39:30It's a blue-green seam,
39:32and in its rough state, can be
39:34worth up to $500 a gram.
39:36I think we're getting excited
39:38now, aren't we?
39:40I think we are going to have to peg this.
39:42It's too good to let go.
39:44This mine is seriously shaping up.
39:46Hopefully this will be the next
39:48venture for the Young Guns.
39:50The whole mine looks really safe and stable,
39:52and the ground looks great. We are so
39:54excited to actually get into a new mine
39:56where we can just dig our hearts
39:58out. We got the investor,
40:00so I think we're all really keen
40:02to just get started. We have not
40:04seen opal trace like this
40:06anywhere else. Next step is pegging
40:08the claim, and then getting the gear down here,
40:10which is going to be a massive challenge.
40:12Alright, boys, I think we've got ourselves a whole new
40:14mine.
40:16That's it, guys.
40:18Alright,
40:20let's get out of here.
40:28Fifty, sixty
40:30ton of dirt. Now we saw that little bit of
40:32green, you know, fingers crossed.
40:34After three days of mining
40:36and over $1,000 in
40:38costs, the pressure's on for the
40:40Cheels truckload of dirt to
40:42show signs of opal.
40:44Forty litres of diesel
40:46runs a wash plant for the day,
40:48and then you've got costs of running the truck,
40:50you know, the same there.
40:52That can cripple you if you're not finding opal.
40:54The money goes out pretty quick.
40:56You never know.
40:58It could be, you know, a pile
41:00of dirt, could have $100,000
41:02in it. The team
41:04are looking for seam opal,
41:06formed when silica-rich water
41:08produces opal in long, narrow
41:10voids, and knobbies,
41:12solid pebbles of opal created
41:14in hollow, round crevices.
41:26Oh, that's bright.
41:29Got some green seam,
41:31pretty much what we plucked out
41:33underground.
41:35It's what we call traces,
41:37what you look for when you're looking for opal,
41:39and, you know, it's encouraging to see that.
41:41It's a good sign. It's a really
41:43bright colour, so hopefully we can get a few knobbies
41:45with similar colour and we'll be right.
41:58There's a knobby, look. That's what I wanted to see.
42:00One knobby with colour in it.
42:02We got it. Check that out, Dad.
42:06It's got red in that one. Oh, shit.
42:08Yeah.
42:10That's nice. Oh, bright flashing.
42:12Look at that. Far out.
42:14Another little knobby.
42:16Oh, bazinga.
42:18Bit of red in that one, eh?
42:20I'm pretty happy, you know, like
42:22that's really positive what we're seeing there.
42:24We've proved there's knobbies in colour down there
42:26under that fault. That means
42:28to me that there's a really good chance down there
42:30of finding some decent money.
42:32Well, I think this definitely, you know,
42:34gives us the confidence to go back there.
42:36Yeah, I'm pretty relieved to see that
42:38but I was thinking, jeez, you know,
42:40we could burn a heap of diesel and if we
42:42don't see nothing, well, it's going to be
42:44a little bit disappointed but
42:46if you get them clean on larger knobbies,
42:48you've got a lot of money very quickly.
42:50The Cheels have found seam
42:52and knobby opal.
42:54Blue-green with flashes of red
42:56and yellow. It's in the rough
42:58and there's eight grams.
43:00There might be two or three hundred dollars there
43:02but the value for me in that is knowing
43:04that the colour's carrying down underneath
43:06and no one else
43:08ever has worked down that deep
43:10under that Z fault. We're the first to have
43:12a look there so, you never know,
43:14might be the best thing we ever do.
43:16Hopefully. There's still
43:18pressure on us but I think with what
43:20we've got there, it's, you know, a promising
43:22sign that there could be
43:24a lot of money there. I don't think
43:26we're too far off it so, we're all
43:28pretty keen to get down that little bit deeper
43:30in the floor and I'm really excited.
43:32I'm pumped actually.
43:34I've got a really big gut feeling.
43:36You haven't dreamed about us hitting a pocket
43:38underneath that Z fault and look,
43:40to be honest, I just think it's a matter of when we do.
43:42I guess we'll wait and see.
43:52Music
44:04Music
44:06Music
44:08Music
44:10Music
44:12Music