Aussie Gold Hunters Season 10 Episode 10 FULL EPISODE HD | March 11, 2025
Categoría
🎥
CortometrajesTranscripción
00:00to see whether he can rectify our water issues.
00:03But that could be the end of the season there.
00:05So I've decided to come down south 1,500 kilometers
00:09where I've got some tenements in the Yalgoo area.
00:11I know where some good ground is there.
00:13And if Russell can't rectify the water,
00:16this is our future.
00:18We need to keep our season alive.
00:26Oh, this is the last thing I wanna see.
00:29My flesh is under water, look at all my gear.
00:35This is an absolute shamozzle.
00:37The last thing I need.
00:42Looks like I'm back to the drawing board.
00:55Lucky enough to lose all me mats,
00:57all me battens underneath.
00:59Big trays are in there somewhere.
01:02Well, me only option now is to go work the hard rock.
01:04I've always wanted to work it here.
01:06So that's what I'll do.
01:12Well, this is plan B.
01:16This is not what a 68-year-old man should be doing.
01:22The last thing I want is half a wall falling on me.
01:25Gee whiz, that wasn't too clever.
01:27There's been big gold found here before, about 1918.
01:31They took out five tons of dirt
01:32and they got 300 ounces of gold.
01:34In today's money, that is $1 million.
01:37And it probably took them one afternoon to do it.
01:40So I'm hoping I can find something like that.
01:45Rusty's up another guy and he's got no water.
01:47So we've got to have a backup plan.
01:48Otherwise our season is well and truly over.
01:52Come on, Rusty, let's not lose her!
01:55She's running like a dream.
01:57This season, Shane Caligari returned to the gold fields
02:01to help his old mining partner, Russell Nash,
02:04chase down a 30-ounce target at the remote Fantasy Gully Lease.
02:10Shane! Shane!
02:12Shut it down!
02:13There's a problem with the water!
02:15We're running out of water.
02:17But with the operation at a standstill...
02:19Without the water, we're beaten. No water, no gold.
02:22..Shane has left former plumber Russell to find a new water source
02:26while he searches for potential new ground.
02:32Russell has helped me out a lot over the years.
02:35So if I can find a new resource of gold here on this tenement
02:38and get us back on track, then, well, that's the plan.
02:40Shane has called in geologist Ryan Cahoon
02:43to get them back on the gold.
02:46Shane-o! How you going down there?
02:48How are you, Brydon? Sure glad to see you.
02:51Let's go and have a look at this fancy gun you got.
02:55These are the rocks that I jackhammered out today.
02:58Awesome. All right.
02:59Let's do a bit of testing on them and see what you got.
03:01So this is the machine, and it's the best in the business.
03:04It's a portable XRF machine,
03:06and it has the capability to tell us a very quick analysis
03:10of what elements we're finding in the rocks.
03:13Right.
03:14Basically how it works is it sends spectral radiation through the rocks,
03:18and it'll pick up on what elements we're seeing in there.
03:20And so hopefully it can pick up on some gold.
03:22All right. So there we go. So that's all done.
03:25So as you can see here, you got the elements on the left-hand side.
03:28Yeah.
03:29And then PPM, which is parts per million.
03:31That's what the analysis is calculating.
03:33Yeah.
03:34We're looking for, obviously, gold AU,
03:36and then we're looking for tungsten, molybdenum, bismuth.
03:39Those are the sort of pathfinding elements
03:41that you want around a gold system.
03:44During millions of years of seismic activity,
03:47molten minerals from the Earth's core were forced upwards.
03:51When these mineral-rich fluids cooled,
03:54they solidified into deposits of gold, tungsten,
03:57and other pathfinder minerals.
04:01Encouragingly, in this one, I'm actually starting to see some gold already.
04:05Did you say gold?
04:06Yeah.
04:07We're definitely in the ballpark.
04:08Oh, that's good.
04:10OK, Ryan, what do you reckon?
04:12Well, I reckon we need to follow on
04:14with what you've already found so far, you know?
04:17So we'll dig a hole down about a metre
04:19and we'll take the readings with the gun,
04:21your fancy gun,
04:23crush them up and see what gold we've got in them.
04:25Yeah, 100%.
04:26Right, great. Let's get on with it.
04:27Sounds good.
04:35Righto, Ryan, let's get on the gold.
04:37Yeah, let's see it, eh?
04:40Whoa.
04:42I think, Ryan, that's it there.
04:44Bit of quartz there, eh?
04:46Yeah.
04:47So he's opening up the structure
04:49and basically he's getting a bit of room either side of it.
04:52Oh, Ryan!
04:53Oh, there he is. He's on the vein now.
04:55Oh, throw that one that way, so be careful.
04:59So I got into geology 10 years ago
05:01and just had a love for the hunt
05:03to find something that's not been discovered.
05:05I met Shane a couple of years back
05:07when I was working for a big gold company.
05:09We've kept a good relationship since then.
05:11It's as hard as hell, this ground.
05:14Hey, Shane-o, I reckon now that you've got that out,
05:17you could actually move back a bit.
05:19Yeah, I'll try to dig down, try to get down that one.
05:21Yeah, I think so, yeah.
05:26All right, Shane-o, come back and then come forward,
05:28starting there.
05:29Tell me when to stop.
05:36Whoa, Shane-o!
05:39You all right, Shane?
05:42Unbelievable.
05:52Yeah, I was just ringing you about that dirt
05:54we were speaking about.
05:56That's all right. No, all good.
05:57Thanks for that anyway.
05:58Cheers, bye.
06:02We always fish up stockpiles
06:04knowing there's going to be wet weather coming.
06:06But the last few weeks,
06:08there's been a lot more rainfall than we expected.
06:10So this is the last of the dirt here.
06:13So Simon's trying to work something out,
06:15and hopefully we can come up with a plan.
06:18Because if we're not running dirt,
06:19we're not making any money.
06:21We really need to make some money.
06:22We can't afford not to sit and do anything while it's wet.
06:26Yeah, with all that rain that we've had,
06:28our dirt's pretty saturated,
06:29so we just need some dry piles to run
06:31through the dry blower.
06:33Now I've worked all our piles,
06:34so I've got nothing left now.
06:37We're kind of running out of options.
06:47How's it look?
06:48Any gold in there?
06:49No, not much at all, Simon.
06:52Oh well, good news.
06:53Just on the phone with Tom,
06:54he's got some piles out there
06:56and all the dirt's still sitting out there.
06:57It'll be dry on the inside,
06:58but we don't know whether there's going to be any gold in it.
07:00Well, we don't have an option.
07:01Yeah, something's better than nothing.
07:02We're going to give it a go.
07:04OK, let's go then.
07:07So, Simon, what do you think we need?
07:10So, he's happy for us to work the ground,
07:12and we've got to give him 20% of whatever we get.
07:15So, yeah, let's just hope the gold guy's looking at us
07:18and he's left a little bit of yellow rocks in there for us.
07:24Nothing glamorous about this work, I'll tell you that.
07:28Rookie miners Cheryl Munro and Simon Laws
07:31took a massive risk,
07:33leaving behind a pile of dirt.
07:35Leaving behind stable jobs
07:37to chase their dream of finding gold.
07:40I used to work as a midwife,
07:42but never would have thought I'd have been living this life.
07:46Simon! Simon!
07:48What's wrong?
07:49The duo overcame teething issues with their dry blower.
07:53Clogged up in there.
07:55Pulling in their biggest gold weigh of the season.
07:596.55.
08:00Well done, Laws. We did well.
08:02Yeah, right on track.
08:05So, this is it, huh?
08:07Yep. Plenty of it.
08:09Desperate to stay on the gold,
08:11they've made a deal with their neighbour
08:13for an 80% cut of any gold they can find.
08:17There's lots of it.
08:18Let's just hope it's got some gold in it.
08:20I hope so.
08:21There's a huge amount here,
08:22so this will definitely keep us going for the rest of the week.
08:25If you have a look over here,
08:27there'll be a hard crust on the dirt.
08:31And then you get down in here...
08:34It's super dry.
08:35See?
08:36Yeah, I see what you mean.
08:37Bone dry.
08:38So all this, we can run it.
08:41Yeah, right.
08:42Get us out of jail card.
08:44Let's get cracking then, hey?
08:58You know, we're trying to hit 50 ounces for the season,
09:01it's a bit of a gamble,
09:02running dirt that you don't know whether there's gold in
09:04because it costs you money to do it.
09:06You might not get anything out of it,
09:08but $500 a day in running costs,
09:11and hopefully it'll pay off in the end.
09:17And again, it's going to do really well,
09:19because there's nothing clogged up, which is very good.
09:22Hay dirt is fed into the hopper.
09:24A feeder ship then distributes dirt
09:27into a series of riffles,
09:30where air blows away lighter waste material,
09:33leaving the heavier gold to collect in the trays.
09:48See this pile on there?
09:50It's really clogged up.
09:55Jamie, you there?
09:56Yep.
09:58Can you come and have a look at this feeder shelf?
10:00You know that tie rod end?
10:01Yeah.
10:02When the feeder shelf was going, it was really clogging out.
10:04I don't think it's got much time left in it, Simon.
10:09Ooh, nah.
10:10That's hanging on just.
10:12That's the last one I've got too.
10:14That won't last.
10:15If we don't fix that and that falls off,
10:17that's game over.
10:19What are we going to do?
10:20Because we really need to keep mining.
10:22You know those old cars out in the bush?
10:24They've all got those tie rod ends on their steering arms.
10:26That's what makes your wheel turn.
10:28I'll keep running, and you can just go out there
10:30and have a look at those old cars
10:32and just see if you can take one of them off.
10:34You know what you're looking for.
10:35Oh yeah, I know what I'm looking for.
10:37That'll get us through until we get back and get another one.
10:39Well, let's hope there is one.
10:41Righto.
10:47That part right there, we can't mine.
10:49I need to get this back to Simon as soon as possible.
10:53We really can't justify having any more downtime.
10:55The clock is really ticking now.
11:09It's mine we're exploring.
11:10It's five kilometres from the Fair Lady,
11:12our main operation.
11:14We've got some there keeping that one running,
11:16but we're over here exploring.
11:18This lease has got a huge amount of potential.
11:20The plan is to pull this excavator in,
11:22dig some holes, and see if this place has got a future.
11:25I've just got to get there first.
11:28That looks like a massive drop.
11:32Way too steep for this machine.
11:34We're not going down there.
11:36Let's find another way around.
11:38We've had a bit of a late start to the season
11:40building the dry blower, getting it up and running.
11:42That's the reason we're out here checking out new ground.
11:45You've always got to be one step ahead,
11:48have the projects rolling one into the next.
11:50If you have the next thing to move on to,
11:52you haven't got a future.
11:56Clearly lost the right track.
11:58This looks actually much more doable.
12:02Well, that's good to see.
12:08You finally made it.
12:10Slow and steady. That took forever, but we're here.
12:15What's the plan?
12:18On this lease, there are a number of shafts.
12:20They're at least 110, maybe 120 years old.
12:23Old shafts like this,
12:25for them to be out here in the middle of nowhere,
12:27they'd have to be on good gold.
12:29How much do we need to find to be able to
12:31make it worth our while?
12:33If it's three or four grams a ton,
12:35we can make a living out of that.
12:37Our first protocol is we get to those shafts,
12:39get underground, and get some samples
12:41right from where they were working.
12:43Crush them up, pan it out,
12:45hope we've got something good.
12:47You can go down first, then you let me know.
12:51Bar in the hole.
12:53That's it, Olan.
12:55We're up and running.
12:57This season, mining partners
12:59Melanie Wood and Alex Stead
13:01invested $400,000
13:03into The Beast,
13:05a one-of-a-kind dry blower
13:07capable of processing
13:09100 tonnes of dirt per hour
13:11at their Fairlady lease.
13:13That's pretty much 50 grand on the table right now.
13:16For that, yeah.
13:18Done!
13:20While veteran gold miner John Stevenson
13:22keeps their operation going...
13:24Let's go! Let's get some gold!
13:26Mel and Alex
13:28are five kilometres away
13:30on the neighbouring Ritchie lease
13:32in search of new gold-rich ground.
13:34Check this one out.
13:36I think we can climb down there and have a look.
13:38What do you reckon?
13:40Well, doesn't look the safest place to go down, but...
13:42I think, yeah, in and out
13:44as fast as we can.
13:46Yeah. Just this front I don't like. It's overhanging.
13:48That's very loose.
13:50Ugh.
13:52OK, there's a bit of a tunnel down here.
13:54Yeah? Yeah.
13:56Jeez!
13:58These old boys did a lot of work.
14:00During the gold rush of the 1900s,
14:02old-timers hand-dug
14:04networks of interconnected
14:06tunnels here, reaching depths
14:08of over 30 metres.
14:11I can go down and get some samples.
14:13OK.
14:15Just go steady. Don't hit the roof on your way down.
14:17I'll try.
14:19Don't I take you on the best adventures?
14:21Yeah. This is wonderful.
14:23Oh, wow.
14:25It's pretty cool, isn't it?
14:27Yeah.
14:29What is that smell down here?
14:31Oh, that'll be the dead kangaroo.
14:33Ugh.
14:35Be careful.
14:37Just get down there, get what you need and get out.
14:40Yep.
14:42Nice quartz here at the entrance
14:44already, but
14:46I'm going to go in deeper, see what I find.
14:56Jesus, it goes for ages.
14:58There's a big spider.
15:00Oh, I love
15:02spiders in a small place.
15:04I'm glad I didn't go down there.
15:06But the tunnel goes on,
15:08so I guess we carry on a bit further.
15:10Yeah.
15:12This underground stuff is definitely not for me.
15:16Even skulls of dead things down here.
15:18I mean, this is not a place you want to hang around.
15:22I don't want Alex down here too long.
15:24You know, there's a lot of unstable rocks.
15:26It could potentially be hazardous
15:28and there's spiders and...
15:32That kangaroo smells so bad.
15:38Alright, this looks as good a place as any.
15:40Right at the end of the diggings.
15:42Probably like
15:4410 metres or so down now.
15:46Hope it's got some gold for us.
15:48This rock actually looks
15:50pretty juicy.
15:52It's all rusty and rotten, shows all the minerals
15:54just seeping out of it.
15:56This looks pretty good to take a sample, but
15:58knocking anything down here
16:00you've got to be careful.
16:02You just don't know what things are supporting.
16:04Domino effect, you take a small rock out
16:07and then the bigger rocks fall.
16:09But this stuff all looks really good.
16:11Gonna grab some out
16:13and take to the surface.
16:15I don't need to get much of a sample.
16:17I just need to prove it's holding gold.
16:21Yeah, that's really good looking stuff.
16:23If this is carrying gold, then this tunnel
16:25could well be worth excavating.
16:33What the f*** is that?
16:37Unbelievable.
16:39That's what happens when you rush.
16:41What have you done now, Shano?
16:43Well, what's it look like, right?
16:45What are you going to do about that now, mate?
16:47Well, what do you think I'm going to try, John?
16:49I'm going to try and get the bloody thing out.
16:51Okay, well, good luck, mate.
16:59Let's do it!
17:01Let's do it!
17:09Come on!
17:15Yes, yes, yes!
17:17Yes!
17:21How's that, Rhino?
17:23Yeah, you're out there, mate.
17:25Clear as gold.
17:27I'll give it one more ride.
17:30Oh, there it is.
17:32That's a good one.
17:34Yeah, that quartz has come up real nice.
17:36Well, I think, Rhino,
17:38if you can't get a rating on that,
17:40you want to give it away.
17:42Well, let's have a look.
17:46Yeah, it's not looking bad, Shane.
17:48The reef is not as deep
17:50as what I thought, and it's very, very
17:52good for me tired old machine
17:54and tired old driver, but
17:56it's looking pretty promising.
17:59All right, there we go.
18:01You're starting to see some good alteration in that, Shane.
18:03I think we need to get the XRF on this.
18:05Yeah, let's get onto it.
18:07All right, Shane.
18:09That's looking pretty good, mate.
18:11We've got 1,200 ppm,
18:13which is parts per million.
18:15That's gold?
18:17That's 1,000 grams per tonne on that piece of rock there.
18:19You're nailing a bit of gold there, boy.
18:21Okay, Ryan.
18:23I'm an old-fashioned prospector,
18:25and the only way I'm really going to find out
18:27is by crushing it, pan it off,
18:29and see what gold we've got in it.
18:31Let's have a look.
18:33Will that do it, you reckon?
18:35That'll be enough?
18:37That's oodle.
18:39All right, we'll get these bigger ones here.
18:41We'll break some of these pieces up.
18:47Looking good, Ryan.
18:49I'm happy with that.
18:51Let's take this over here.
18:53I'm glad you're happy with that, mate,
18:56Come on, grab that dolly and bring it over here.
19:00Okay, Rhino.
19:02This is the moment of truth.
19:04I'll just start shaking it up there a little bit.
19:06We're going to get a colour here.
19:08I'm very confident.
19:10That looked like a colour, maybe.
19:12I think this threw a colour over the edge.
19:14Oh, Ryan.
19:16Looking all right?
19:18Are you kidding me?
19:20There's gold there, Ryan.
19:22Yeah, there is, too.
19:24That's not bad at all.
19:26That would be about
19:2810 grams a tonne.
19:30And I reckon there'd be about
19:32$1,000 a tonne in that.
19:34The thing is that there's some larger particles there
19:36that means it's got a bit of potential there.
19:38Yeah, definitely.
19:40I think that's one of the things that really gets me excited
19:42because these areas can hold a lot of alluvial gold
19:44and I think if you get in here with a grader
19:46and free up some of this topsoil
19:48I reckon there's a good chance that you'll probably find a bit more around there.
19:50Yep, I'm happy with that.
19:53Give me a ring and I'll open some ground up.
19:55Yeah, cool. I'm going to see if I can go and chase this.
19:57I'll take some bags, I'll take the camera with me
19:59and I'll see what I can find.
20:01Sounds good.
20:03Good on you.
20:05Big leap for an old fella like you.
20:07Whee!
20:11Starting to build a bit of a picture.
20:13Just looking south of Shane's working
20:15and hopefully we can find something a bit further along.
20:17We know there's gold in the area
20:19and if I can identify the areas
20:22that are the most prospective
20:24and I can come back and we can probably have a look
20:26at either some digging or some alluvial work.
20:28Billions of years ago
20:30tectonic activity fractured the Earth's crust
20:32creating north-south fault lines
20:34that acted as pathways
20:36for mineral-rich fluids
20:38to rise to the surface and solidify
20:40forming gold-filled quartz structures
20:42known as reefs.
20:44While I'm doing this
20:46at least Shane can keep going
20:48and hopefully has luck finding some alluvials
20:50that he's going to go on with.
20:56There's Jimmy.
20:58We call him the troubleshooter.
21:00He's always pulling me out of trouble.
21:06Shane, how are we going Jim?
21:08Thanks for coming buddy.
21:10What I need you to do is to get your grater up there.
21:12There's some good gold being found
21:14on that corner over there.
21:16We just need to get down about another 300mm
21:19No worries.
21:21Not every day of the week you get a grater turning up.
21:23The quartz is here
21:25and we're going to grate straight down here
21:27back up, over, over, over
21:29and that blade will basically scrape
21:31the top 30cm of soil off
21:33and that'll be brand new dirt again.
21:35Shane does owe me a bit
21:37but that is the way it works with him
21:39and nothing's going to change.
21:41I'll give him some soup
21:43and some ravioli, he'll be happy.
21:45OK Jimmy
21:47Let's get the show on the road.
21:49Righto.
21:51We've got the fine gold here in the rock
21:53but now it's time to see
21:55if there's any big nuggets too
21:57then we'll really know if this spot will save our season.
21:59I can now grab the detector and get into it.
22:09What's that?
22:11There's birds in here.
22:14Ah!
22:16Oh my god!
22:18The bats just buzzed me.
22:20There's everything in here.
22:22Alex, are you alright?
22:24Yeah.
22:26I think it's time to call it.
22:28Be careful of your head.
22:30Oh.
22:32Let's get out of that place.
22:34Spiders, bats.
22:36I heard you yell out a few times and scream a little bit.
22:38Like a big girl?
22:40Yeah, that was definitely me.
22:43Good idea.
22:45I'm hoping these samples I've got
22:47are absolutely loaded with gold.
22:49Yeah.
22:51Right, what we're going to do is get those rocks
22:53put them through this machine
22:55crushes it all up and makes it really fine
22:57and hopefully liberates all the gold
22:59into this pan.
23:01The portable impact crusher uses four bars
23:03spinning over 1400 revolutions per minute
23:05inside a drum
23:07to pulverise rock
23:09into fine powder.
23:13Okay.
23:15It's just turned that stone just to complete dust.
23:17It has, yeah.
23:19So now that's the powder form
23:21hopefully it's released the gold.
23:23Alright, here we go.
23:29Oh yeah, we've got gold.
23:31That's like 10 bucks right there
23:33and that's just one handful of rocks.
23:35Well, we know where we're digging.
23:37Yep, we've got a plan. Let's dig some holes.
23:39Alright, sounds good.
23:41I'm hoping this lease is going to deliver us some gold.
23:43I've seen a bit of gold from our samples.
23:45It's too dangerous
23:47to stay down there
23:49and keep chipping away.
23:51So if we want to go deeper
23:53excavator is our only hope.
23:55I know there are good quartz veins around here
23:57but the old timers
23:59they've done a really good job of digging them out.
24:01And now we've got to try and find something
24:03that was either missed or they never found.
24:08Yeah, so this is a new lease
24:10by Alex's Digging and that gives me a chance
24:12to come out with my detector and just have a good look around.
24:14If this pays off
24:16we'll have two operations running
24:18and hopefully find a larger amount of gold.
24:22We're digging
24:24but it's slow going.
24:26The more we get into the project
24:28the harder this one's appearing.
24:30The ground's hard, burning a lot of diesel
24:32digging these things up.
24:34It's fine coming out here and spending a few days
24:36but it's got to really pay at the moment.
24:38Money's just going out.
24:46OK, what's just gone wrong?
24:52No power.
24:54Melanie, got a copy?
24:56Yeah.
24:58Excavator's just lost all its power.
25:00I don't know quite what's happened
25:02but not good.
25:04Oh, God.
25:07It's completely dead.
25:18I'll check out how this
25:20tire rod end's going.
25:22See if it's hanging in there.
25:26Yeah, that's just
25:28hanging on.
25:30The old ball joint's just sitting in there so
25:32it won't hang on for much longer.
25:36You got a copy, Cheryl?
25:38Yeah, I copy.
25:40How are you getting on out there?
25:42You found anything?
25:44I just looked at one car
25:46but it was really old and not really stable
25:48so there's a pile of other cars
25:50up around here we looked at before
25:52so I'll go and check them out.
25:54Yeah, this one here, it's only just hanging on
25:56so just get back as quick as you can.
25:58Alright, no worries. I'll try my best.
26:02Just trying to keep the boiler going
26:04and keep the dirt going through.
26:06Hoping to hit our 6oz
26:08target this week
26:10but we've got lots of ground to get through
26:12and we've got a flogged out
26:14tire rod end in there that's feeding
26:16the dirt down over the griffon trays.
26:18They're on most cars
26:20on your steering arm that turns your wheels
26:22down the bottom so
26:24really hoping that Cheryl can find a part
26:26out there in the bush somewhere.
26:28If that breaks, the show stops.
26:30Our local store
26:32is 7 hours away to get parts
26:34so we're often away to the dump
26:36scrounging out in abandoned cars
26:38to find parts for our machines.
26:40We've got to be so resourceful and think
26:42of other things.
26:44Brilliant, there's a good few cars in here
26:46so hopefully we'll maybe
26:48get something out of these.
26:50An old one that.
26:54This one's on his back which is good
26:56because it's easier to see the bit.
26:58And there's heaps of abandoned cars
27:00on this lease and we've took bits
27:02off the cars but other bits before.
27:04So this is the bit we're looking for, the tire
27:06rod end there and as you can see it's got
27:08the same bit here and this is the bit
27:10that was working into the feeder shelf
27:12but it's pretty rusted
27:14so I don't think it's probably
27:16worth replacing it with the one we've got
27:18because it's probably going to break in no time.
27:20Not ideal.
27:24Just trying to look and see what cars can look
27:26in better condition.
27:28We'll have a look at this blue one
27:30and see if that's suitable maybe.
27:32This car looks newer
27:34so hopefully it won't be as rusted.
27:36There's the tire rod end there.
27:40Yeah that looks good, it's not even got a bit of rust
27:42of it at all.
27:44Alright.
27:46Well that should work but the only
27:48problem being I can't get to it
27:50so I'm going to have to
27:52flip it onto its roof I reckon.
27:54I'll give that a shot.
27:58That's better.
28:02Alright so I've got the chain here
28:04so I'll flip that over.
28:08I've seen Simon do this plenty
28:10but I've never actually done it myself
28:12so let's hope it works
28:14and we don't get
28:16the chain going through the back window of the ute.
28:18I've heard of chains coming off
28:20before and causing serious injury
28:22so I've got to be really careful here.
28:26Alright, here we go.
28:36Come on, come on, come on.
28:52What's happening mate?
28:54The machine was running
28:56and it's just lost all its power.
29:00The isolator's
29:02still on.
29:04It shouldn't be dead.
29:08Nope, still no power.
29:14That could be it.
29:22Mmm.
29:24Mel, you got a copy?
29:26Yeah.
29:28It was just a kill switch.
29:30I hit it with my elbow, I didn't realise.
29:34Cheers.
29:36Oh, I'm pleased it was just that.
29:38It did its job.
29:40I just didn't realise I pressed it.
29:48That sounds alright.
29:50Wow.
29:56Alright.
29:58This is the fun part.
30:00That sounds amazing.
30:06Oh my god, I can feel it hit my hand.
30:08Check that out.
30:10Yeah, this one feels like about $200.
30:12You always get a bit nervous
30:14when you start out on a new lease
30:16but when you're finding pieces like this,
30:18this is a really good sign.
30:20I'm just hoping Alex has some luck
30:22with the mineshafts as well.
30:24If we can find a decent resource,
30:26then that's where the big payday could be.
30:32I've got some
30:34coolsy rocks to get crushed.
30:40I'm a little bit deeper down,
30:42so this should give more of an idea.
30:44Spent too much money,
30:46too much time.
30:48This has to pay off for us.
30:50If it's not carrying gold,
30:52it could be bust for this lease.
30:54We're really going to come down to this.
30:56This should be good if it's not.
30:58Back to the drawing board.
31:04The idea now
31:06is to find nuggets.
31:08We've got the machine here.
31:10The day's sunny and we're going to find gold.
31:12Get into the detector. Get into it.
31:14We've proven there's buying gold here.
31:16Jimmy's scraping off the top
31:18and hopefully we'll have some
31:20detectable gold here that's shed off the reef.
31:24I used to sing myself a little song.
31:26Magic wand,
31:28find
31:30me some gold.
31:34So I followed that reef along a little bit
31:36more to the south.
31:38This is what we're looking for.
31:40Awesome.
31:42I'm confident that this is the same structure
31:44that we're seeing along from Shane's workings there.
31:46I'm just going to break that
31:48zone open there.
31:50Yeah, so this is
31:52looking really promising.
31:54So I'm pretty keen to get this XRF on it
31:56and confirm that we actually do have something in there.
32:00So that result's
32:02just come up now and it's looking good.
32:04We're seeing some low levels of gold.
32:06So I think this is definitely
32:08the structure along from Shane's workings.
32:10So yeah, this is a good result.
32:12I'll take a sample of this and I'll take that to the lab
32:14and get an accurate analysis.
32:18Chuck that in there and I'm going to keep
32:20moving along, see if we can find some more.
32:28Come on, magic wand.
32:32Oh, got a
32:34sound there boys.
32:36Found it, magic wand.
32:38Come on, where are you?
32:44Okay.
32:46Very delicate this, finding
32:48gold.
32:50There's nothing delicate about me.
32:52Oh, listen to that.
33:00It's in me hand.
33:02There we go.
33:04Look, a little bit of gold.
33:06First little piece.
33:08That's a good sign.
33:10This is going well now.
33:12That's going in the kick.
33:14Come on, I've got to find more.
33:16More, more, more.
33:24Give me some gold.
33:28Oh, nice sound there.
33:30I can listen to this every
33:32day of me life.
33:34Okay, let's have a look.
33:36Something here real good.
33:42That big, it's not going to be able to see it now.
33:46Gee whiz, look at that.
33:50That's a great piece of gold, look at it.
33:52This one here, about $300.
33:56We're on the gold.
33:58We're on the gold.
34:00Now we're making some real money.
34:04Nice piece of gold, going right
34:06in the bin.
34:08Nothing better than listening
34:10to the jar rattling.
34:12This is great.
34:14We've got gold on the rock, we've got detectable gold.
34:16This is looking very promising.
34:18Alright,
34:20come on.
34:22Gold.
34:26Come on, come on, come on.
34:30Wheels are spinning.
34:32Come on.
34:36Okay, she's coming.
34:38She's coming.
34:40And she's over.
34:42High five, she is off.
34:46Alright, so I can get that
34:48grinded off, I reckon.
34:50It looks really good.
34:52The rubber's all intact, there's not a bit of rust on it.
34:54It looks actually really good.
34:56I'm sure Simon will be happy with that.
34:58Alright, let's go.
35:00We're on the gold.
35:02We're on the gold.
35:04We're on the gold.
35:06We're on the gold.
35:08I'm sure Simon will be happy with that.
35:10Alright.
35:22Got it.
35:26Very different from your average day
35:28as a midwife, although
35:30similar in many ways, as in it can be very
35:32unpredictable, can change very quickly.
35:34So we've got that in common.
35:36I love living out here. I enjoy it.
35:38I really like doing physical work and I like doing
35:40challenging work.
35:42I've learned heaps of new skills.
35:44Woohoo.
35:46Got it out.
35:48Let's get it back to Simon.
36:00Woohoo, he's pushed it out.
36:02See how she went.
36:06Woohoo.
36:10Look what I got.
36:12What a hero. I deserve a bonus for that.
36:14You had some good neck too.
36:16It's not even rusted or anything.
36:18Perfect. I did the job.
36:20So you're going to change it out?
36:22Yeah, I'll go sort this out now if you want to check
36:24those trays, because they don't run all day.
36:26And then you go, oh, we'll do that.
36:28So just pull one tray out.
36:30Shake it off and we can give it a little test pan
36:32or something. And while you're doing that,
36:34I'll quickly swap this one over.
36:36Oh yeah, no worries. Okay.
36:42Lucky Cheryl found the right size.
36:44Looks like it's going to do the job,
36:46which is perfect.
36:48Just in the nick of time too.
36:54This is a really useful indication
36:56to us on how the grain is.
36:58So we empty the tray spray
37:00and then we'll pan it afterwards.
37:02Take some dirt off it first, shake it off.
37:08Hopefully that's got fine gold.
37:12It's been a really tough week for us
37:14with the weather. It's been so wet.
37:16Limited grind to work on.
37:18The part and the dry bore.
37:20So we're really hopeful that this is going to pay off
37:22and we're going to actually get some gold
37:24and it's going to be workable grind for us
37:26because we've really got limited options at the moment.
37:28Our season target is 50 ounces
37:30and that's an ambitious target
37:32so we have to get something out of this.
37:36You can see a little bit of colour
37:38just appearing at the sides there.
37:44Thank God there's some there.
37:46And after the really crap week we've had
37:48it's just refreshing to see that in here.
37:52You there, Simon?
37:54Yeah, I got you.
37:56So I've just finished that pan
37:58and I've got a bit of good spirits and a bit of fine stuff
38:00so I'm quite happy with that actually.
38:02Ah, beautiful. I'll keep running it.
38:04We'll make as much as we can while we can.
38:06That's good.
38:08Never would I have thought when I was in the
38:10hills of north-east of Scotland
38:12that I'd be in the bush, flipping cars
38:14digging for gold, but I absolutely love it.
38:20So I've just been to check on the Fairlady lease.
38:22We've had John out there running things for the week
38:24and everything's tracking well.
38:26So I'm just heading back to Alex now
38:28to where we've been doing a bit of
38:30exploration on the Ritchie lease
38:32and I'm hoping he's got good news for me.
38:36Dove deeper in the same quartz vein
38:38that had a bit of colour, so I'm hoping
38:40it's carrying more gold.
38:42If it's not carrying gold
38:44it could be bust for this lease.
38:48It's got gold, I should start to see it now.
38:52Not as much as I'd like, but it's definite gold.
38:54It's probably only $15
38:56for about 5 tonnes of rocks.
38:58So sadly, it doesn't look like
39:00this one is going to be payable for us.
39:02Well,
39:04looks like Mel's back from Fairlady.
39:08Hey. Hey, how's it going?
39:10Good. How's it been here?
39:12Got some digging, done some sampling.
39:14Well?
39:16What have we got?
39:18Look at that. That's actually really good.
39:20Yeah. How did the sampling go?
39:22Well,
39:24not as good as I'd have liked. There is gold,
39:26but it doesn't look like it's going to be
39:28a big win for us. Pretty tough digging
39:30and you'd want to see a lot of gold
39:32at this point in time. I think we
39:34just put that one to bed.
39:36Alright.
39:38Anyway, Fairlady?
39:40Yeah. It's producing. Let's see what
39:42we've got.
39:44Wow, that's really good.
39:46And I think you've got some? Yeah.
39:48Alright, well that's
39:503.1.
39:52Despite poor sampling results,
39:54Mel and Alex's main operation
39:56at Fairlady has delivered
39:58nearly $11,000 worth
40:00of gold.
40:02That's covered the cost of exploration.
40:04Whatever Fairlady can produce gold like this,
40:06we stay there. As soon as the
40:08numbers drop, we're going to need another place.
40:10Let's get this gold back in the
40:12jar. There you go.
40:14My precious. It's for you.
40:18Alright, back to Fairlady?
40:20Yep, back to Fairlady.
40:26Well, I've had a pretty good week.
40:28Jimmy's gone home. Ryan's gone home.
40:30I've managed to get myself some very
40:32good finds and I'm keen to weigh
40:34it all up and see what I've got.
40:36I think there's going to be a good result here.
40:38That's 0.1
40:40of an ounce of fine gold.
40:42That's a very good result.
40:44Alright, nuggets in here.
40:460.63 of an ounce.
40:48That's really telling us we've got
40:50some good material here for the future
40:52and that's very exciting.
40:54I'm very upbeat about this.
40:58Shane's effort to prove up
41:00the Cords Hill lease has brought in
41:02over $2,200
41:04worth of gold.
41:06I'd better give Ryan the geo
41:08ring to see how his test samples went
41:10from the lab.
41:12Shane-o.
41:14How's it going there, Ryan-o?
41:16Good fella, just got home.
41:18Good. The first thing I want to say to you
41:20is thanks very much for bringing the gun
41:22up and thanks for your efforts here.
41:24Cheers, mate. Good times.
41:26We've got those results back from the lab
41:28and I'm pretty excited about it, Shane. It's looking good.
41:30We've definitely got up to 10 grams of gold
41:32per ton in some of those veins that we're
41:34sampling, so I think you need to look at
41:36trying to move some earth, you know, and see if you can find
41:38a bit more. Well, Ryan, that's
41:40great news. That's exactly what I want to hear.
41:42Good on you, Shane. Good luck and
41:44yeah, talk to you soon. Thank you, mate.
41:46Cheers, mate. This is looking very
41:48promising. It's looking very promising
41:50for Russell and I. All we've got to do
41:52is get some more heavy machinery, bigger
41:54crushers, and you never know what can happen.
41:56It looks like I've got a few
41:58more papers to call in to see whether
42:00we can open this area up.
42:06What a week. Yeah, we got through
42:08though. The good old gold guard was
42:10being good to us. Yeah,
42:12and good that you got that deal for those dirt piles.
42:14Oh yeah, we'd have been stuffed if we
42:16didn't get that. And then that tyre would end just
42:18to throw it all in there. Yeah, well you did
42:20a good job finding it though. I know I did.
42:22I impressed myself. Yeah, flipping it all by yourself.
42:24Yeah. Do you want to see how we went?
42:26Yeah, let's see how we went.
42:324.6,
42:344.7, 5
42:36ounces. Not bad.
42:38That's not bad.
42:40Minus Tom's 20%. Yeah, still.
42:42Well, we had no other option. Roughly 4 ounces.
42:44It was either nothing or that.
42:46That's it. I'm happy with that. Yeah, so am I.
42:48We make a good team.
42:50Cheryl and Simon's gamble
42:52to process new ground paid
42:54off with over $17,000
42:56worth of gold.
42:58Righto. Alright, good stuff.
43:00Happy with that. Yep. So hopefully,
43:02we can get back to normal pushing up and stuff next
43:04week, hey? Yeah, it's not going to rain now until next
43:06winter. That's what I'm telling myself.
43:08Yeah, we'll go with the positive thoughts. Yeah. Fingers crossed.
43:10Now, happy with that, let's go and have
43:12a red wine by the fire. Sounds perfect.
43:14Let's go.
43:34...
43:36...
43:38...
43:40...
43:42...
43:44...
43:46...
43:48...
43:50...
43:52...
43:54...
43:56...
43:58...
44:00...
44:02...
44:04...
44:06...
44:08...
44:10...
44:12...
44:14...
44:16...
44:18...
44:20...
44:22...
44:24...
44:26...
44:28...
44:30...
44:32...
44:34...
44:36...
44:38...
44:40...
44:42...
44:44...
44:46...
44:48...
44:50...
44:52...
44:54...
44:56...
44:58...
45:00...
45:02...
45:04...
45:06...
45:08...
45:10...
45:12...
45:14...
45:16...
45:18...
45:20...
45:22...
45:24...
45:26This is where you should be paying attention.
45:29Your ears are back, and you're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:39You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:41You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:43You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:44You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:45You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:46You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:47You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:48You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:49You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:50You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:51You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:52You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:53You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:54You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:55You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:56You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:57You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:58You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
45:59You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:00You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:01You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:02You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:03You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:04You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:05You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:06You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:07You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:08You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:09You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:24You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
46:45You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:13You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:14You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:15You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:16You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:17You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:18You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:19You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:20You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:21You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:22You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:23You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:24You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:25You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:26You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:27You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:28You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
47:49You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
48:15You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
48:43You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:11You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:40You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:41You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:42You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:43You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:44You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:45You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:46You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:47You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:48You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:49You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:50You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:51You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:52You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:53You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:54You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
49:55You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:16You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:45You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:46You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:47You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:48You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:49You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:50You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:51You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:52You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:53You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:54You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:55You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:56You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:57You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:58You're going to be hearing more and more of this.
50:59You're going to be hearing more and more of this.