NARRATOR: This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
Please stop raining.
NARRATOR: ..The Poseidon Crew's hopes are sinking fast...
We can't mine Catto's. It's gonna take weeks to dry out.
NARRATOR: ...but a chance return to an old claim
..throws them a lifeline...
We can get back into the Big License.
What?
NARRATOR: ...if they can restart Ethan's beloved wash plant.
Even though it's a wet plant, it won't operate in the wet.
NARRATOR: On Shane's Galah lease, patience is wearing thin...
Not gonna pay the bills.
It's a waste of time to be here.
NARRATOR: But Kate's geological expertise
and some vintage machinery...
It looks like we've got a convoy here.
NARRATOR: ..gets them back on the gold.
Whoa that's a massive relief
to know that there is actually gold here.
NARRATOR: And in far north Queensland,
Jacqui and Andrew divide and conquer...
Nice. This one will probably go about a gram.
NARRATOR: ..resulting in a bumper payday.
Wow! I needed to see that.
NARRATOR: But working deep into the night,
the plan quickly unravels.
Andy, are you on channel?
If he's more than half an hour late
something's happened.
Oh God!
Victoria's flood emergency is growing tonight
with towns and hundred of properties
under threat across the state.
Help was quick to arrive in Bendigo,
locals completing one of at least thirty car rescues
across the state.
Almost everyone in Victoria will be affected
by this monster weather system as it moves east.
I don't know what we're going to do.
I really don't.
The rain has washed us out. We can't work out here.
It's going to take weeks to dry out.
We can't move machines around in this.
The wheels could clog up with mud straight away
and we can't move the machines around,
physically can not move them around.
The issue is right now without those nuggets coming in
I'm not going forward.
I'm just literally scraping by.
Here comes Brent.
This is most likely gonna be a short day.
Look at it. BRENT: Pretty wet, isn't it mate?
That's buggered. We can't do anything, mate.
I don't know what you plan on doing but this is rubbish.
I know. I have got a plan and it doesn't involve here, mate.
We can get back into the Big License.
What?
We can actually get back in there and actually start doing something.
What do you mean, mate?
I'll explain it in detail as we go.
Don't ask too many questions.
Put a smile on your face and let's go.
Roads are flooded, licences are flooded,
everything's just flooded.
Brent, fire away mate.
What's happening with this big Licence Buddy?
Explain to me exactly what's happening.
In the agreement we had a settlement date
which has been missed and right now
we've got an opportunity to get back
into the Big Licence
until they actually finally come up with the money.
We can now get back in there and actually run that plant
and actually start getting, hopefully some good gold
back on the scales, mate.
I'm actually excited about that, Buddy.
It's good to have good news for once.
NARRATOR: The 254-hectare Big Licence lease
produced consistent gold for The Poseidon Crew,
Brent Shannon and Ethan West.
The one million-dollar wash plant
was capable of processing 80 tonnes of gold-rich gravel every hour.
44.28. That's actually pretty good boys.
That's good.
I'm happy to stay here
and I'm happy to continue to mine this.
NARRATOR: But a year ago Brent sold the reliable claim
and its equipment and moving their operation
to the legendary Catto's Paddock
to pursue his dream of finding
a monster one thousand-ounce nugget.
Some of the biggest nuggets that have been found in the world
have been found right here in this paddock.
NARRATOR: A decision that has put
a lot of pressure on Ethan's finances.
I've got a new house, small family
that I'm providing for.
I rely on gold.
That is where the money is for me.
I don't want to chase just big nuggets.
I want to make an income.
There she is again, mate. Your wash plant.
It is, mate. It it's a welcome sight, Buddy.
Have a look at this again, Eth.
We can't cop a trick at the moment, mate.
I was hoping I was gonna run the plant today.
NARRATOR: With the sale in limbo the Big Licence has sat idle,
just as they left it a year ago
with stockpiles of pay dirt ready for processing.
This is the material. It is just mud.
See how it's sticking to my hand.
That's why we can't run it through the plant.
It'll just stick to everything, the belt, the hopper.
It just will not run.
Even though it's a wet plant it won't operate in the wet.
We're going to have to come up with plan B I think.
JACQUI: So it's Andy's birthday today.
Happy birthday! (LAUGHS) What have you made?
I made you banana bread.
Did you? Yes.
It's proper stuck in there.
I don't know if that's worked, mate.
It's the thought that counts.
It is, mate. Thank you for trying.
(LAUGHS)
Here, I've been checking out maps as usual.
Yeah. And uh, yeah,
there's a couple of areas that I actually want to check out.
You know, when they put names on creeks in these maps,
it's for a reason because they found gold there.
But some of them are a bit further away from here.
I think it'd be an hours walk at least.
I don't mind like, if we, if that's what we gotta do.
If I drop you off there and you do the big walk
into that one and then I'll drive to the other spot
and then pick you up on the way back out.
Yeah. OK.
NARRATOR: In the remote Palmer River area
of far north Queensland, Jacqui Buzetti and Andrew Leahy
need to widen their hunt for gold
if they hope to hit their target.
Man, I just don't know how we're going to do 21 more ounces
in such a short amount of time.
I'm stressed.
Yeah we set that 50-ounce target
for a reason and we're noteven close.
We're barely over half way
and the season's nearly finished, mate.
This plan of splitting up gives us better chances
of covering more ground.
Dropping you off at this time of day,
if you work into the night
and then yeah, walk back out
and I'll pick you up at 9 o'clock at the meet zone.
Yep. Problem is at night
you've got the dingos and pigs foraging around.
Just keep your head on a swivel, mate.
You're a long way away from help.
I know.
Oh well this is about the end of the line, mate.
I don't think I can get any further than this.
Alright, I'll just get my gear ready.
Make sure you've got everything you need in there.
Yeah, radio, snake bite kit.
Righto. I'll driveto the other spot.
Alright, let's keep pushing.
Righto. Good luck. You too.
So to get into this new gully system,
it's probably gonna take me about an hour.
It's about four Ks as the crow flies.
It's getting this hot during the day.
Our only option is to start detecting at night.
We've literally just got to throw everything we've got at this
from this point in.
I don't really like splitting up when we're this remote.
You worry about your friend
when they're out in a situation like this,
it only takes one thing to go wrong
and it all goes pear-shaped really quick.
KATE: So I'm going to start laying out some of these piles
and finding some of this gold that Shane's been talking about.
SHANE: Come on, let's get on the gold.
I've been on this block for bloody years.
Everybody's found
a bit of gold here
so there's no reason why
I shouldn't find a bit of gold here.
But whether it's enough to... for Kate to be happy.
We've both got differing opinions about what to do with this ground.
He wants to sit down here in the back corner of his Galah lease
and move around some dirt that some old timers have put there.
I think this has been really overworked.
I don't actually think there's as much gold in here
as Shane thinks there is.
We really need to find some gold while we're here though
because you know, I've taken time away from my family
and my real job to be here.
You know, I need to make some money out of it.
I need to make it worth it.
NARRATOR: Veteran gold miner Shane Calegari
has recruited long-time family friend
and exploration geologist Kate Dundas
to work his Galah lease
as he prepares the ground
for what could be a multimillion-dollar sale
to a mining corporation.
You can detect that end down there and I will concentrate
on this little piece here. Yep. Let's do it, Shane.
You know Shane was a really good mate of my Dad's
and I just want to help him out.
You know, as a geologist I've got a lot of uh expertise
in this area and I want to see him get a really good deal
with the mining company.
We're on a bit of a race against time you know.
This mining deal is going to go through,
well we don't know when it's gonna go through
but probably sooner rather than later.
So we really need to get as much free gold
out of this lease as we can
before the mining company takes it over.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Mmm.
(FLIES BUZZING)
Geez that's disappointing.
Some sort of a clip.
Copy Kate. Copy.
How are we going?
No luck yet. How about you?
No, I'm not having any luck.
I've got the flies and I'm finding metal
so I'm going real well.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Actually that sounds alright.
For Shane's sake I hope it's gold.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
It's in there somewhere.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh that's definitely not going to pay the bills.
We can't just be finding tiny little bits of gold today
to make it worth it.
We need to be finding five or ten grams of gold, you know.
Copy Shane. - Yes Kate.
I found some gold. Do you want to come have a look?
Shane, I think even you'll agree that that's not enough gold.
We have been looking at this ground all day
and that is all that we have to show for it.
Kate, shove it where the sun doesn't go.
Let's got out of here. Alright.
It's a waste of time to be here.
That's terrible.
I think we go and head up to Iron Bar
and have a look up there
'cause I think there's a big alluvial system
that's heading up that way.
NARRATOR: Iron Bar is the most northerly section of Shane's lease.
Kate suspects it could be the source of the ancient channel
they've been detecting,
a channel that's produced fine gold
just under the surface
known as alluvial gold.
We're here on that corner, aren't we? Up there.
So I think we're coming down this drainage channel here.
It lines up perfectly with that alluvial deposit.
I reckon if we just take one strip through that area,
take that back and chuck it through the sluice
we can just have a look and see if, if it's throwing any gold.
The problem I've got here, Kate, is getting over this ground.
I'll be really struggling to clear it,
what you want to do here.
But Shane you know a lot of people.
You know, call in a couple of favours.
Come on Shane. Make some calls.
Get yourself a machine and let's get onto it.
ANDY: I'm at this gully today
because it's dried up.
It was only two or three weeks ago
it still had water in it.
Hopefully I can prove that there's some gold in it
and uh, prove that this detector works.
NARRATOR: In the Palmer River Goldfields
of far north Queensland,
Andrew Leahy recently spent
six thousand dollars worth of the team's hard earned gold
on another detector.
I'll be happy to have one of those detectors.
We all know how good they are on the big stuff.
NARRATOR: The top of the range detector's power
comes from its three coils.
Two double D coils
to hunt surface nuggets
and a bigger mono coil,
which can detect gold
forty per cent deeper
than a standard coil.
It was a massive risk buying this detector
this late in the season.
You know, we could of just kept that gold in our pocket.
At the moment though, it's all pretty quiet.
I'm getting a whole lot of nothing.
JACQUI: We got two areas we need to search.
It was quite a walk in
but more chances that no one else has detected here.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
First target since I've gotten in here
so I'll see what it is.
(DETECTOR WHIRRS) False alarm.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Hey, it does make noises. About time.
I haven't had a single target all day
so we'll see what it is.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
That sounds good.
The slate and siltstone makes it hard
but perfect place for the gold to hang out too
so I don't mind that.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Alright. You're in there.
Perfect! We got gold. We're good.
Thank God. Made that walk worthwhile for sure.
Righto, I'm out. That's a nice deep hole though
and that's what these detectors are known for.
I don't know if I'd have got that with my other machine.
Oh nice! Wow I needed to see that.
There's a good eighteen hundred dollars
worth of gold there.
Nice.
This one would probably go about a gram.
Picked up a few of these now.
Somewhere between the half a gram to a grammy sort of.
This is a good amount of gold
for any prospector on an afternoon.
I'm just detecting my way back out of this gully now.
I've been finding gold all day.
It's really worth coming back to.
Andy is going to be there to meet me soon
but I'm not too worried.
The walk out shouldn't be too bad.
It's actually really nice and cool now.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Yep, I've got another one here again.
She's out.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Sounding good.
You can see it. Shines bright. That's nice.
I think there's a really good chance
that there could be some deeper, larger targets in here.
I definitely want to come back with Andy and work this more.
Alright.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
Hey Andy, you got a copy?
Andy!
Andy are you on channel?
(RADIO BEEPS)
Hey Andy, do you copy?
Just give him a minute,
I suppose.
If he's more than half an hour late something's happened.
This is when you wonder, you know,
if he got bitten by a snake?
We separated so there would have been
no one there to help him.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Hey Andy, are you on channel?
Oh my God, I'm at least 25, 30K deep in here.
(ANIMAL CRIES OUT)
BRENT: This is the material
that we actually want to run
and it's just mud.
Plan A's blown, plan B's gone, we're up to plan C now, Eth.
We're going to go over here and start detecting.
We're gonna try and bring the uh,
digger down in here and maybe have a scratch around in here.
Just need to check over these machines.
They haven't been going for nearly twelve months.
Hopefully they'll start.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Oh bit of good news.
Right now we're just gonna do what we can
to get some gold on the scales.
Brent from uh, when they first started this operation
they said they used to get a lot of fine gold out of here,
a lot of small little nuggets.
Brent's just cleared off this little bit of area here.
We're not doing very big pads.
Just keep going down layer by layer.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Hang on.
That's a target there.
A target? First pass.
First pass in and we've got a target.
Nah you got it out.
There it is there. Look at that Eth.
Only a little tacker.
Oh well, this is a pretty good start, Eth.
The amount of gold that must have been in this area.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Beautiful. That sounds lovely.
That's out, it's out, it's out.
There it is. Look at that, Eth.
Look at that. Actually not a bad little piece - actually.
That's a good piece.
The good news is it's getting a little bit bigger.
Yeah mate we come out here for two minutes
and we've already got more gold
than we got in a month in Catto's.
I don't know why I sold this joint.
What's that? Nothing.
You don't know what? Nothing.
I am happy. We are working. We are digging for gold.
I never thought you'd be happy with about half a gram, Eth.
Neither did I. That's how sad it's become.
Please stop raining.
You just can't even get one tonne of material
through the plant.
We need to be running five hundred tonne or more a day.
This wet weather just will not let up.
In the meantime we'll just keep plodding through here
and just keep going.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
That sounds alright, Eth.
That sounds pretty good, Eth. Mate, that's not bad.
That's gonna be our best target so far, mate,
and we've got bedrock starting to come through there.
I don't want to hit it.
Look at that. Here we go. Look at that!
Uh huh. Have a look at this.
Ha, ha, ha. A couple of ounces out of that Eth,
I reckon. There's a bit of a payday.
It adds a smile to your dial.
Mate I told you we wanted to get back here.
That's a little ripper, isn't it?
And you walked away from this.
Alright Eth.
It's actually starting to dry out now, mate.
I reckon we could get a chance to run this stuff, mate.
This material looks nice, mate.
Oh she's still a bit damp on the surface
but if you dig in here a little bit I reckon.
If you get it off from in the guts of it mate,
it might be a bit better. Yeah.
In here it's starting to dry out a bit, mate.
OK.
NARRATOR: With a chance to process pay dirt on the cards
they need to test their wash plant.
Yeah right now we're just gonna fire this plant up
and make sure there's no gremlins with it.
We haven't started it for over twelve months.
Because right now we're gonna get small opportunities,
small windows to actually run some dirt
so the last thing we want is to have the fine weather turn up
and then we actually can't run it
because there's something wrong with the plant.
Right, Eth. Fire her up, mate. Everything's all ready.
It's good to go? Basically crack it over
and that should start.
(MACHINE WHIRRS)
That's dead. Dead as a maggot.
Without electricity we have nothing.
(HORN HONKS)
What's that racket?
Looks like your help's arrived, Shane.
Yeah, it's trouble-shooter Jim.
He's come to pull me out of it again.
Shane, how are you going? Very good.
Hi Kate. It's good to see you. Hello Jimmy, how are you?
Good to see you again.
What have you got for me, Jimmy?
Well it's an old Massey 65 horsepower.
This one was probably built in the sixties
with a three point linkage grader on the back.
So it's just a matter of unloading it now.
Kate's going to build you a ramp and we'll back it up.
Thanks Kate. No worries.
It's really good to have someone useful here.
(LAUGHS)
Yeah last night Shane rang me
and um, as usual he wanted something.
He wants to do some scraping
over at the Iron Bar
and um the Massey would do the job
so I thought I would bring it up for him
to have a go with it.
As soon as we get this in position,
the tractor off, then we can go to the Iron Bar.
Keep going, Jimmy.
Yep, keep coming.
Bit more.
That's it, Jim. That's it.
Let's get the show on the road.
That's it.
Hopefully. That's it.
Right that's one part done.
Now we put the weight on the back there
so he can't pivot up now.
Beautifully done! This is a skilful man.
Well done Jimmy.
We'll get on the gold in no time, Shane.
It looks like we've got a convoy here.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
So what do you reckon, Kate?
What I want to do is scrape down basically
from the road straight into that gum tree down there.
Kate's gone there just cleaning
the sticks outta the road
then Jim's just gonna follow behind her.
Kate will be able to identify any sort of materials there
and if it's what she likes.
We will probably do four or five of these scrapes.
NARRATOR: Kate's plan is to cut shallow trenches
at right angles
to the direction of a channel
she believes
connects to alluvial gold
near Shane's camp.
Plotting a line between
each alluvial gravel deposit
in the trenches should reveal
the channel's path,
leading them to the gold.
I have a feeling that Iron Bar could be,
well possibly the source for a lot of the gold
that's in this area.
You know there's a lot of interest
from this mining company.
If we can learn as much about this tenement as we can,
give the mining companies some information
that might even increase the offer
and make the deal a bit sweeter, then we've got to do it.
Alright, we've done our four lines now.
What do you reckon, Kate?
It's the right colour. It's the right grain size.
It's the right amount of iron stone.
I think this is where we need to take the sample.
So we get the bobcat trailer?
Alright, come on.
We will pick it up,
some of that material and run it through the sluice.
The gold is in where the gravel is and that's what we got to find.
OK Kate, jump out.
Alright Shane, bring it back.
I want to take this under the hitch, OK?
Yep. Alright, straight back if you can.
Whoa!
OK time to get it in the sluice.
Well how do we get it in there?
With this little baby.
Up you jump and I'll go and get everything going.
Alright, that's good.
This isn't really what I had in mind
in terms of maximising our, our gold return.
Shane, we can't just sit here shovelling this dirt.
So you need to come up with a solution and make something work.
I'm feeling the pressure. I've got to find a solution.
I'll have to sleep on it.
I will have an answer in the morning.
ANDY: I'm on me way to pick up Jacqui now.
It's getting pretty late.
I hope she's not freaking out in the bush.
(BANG!) What's that?
Oh crap it!
That's rooted! That's just totally shot.
Hey Jacqui, you got a copy?
I don't think I'm going to get her.
The best thing I can do is just change this as quick as possible.
This is why I don't like splitting up.
She's gonna be out there by herself worried about me,
worried if I'm even coming to get her.
Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong it will.
This is the last thing I need at the end of a long day.
I'm just going to chuck this in here
and get going.
Jacqui will be wondering where the hell I am.
Jacqui are you there? You got a copy?
JACQUI: Are you there?
Yeah mate. Look I'm on my way.
I had a flat tyre. Don't panic. I'm not far away now, OK?
Finally!
You've made it. That took you long enough.
You've been sitting here for a fair while.
This is not nine o'clock. At all.
How was your day?
Oh yeah, yeah actually alright.
Like nothing big but like it just kept coming.
Wow that's a good day. It's a good spot.
I reckon we should go back in there.
Unless, how did you go?
Oh I only got one. So no good.
That was the only target I got for the whole day.
Never. No junk. Nothing.
Holy crap! It's a nice nugget though.
That's massive.
And I probably wouldn't have got it without, without my new detector.
In this gully then where I've been working,
you're walking in there with me tomorrow.
Yep, let's do that. Yep.
NARRATOR: A new day on the Palmer River.
Andy has joined Jacqui to detect
the promising gully she found.
We need to try and get
to that 50 ounces.
We need a miracle right now to make 50.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
There is something down there.
Hope this is a nug.
Can do with some decent chunky.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Let's find out.
It is a nice nug too.
It's probably, I don't know, eight or ten grams
in that little one.
Bloody champion!
Pretty safe to assume
it's another piece, which is what we want.
They are adding up quickly now.
Oh perfect.
Another one just there.
Nothing big but you can't complain about that rattle.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Righto.
I can see it already.
You ripper. There's another three or four or five grams
there as well. That's fantastic to see.
That's the way.
Right... More.
KATE: Last night I told Shane
that I didn't come up here to help him shovel
two hundred tonnes of dirt through the wet plant.
Um, you know I came up here to help him find gold.
NARRATOR: Leaving Shane to find an alternative
to shovelling pay dirt, Kate is back exploring Iron Bar.
I've come down here to have a detect
through the lines that we cleared yesterday.
You know we really don't know the potential of this.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
That sounds promising.
Let's see what we've got.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Alright. Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
Whoa!
That's got to be a gram.
That's easily a gram. Oh my gosh!
That's a massive relief to know
that there is actually gold here.
You know I told Shane that
this is where I think we'd find it
and now we've actually found it.
I can go back to him and tell him
that I do know what I'm talking about.
Hey! You arrived.
Oh what have we got here, Shane?
Well we've got a truck, Kate.
And the best part about it... it's a tipper!
OK.
That means we don't have to shovel or do anything like that.
This is Trevor. Hi Trevor. Kate.
Kate, how are you? How are you?
Shane rang me up in a bit of a state,
needing some dirt moved and uh, needed a truck.
A tip truck. I owed him a few favours as usual,
so I thought I'd come down and give him a bit of a hand.
Well I'm glad you're actually getting the right equipment.
Let's get onto it. OK, rightio, that's good.
Let's move.
Well done, Kate.
We're gonna take the surface dirt off,
whack it in the truck.
I'm going to head down to the sluice,
get that fired up.
Kate's going to load it up and then we'll start
putting it through the sluice.
We can get a, a big amount of dirt through the sluice
and actually start to pull out
some of those finds that we think are here.
Alright Trevor, that's it, I'm done.
You can take that down to Shane. No worries at all.
NARRATOR: The fifty-five year-old truck
has a payload of four tonnes.
Added to yesterday's trailer load,
this bulk sample will tell how much gold per tonne
the Iron Bar alluvial channel holds.
I'm hoping to get a gram to the tonne.
Keep going, Trev.
Keep coming, Trevor. That's OK.
That's it now, Trev. That's it. Let's get it out.
She's going up.
That's it, Trevor. That's good.
Well done, Trevor.
My pleasure, Shane. Now you owe me one.
Yep that's right, Trevor. On your bike. Let's go. Come on.
Good on you mate. You've got things to do.
I'll catch you later. Good on ya.
Rightio, I'm going to start putting the dirt through.
I'm on me way.
NARRATOR: While Shane processes the sample
Kate is hunting for nuggets in the channel.
So I'm just going to see if I can show Shane
that there's even more gold here than he thinks.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh my God! I can see that one.
That's got to be two grams maybe.
As a geologist it's actually really exciting seeing real gold
that you pick up from the ground, you know?
In my job you actually don't get to see the real gold.
That feeling to get it out of the ground is just,
oh it's just such a good feeling.
(MACHINE WHIRRS)
It's dead. Dead as a maggot. Oh!
Batteries. We need batteries.
You got those batteries mate? They're dead.
Flat are they? Dead. Dead as a maggot mate.
Alright. There's some in the back of me car, mate.
Yep. Let's hope it fires up after that.
We will get these in and hopefully it's uh,
get the plant fired up.
They're a twenty-four volt system
so you don't want to stuff it up.
I have actually had it where I have cross-wired it the wrong way
and you hit the key and they literally have exploded.
A very dangerous situation there.
Every little bit of time we get now
to run this plant is crucial.
We need to start making money and right now with Catto's out,
we can't mine Catto's.
With it just so wet everywhere else,
this is our best shot to make serious money.
Alright, if I've done my job properly
this should turn over straight away.
Done.
Now we'll try and get this barrel spinning.
That's probably the most critical part.
Happy days!
Looks like everything's working pretty well.
I've missed it.
Taking me back down memory lane that's for sure.
Right now it looks like it's dry enough to run.
There's still a bit of wet crud around the outside of the pile
so I'm actually going to try and just scrape that off
and get to the dry material underneath
but right now it's dry enough and we're going to run it.
What I'm trying to do here is I'm just trying
to cherry pick which is the driest stuff.
Hey mate is that dirt right to go now, mate?
Put in the plant?
Sure is Eth. Run it, mate, run it.
So we'll Get some ground moving
and basically get her up and going completely.
Going to be good.
Get some gold back on these scales.
Ethan's about to put the first bucket of material
through the big plant and after twelve months
it's sort of an exciting moment.
There we go.
Boom.
Right now we've got a window of opportunity,
beautiful blue skies, sun's shining
so we're gonna make gold while the sun shines.
At the moment we're running about sixty-five tonne an hour
through the plant. Hopefully
we'll be able to get some fine gold out of it because,
you know, the fine gold is where it's at
when it comes to the plant, you know,
it's, it's its chief recovery so.
Having this plant up and going
it's a bit of a stress relief
because to have this back right now,
even though it might be only for a limited time,
it's just, I can breathe again.
You got a copy Brent?
Yeah Bud.
We've been putting a bit of material through now.
What do you reckon we go and do a weigh in shortly?
I was thinking the same thing so we might as well do that, mate.
It's always the best part of the day
hearing that travel stop.
It's a bloody loud piece of equipment.
There should be gold in this first bed here.
All the bigger, coarser gold will get stuck in here
and then flow on and all the finer gold
will eventually get sucked,
sucked through before it goes over the edge
and it falls down into the spinner concentrator.
And once it goes into the spinner concentrator
it flings out, gets stuck in there
and that's where the gold or all the fine gold should be.
The more gold you get up here
the more hopeful you are to see the gold down the bottom.
There's a bit there. There's a bit there.
Alright, well that's encouraging.
Right now just gonna go down to the bottom
and check the spinner concentrator out.
That's where the real gold should be.
That's just the stragglers that we missed.
Alright, mate. We'll get this cleaned out.
Hopefully it's a...
That looks alright doesn't it?
There's actually some good gold coming out of there, Eth,
considering the material we're running.
It's a sight I haven't seen in a very long time.
I reckon you should go back, mate,
and start processing that
and get that cleaned up, the fine gold.
Mate, gladly.
I'll clean up all the nuggets and we'll come do a weigh in.
SHANE: That's a good one. That's a beauty.
NARRATOR: At his Galah lease,
Shane is processing the last of the paydirt samples from Iron Bar.
Right, I'm done.
Keys off. Shut her down.
We need a big boost.
This may be the boost we're gonna get. I hope so.
This here should have very, very good gold in it.
So I'm going to go pan this off.
The gold will be down the bottom.
I should see a colour.
Listen, Kate, I've got a colour.
Really? It's a good colour.
OK. That's a really good colour.
Have a look at that.
I can see it from here. We've got both fines and nuggets
and that's only in the first bucket, Shane.
So there's a lot more to come.
I haven't shown you these yet either.
You've been holding out on me! I have.
We've done really well I think, Shane.
So all in all we've done very well.
Yep, you've come through, Shane.
That's good. So have you.
Let's see how well we've done.
Let's tip the fines in here.
That's looking very good.
Gee whiz, Kate.
That's over an ounce. Yeah.
That's really good. And what about these ones?
This is what I've been working hard on, Shane.
Tip 'em in. You ready?
Yep.
Just under two ounces.
So that's terrific gold. I like it.
NARRATOR: They've found over five thousand dollars worth of gold
at Iron Bar with Kate getting a fifty percent share.
Is that enough - to keep you around?
Yeah, absolutely for this week it is.
That sort of makes it all worthwhile.
I mean we spent a lot of time developing stuff
so that's a good deal.
And do you admit that I'm right now?
I'll never do that.
Not in me nature.
Happy birthday, Andy.
Oh another banana brick. You shouldn't have.
We're going to let it cool this time
because maybe that's why the last one got stuck.
Righto. We'll weigh in
and then we've got this for dessert.
It's going to be great.
See how we went.
Let's do it.
Just a touch over four ounces, mate.
That's great. Yes!
That's pretty good.
I was hoping we would crack four ounces.
Yeah that's pretty good.
That's awesome.
Well that detector's proving itself too.
Especially some of those big pieces down deep.
Yeah, yeah. It's amazing.
And that puts us on thirty-three
for the year now.
We beat last year.
We're already beating last year, mate.
Yes! That's so good
but we've still got 17 ounces to go
to get to this year's target.
It's a big ask, mate, but it's possible too.
I think it's possible.
We don't know what we're going to hit next
and it's going to keep us working, that's for sure.
Alright, well let's try the banana bread.
There you go.
That's really yummy.
Good! Thank you.
Yay!
That's good. Happy birthday to me.
Alright. Thank you.
Hopefully Eth, we get some gold on the scales, mate.
It wouldn't turn out to be too bad a time, mate, eh?
Are you glad to be back here?
Mate, I am. I am, I'm actually, yeah.
I can't promise you it's going to be permanent
but at least we're back here for the time being.
Go on. Get yours on there.
Alright Eth, let's see what we got.
That bigger one, mate, comes to
about one and three-quarter ounces.
(LAUGHS)
Alright, the rest of it Eth, which is not too bad mate.
That's bloody great. Look at it. That's not bad.
Five point seven eight.
Fine gold. What do you reckon?
Come on, mate, I'm getting the little bits out.
There you go. Seven point zero three.
So... what's that?
Between that and that,
12.8 ounces there abouts, mate.
Yep. That's a good recovery.
I don't know whether to smile or bloody cry
because I don't know why I'm selling this joint.
I'm smiling mate because that's money.
Look, I'm hoping the deal falls over to tell you the truth.
Mate, look at this. Look at this.
Yeah well I hate to say it, Eth. I think you're right, mate.
It's nearly thirty-three thousand dollars worth of gold
and considering all the rain delays we had mate,
that is some pretty good gold.
It's pretty good going.
We're at roughly now, what?
Eight two and a half ounces or thereabouts, right?
Yes. So we ain't that far away now.
We only got to get roughly eighteen ounces
and we can make target.
If we stick here, mate, I reckon it's doable.
Yeah I know but we've only got a slim window here, mate.
I might get a phone call right now
and they'll say we're outta here.
Either way we need to make the most of every situation.
Are you happy? I'm happy.
I'll tell you what, that's just music to my ears.
That's a rare event.
Make the most of it while you can.
Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv