This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
Oh, my god! Something's on fire.
..disaster strikes the Gold Devils
with just weeks left in their season.
Oh, my god. Alex!
The motor's caught on fire.
Where do we go from here?
We're dead in the water here so...
The Gold Retrievers set themselves an ultimatum...
We need a ten-ounce target for this trip
otherwise we're going home.
What happened? I don't know.
It just stopped, eh?
We've got it half fixed,
we just got to keep an eye on it and hopefully it keeps going.
..before facing the most important weigh in of their mining careers.
So that's it.
All that hard work and effort has come down to that.
How are you going? What the hell have you got?
I may have picked up a little wash plant.
In Victoria, Vince makes a risky investment...
What? How much did you pay for that?
..as the team double their efforts to find gold.
What's that?
Hydraulic oil.
But a potentially catastrophic leak
threatens to end their season.
I've got to shut her down.
To lose the excavator would be devastating.
And, for one team, gold from an unexpected source
keeps their season hopes alive.
Yeah, this season has not been nice to us.
It's, uh, just been hell.
Everything that can go wrong did go wrong
and it's still going wrong.
Yeah, so it's been a money pit for us.
Um, I've sunk a lot of money into this
and Brad has as well.
But, um, it's not paying dividends how it should be
so this is sort of do or die for us.
We really need to get, get onto the gold.
This has been the absolutely hardest season
I've ever spent up here.
It really has. Yeah.
I'm trying so hard to make this viable
'cause I absolutely love doing what we're doing up here,
you know?
Well, this is your dream, babe. I want you to succeed.
I want it to work, I mean... Yeah.
I'm not ready to give it up but, look,
we can't keep going the way we're going.Yep.
Gold Retrievers Brad McGhie, wife Wendy
and partner Chris Smith
have invested the last of their savings
into a 75,000 dollar wash plant,
at their Devil's Cut lease in Western Australia.
But after multiple setbacks
the team's goal
of hitting their 50 ounce target is in tatters.
How's it going? How did you go, mate?
Well, a bit of tweaking.
We're just about up and running.
Just get that last piece of the puzzle on.
Did you get it all repaired? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I picked up the motor, um,
so he's pressed that cupping on so we should be all good to go.
Yep. Sounds good.
Look I think that, um, you know,
Wendy and I have sort of been talking and I'd think you'd agree
that we really need to get 50 tonne through.
And, out of that fifty tonne,
we're gonna need at least ten ounces this week.
Absolutely. Minimum.
Yep.
If we don't get ten ounces,
yeah, it's just not gonna be worth doing.
Pointless, uh, not finding gold.
No.
Look, mate, we've given it a red-hot go.
Maybe there's not enough gold here
to make it viable, you know what I mean?
We've worked our bloody arses off all year
and, um, we've been struggling, we really have.
The weather. Everything's been working against us but...
Yep. Well, we can only try. Exactly.
Let's get it up and running and see how we go.Alright.
I'll get it on and get it up and running.
So we've basically changed the drive
from a chain drive to a direct drive.
The chain just wasn't designed for this sort of work.
So what was happening was rocks were getting bound up in it
and it was just sort of throwing the chain off all the time
and snapping it, so...
Fingers crossed, this is the way to go.
Well, I reckon that looks pretty good, hey?
Yep.
We probably should come up with a name for this thing, mate.
What do you reckon? Mad Max.
Or how about Mad Maxine 'cause she's a girl?
(THEY LAUGH)
That makes sense, the way she's been treating us.
(LAUGHS) Mad Maxine?
Yep. That it is.
Sounds good. Let's get some tonnes through the old girl.
This is Brad's dream so, you know,
he's going to be gutted if this doesn't work out.
Um, you know, I'm just all fingers crossed
that it does for his sake, um, you know, for our family's sake.
Right, fire in the hole, Bard, Wendy.
Righto, mate. Yep, righto!
Fire her up.
OK, conveyor coming on.
Copy that.
I don't believe it. Yeah, it's looking good.
Ball mill. Yes!
Beautiful.
Running nice and true, isn't it? It is, man.
It's running really good. You know what that means?
Get some dirt. Some dirt through. Yeah!
Get some dirt through, hey? Yep.
Woo-hoo! Yay!
It's time now for Mad Maxine to pay the bills.
Here's the first bucket coming in now.
Pay dirt.
If we don't hit that ten ounces, um, this trip then, uh,
we're going home and I don't know if we're coming back.
So the look ahead so far
is we've got another massive week coming up.
I'm just arriving back now at the Phoenix Project
but we really need to get on some good gold.
Yeah, the gold we're producing
it's pretty constant but it's just not enough -
not for what we're chasing this season.
A thousand ounces, it's over 2.6 million dollars.
It's not cheese and crackers.
I do have a few ideas.
That's going to come at a cost as well, unfortunately,
but you've got to spend money to make money in this game.
Hey, Darren,
how's everything going on your end?
It's ready for another bucket. Awesome.
I'll bring one up now. OK.
Yeah, so at the moment we've got Alex running Lloyd
and I'm just dropping off some dirt for Darren
to put through Barnaby.
So, yeah, it's all systems go.
250 ounces banked.
It's not enough.
For us to have any chance of hitting targets...
..we can't have down time.
We've got to be running and running daily, long days,
and hopefully the Phoenix can deliver for the next few weeks
before the end of the season.
This season Paul Mackie joined forces
with Melanie Wood and partner Alex Stead
to form the Gold Devils.
And, with a combined ten leases,
they're chasing a 1,000 ounce, 2.6 million-dollar pay day.
Two wet plants running.
We're crushing dirt from the main source down there.
It's producing gold but it's just not enough.
I do know for a fact that we are losing fine gold
and, at this stage of the season,
we can't afford to be losing any.
But with only a few weeks left in the season,
they are still a mammoth 740 ounces short
of their target.
Hey, guys. Hey, Paul.
How are you going? Yeah.
Hey, Paul.
How's the drive? Yeah, long.
Yeah. Yeah, sounds it.
Yeah. But anyway, on that drive, a lot of time to think.
We're only a quarter of the way to the gold production
that we want this year.
How do we, basically, boost the production.
And I kept going back to the original leach, you know,
we pulled three kilos out of that.
Yeah.
And the majority of that would have been fine gold
and we do know for a fact we're not getting
all the fine gold here.
We're basically just sluicing the nuggets out
and the coarser material.
So I want to do a test on the tailings that we've got.
I wouldn't mind kick-starting the old wet plant
'cause that thing was built to capture the fine gold.
I wouldn't mind running a hundred tonne through it,
seeing what actual gold we get out of that in ounces or grams.
If it is good then we build another leach
and try and leach that fine gold out.
I'm guessing that's going to come with a bit of a price tag.
Yeah. How much?
For the amount of dirt we've have got stockpiled,
probably about 25 grand. Ooh.
Yeah, I mean, 25,000 is a lot to put into something
that we don't know if we're going to get it back.
But, I guess, that's why we run tests and...
Yeah.
Will we be able to do the leach
and pull the carbon before the end of the season?
I think so.
I mean, if it's only the fine gold we're trying to leach
then it should happen straight away, you know,
probably three to four weeks and it'll be done.
If we can do the test and it proves
that it's worth justifying, you know,
spending the money then, I guess...
We're running out of time. We are.
Time's not on our side at the moment.
Hopefully - after the hundred tonnes gone through -
have some good news for you.
Well, as usual, Paul's got another crazy plan.
The downside is it pulls him away from the operation.
The upside is - if he's right -
could be a valuable source of gold.
This is the one.
Earlier this season,
Paul recovered a healthy 3.3 kilograms of gold
by heap leaching the tailings, or waste dirt,
from their two plants.
Heap leaching uses an alkaline cyanide solution,
which drains through the stockpile of processed dirt,
binding with the super fine gold particles.
The gold rich solution then passes through dense carbon columns,
where the gold is trapped in a solid state.
This is my first wet plant that I ever bought
so it's got a lot of history.
It's actually produced a hell of a lot of gold.
I've got to fire this girl up,
prove that there is good, viable gold in the tailings.
And - if so - move forward with the leach.
There's no other option.
With the screen that this one's got
it basically silts out all the fine gold.
It's not a nugget recovery unit at all.
All the fine gold goes through the screen.
From there it goes straight down into the two concentrators
and from the concentrators straight into the sluice.
If I can get this hundred tonne test done
I'm definitely going to catch gold here.
And whatever this centrifuge doesn't catch,
I'm going to catch in the sluice.
You know, we're three quarters of the way through our season.
We've got 250 ounces.
That's a long way away off our thousand-ounce target.
You know, it's a big gamble that Paul's taking.
You know, I just really hope it pays off.
To keep the gold coming in,
Mel and Darren run wet plant Barnaby,
while Alex processes the gold-rich hard rock
through their crushing plant, Lloyd.
The key now is push the tonnes through Lloyd.
Pushing the machinery harder than it really likes to go
but we've just gotta get every tonne we can
into this machine.
Oh, my god!
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
Caught on fire.
In Victoria, Vince Malacria, Bibbi Gerali
and mentor Murray Cox have weathered
one of Australia's worst flood events.
The disaster caused
over one billion dollars in damage,
claiming multiple lives.
Hey, guys. G'day Murray.
How are you? Hey, Murray.
Not bad.
Doesn't look like you're faring too well, though.
Mate, uh, these Victorian floods have been absolutely devastating.
30,000 people are homeless.
We've lost lives.
Mate, this is where we need to be.
This is where we need to dig. Look at this. Look.
Exactly.You can't walk machinery over the top of that.
No way.
I don't think we're going to get on here this season.
It'll be sheer luck if we get to dig here, mate.
Yeah, I know. I know. We gotta dig somewhere.
Yeah, well, let's go up between the two shallow leads.
Let's get into it while we can. Yeah.
Well, I've gotta nip off into town.
I've got to get some stuff to fix those fences and that.
You guys alright to get going? Yep.
Alright.
We'll start stripping, mate. See youse later.
With the expenses piling up,
the pressure is on to find a consistent gold lead.
Oh, God, this season's been ridiculous.
From the rain to the mud, the not enough gold,
just everything.
It's just been a bit against us this year.
And just anywhere where you see gravel sitting in that clay...
Yep. ..give it a good detect, please.
OK.
We're only half way to our target -
40-ounce target -
and we're nearly finishing the season.
So we really got to get a push on and get some gold.
We're definitely losing more than what we can find at the moment
and chewing up in diesel all the money there.
Costing 400 dollars in fuel per day to run,
the excavator is crucial to their operation,
allowing them to dig up to five metres down
to potential nugget rich pay dirt.
It'd be nice to get a little bit out of this.
I know.
Even the smallest bit would be encouraging.
Oh, god, I know.
But, after two hours of working,
Murray and Bibbi are empty handed.
How you going?
What have you got there, mate?
I may have picked up a little wash plant.
That's not a bad little trommel.
What the hell have you got?
One of me mates had this sitting in the backyard there.Yeah?
Well, I might have found a little bit of gold on it.
What? How much did you pay for that?
Well, maybe just about two ounces.
You paid five grand for it!
And the only thing bad about it is it does have no engine, so...
(LAUGHS) Got an idea for that, though.
I know how to get it going. Oh, my god.
Murray, what are we going to do with him? I swear...
But it does one and a half tonne an hour so, you know, like...
We haven't found enough gold to pay for that thing!
No, well this might find it. And diesel and everything else.
Think about it.
Earlier in the season,
Vince and Bibbi found fine gold
in samples of pay dirt
on their lease...
Half a gram per tonne there.
So definitely be able to make some money out of that.
..but after uncovering some big gold,
their attention focused on finding nuggets.
Look at that! Oh, look at it.
Oh, yes! Ripper! Woo-hoo!
Since then, the nuggets have run dry.
We're not finding any big gold.
We've got to look for the fine gold, darling.
There'd better be something there - I'm telling you -
or you're taking that back.
Yeah, righto. Well, you come with me.
We'll head over to the other side,
we'll set it up and you'll see that it will produce gold.
What are we getting at the moment? Nothing.
I want at least two ounces
from that thing to cover it, I'm telling you.
Alright, honey,
let's get this thing set up and get some gold running through it.
Honestly, honey,
you've spent two ounces on this thing.
Yeah, so? So?
I'm really worried. Don't worry about it.
No! Let's get this thing set up.
I want to see this thing at least bringing back
what you spent on it, hon.
Plus. It will. Easy.
We're at the end of our season
and, um, we haven't really reached our target.
So I don't know how this is going to go
but I'm really not happy about it.
Pretty much all we need to do
is hook up some water, turn her on, turn the pump on
and wash some dirt, so...
Because we had no engine - I've got an idea.
I've got a drill and the drill will be able to turn the barrel
and we should be alright, so...
And all we do is we're gonna use a little cable tie here
and just gently put it on until...Gosh.
God.
The right gravel - we'll see some gold.
Alright, well, let's go get some gravel from Murray, then.
Come on. Let's do it.
That'll do, mate. Perfect.
Alright, mate. Good luck with that.
Yeah. Thanks, mate. Cheers!
Alright. Jump in, babe. Let's go wash.
All good, babe.
Start shovelling her in.
Looking good, darling.
Yeah, mate.
I reckon she will be.
Babe, are you happy to stay here? Yeah, yeah.
I can keep this moving. Yeah?
I understand why everyone's concerned.
And Bibbi, you know, we're so far away from target
the only way we're going to get to a target this season
is if we've got multiple plants running.
You know, two operations up there and down here.
So that was my only option and I took it.
(BLEEP), what's that?
Hydraulic oil.
Where's that coming from?
Ah, geez!
I gotta shut it down.
It's too much of a chance of catching on fire.
Got about 50 of these to take down.
We really need 10 ounces out of this.
If we can do that - happy days.
But if we don't, we've got some serious decisions to make.
Righto, Chris.
Just dump it in here so Brad can pick it up with the digger.
Rogey. Yep.
The Gold Retrievers must produce ten ounces of gold
from 50 tonnes of pay dirt this week.
If they fail
they'll walk away from their Devil's Cut lease for good.
Righto, Brad, are you ready?
Yeah, I'm good to go.
I'm just going to take it easy to start with.
We don't know how everything is going to go.
Just want to feather it very gently.
We don't wanna sort of overload it straight away.
We just wanna make sure everything
is going to work alright
and hopefully everything goes alright and we can ramp it up.
But everything is looking pretty good at the moment.
Pay dirt moves along a conveyor
and into a crusher
that reduces it to gravel
before entering the mill,
where heavy iron balls
pulverise the material
into fine powder.
The concentrator
then uses centrifugal force
to separate the gold
from the lighter material.
Ah, (BLEEP). Hang on.
Chris, shut it down, mate. Shut it down.
That conveyor's stopped.
Rogey.
There's always something.
Jesus!
What happened? I don't know.
It just stopped, hey? Serious?
Oh, it's jammed up with rocks, mate.
Eugh!
Alright, I'll go get some tools.
I'll loosen the belt off and we'll sort it out.
Far out!
Everything was running sweet until then.
Conveyor belt strikes again.
I think it's conveyor three, us nil.
We definitely don't need these sort of hold ups.
Not after, you know, all the dramas that we've had.
Yeah, if we don't find at least ten ounces
then that's the end of Devil's Cut
and the end of this whole operation.
OK. Conveyor coming on.
Righto, mate.
I think what we're going to have to do is, with the blower,
we're just gonna have to blow it out every now and then -
just to keep the dirt from getting caught
around the roller.
So that's looking pretty good now.
Well, it's running central now.
It's running good so, alright, let's fire it up, man.
All these problems, never ending.
Yeah, look, we've got it half fixed.
We need to get back into it.
We're just going to have to keep an eye on it
and hopefully it keeps going.
We're just gonna have to baby it
and try and just keep this plant running.
We really do.
It doesn't matter how much we put through,
we need to get ten ounces.
For us to continue we need to see gold.
If we don't see gold, that's it - it's over.
Fire!
What the hell!
What's happened?
Motor's caught on fire.
It's out.
Yeah, you can see it's all burnt.
Burnt out.
Oh, god, I just can't deal with this at the moment.
Yeah.
Alright, well, not much we can do here.
Everything's off. Yeah.
OK? Yeah.
OK.
Just for the motor it's 8,000 dollars.
Then we've got to go and get the motor in Kalgoorlie,
that's a six hour one-way, twelve hours round trip.
This isn't what we need and couldn't come at a worse time...
..and we're not going to produce now.
This is really going to kill us and it's more money out the door,
which we can't really be affording to do.
Where do we go from here?
Well, Lloyd's out of action so it's all down to Barnabee.
See how much tonnage that can take but, um...
And Paul's sampling.
It's literally all going to come down to that test
and whether we get leaching.
Yeah.
We need a good result on that test, otherwise...
That's all we've got at the moment.
Well, we're dead in the water here, so...
I don't know what this means for us right now.
It's, um...you know,
everything's stacking up against us.
So, yeah, I'm not too sure.
A lot of time building that plant and designing it,
getting the parts.
And to see it go up in flames...
Oh, it's a bit heartbreaking.
I guess the test sample has to come, has to prove,
you know, provide some goods.
Otherwise the season could be well and truly over.
So the plan is I'll run about a hundred tonne.
It'll be a good...a good test.
It'll tell us how much gold per tonne that's running.
I really need this to pay off.
I'd like to see at least a couple of ounces.
If Paul can extract two ounces of gold from the test,
then heap leaching the remaining 2,000 tonne stockpile of tailings
could earn the team over 100,000 dollars' worth of gold.
Paul, got a copy? Yeah, mate. Go ahead.
Well, seeing as I set fire to my processing plant,
do you want a hand with your one?
Yeah. Yeah, mate.
Do you wanna come and jump in the excavator?
I'll get out and, um, make sure everything is running alright.
Cool. Sounds like a plan.
Seeing the crushing plant catch on fire,
I was pretty devastated to see that go up.
I felt like it was game over but, you know,
that's the rollercoaster of gold mining.
You get the knocks but you pick yourself up,
you dust yourself off and you go feed another bucket
into another machine and you keep rolling.
How's the feed rate, Paul? Any faster, any slower?
Nah. The feed's perfect. It's fine.
Just try not to set it on fire, hey?
(LAUGHS) Oh, I'm never living this down.
I'm literally only getting
maybe two, three tonnes in an hour through.
This machine can handle more
but we've really got to catch every bit of fine gold.
And to achieve that we've got to feed it slow,
got to be very gentle and consistent.
Now if there is fine gold - and this test comes out good -
then we could be on for a massive leach
for the end of the season.
So this test...I can't emphasise enough
how important this is right now.
Oh, I tell you what... What's going on here?
This doesn't look good. Nah.
We've done a hose.
Oil leaking everywhere and I had to shut her down.
And she's this one and, look, see here?
Where it's been rubbing on here. Yeah, yeah.
We'd have been gone and would have went there as well.
So, lucky we haven't started a fire, mate.
One of our friends, our mining friends,
his excavator burnt down not long ago.
There would have been leaking oil getting on hot parts of the motor
so I just don't want to be a repeat of that situation.
For Vince, Bibbi and Murray,
losing the most vital piece of equipment
would signal the end of their gold mining dream.
I think I've got one of these up there.
I don't know if it's the same fittings but...
OK, why don't you go and get it and we'll see if it fits?
Anyway, I'll take it with me, I'll head up there now.
Alright, mate.
To lose the excavator - that would be devastating.
That means you're going back to the bank to buy a new one.
I'm not doing that at this stage.
Replacing the excavator
would cost upwards of 50,000 dollars -
a career ending expense for the team.
Hey, mate, give this baby a try.
It looks almost the same, doesn't it?
I reckon she's going to do the job, mate.
Do you want to... I'll hold that end and...
No, do you want to grab this end
and feed it through here so no dirt gets into it?
Yep.
Yep. The same thread, mate. Unreal. Beautiful.
Mate, we've got to get this fixed.
We've got to get onto some gold.
Well...
Let's just see if it leaks first.
Yeah, you beauty!
Might be back in action here.
Just got a few more scoops to go and we'll see how we go.
Alright. That's pretty good.
OK, this is the moment of truth.
Let's have a little look here.
Oh, my god!
These are amazing.
There's one, two, three, four.
Oh, my god!
Oh, yeah. They're going to be rapt.
Oh, that is brilliant.
This machine is going to pay itself off,
a hundred per cent.
The one tonne trailer load
has produced three grams of small nuggets
worth up to 250 dollars.
I'm going to have to go up
and get some more of that dirt through because this is great.
This is what we want to see.
Help.
Paul, hopper's blocked. Paul, hopper's blocked.
Eugh!
Ah, this doesn't look fun.
Hopefully we can figure this blockage out
and get back and running but this is no good.
No good at all.
Time is definitely our biggest killer.
Every minute we're burning diesel
and if we're not producing something
we're just costing.
After a fire shut down their crushing circuit, Lloyd,
the Gold Devils are hoping high concentrations of fine gold
will prove that a heap leach can turn their season around.
Yeah, there's a bit rock in here. Alright.
It's wedged across the whole thing.
Yeah, I've pushed it all the way through.
Yeah, all clear now.
Yeah, mate, good to go again.
Alright. All back on.
Alright, did that fix it? Got it going?
Yeah, there is a big rock in there
but it will come through at some point.
Alright, up and running again.
You know, we really need to see some results
at the end of the week,
because it's not going to be cheap
getting this heap leach up and running.
You know, Paul's told me how much it's going to cost
and, you know,
we actually can't afford it at the moment.
But we can't afford not to as well, so...
(PHONE RINGS)
Hello.
Yeah.
Alex, Paul, got a copy?
Copy. Yeah, copy.
I just had a phone call from the guy at Fair Lady
and I really need to get up there now.
So I'm going to jump in the car and head off.
Well, hopefully it's good news and he's got some gold for ya.
It sounded quite promising.
So I know it's a bit of a drive
but I'm just gonna hop in the car
and get up there and hopefully he's got some good news for me.
The Fair Lady lease, 380 kilometres southeast,
is one of
the Gold Devils' ten leases.
There, a small hired crew
have spent the past few weeks chasing a gold rich vein
of blue quartz.
We've got a chap down at Fair Lady
keeping things ticking along,
'cause we need to prove that ground up.
Mel's dashed off, which could be an encouraging sign.
Is that the last bucket?
Yeah, that's the last bit of the last bucket.
Basically, we're just running about a hundred tonne.
It's just an estimate
and, at the end of that, I'd like to see
at least a couple of ounces, you know.
Um, and then that'll justify putting a leach in.
Hopefully it'll be enough gold to pay for it as well.
It's definitely what we need.
We all have to be finding the gold,
because we really need it at the moment.
Even with the fine gold it all adds up
and it's making money - money we need.
We're going to make it.
We're gonna make sure we're gonna make it.
Somehow.
In Victoria,
Bibbi runs the new mini wash plant
while Vince and Murray dig for big nuggets,
doubling their efforts to reach their 40 ounce season target.
(LOUD BEEPING)
Ooh, that is a nice sweet signal.
(LOUD BEEPING)
Ooh, yeah.
I'm coming over for a look.
Ooh! Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!
That's got a nice sound to it, Vinny.
I don't see you dig big, wide holes like that very often.
(LOUD BEEPING)
Still down there.
Give us your pick.
(LAUGHS) This has gotta be gold, mate.
Nothing's ever gotta be gold, Vinny.
Gotta be gold, mate.
This is the best signal we've had in weeks.
It could be a decent nut falling off the (BLEEP) excavator, mate.
Come on. Come on, come on.
Be the gold, Murray. Hey!
Look, do you see that? No.
Oh, hello. It's gold, mate.
Oh, yeah. Unreal.
Beauty, buddy.
Mate, it's solid.
It's a chunk.
You got a bottle big enough to fill him?
I do. Put him in?
Oh, yeah, you've got your big one.
Just.
Unreal, buddy.
That's four or five ounces, that. Yes.
Twelve grand.
We needed it. That's saving the day, mate.
That's saving the day.
So, hey, got the detector out, mate.
Having a swing? Yeah, mate.
All hands on deck. Beauty, mate.
Are you going down the hole?
Yeah, mate, I'll go down. You take it easy.
Alright, mate.
There's some beautiful gravels there.
(LOUD BEEPING) Ooh!
What, are you having a bit of a scratch down there, mate?
I tell you what, I got a nice signal in the wall here, mate -
like the one you got off the pad. Ooh!
What? That big?
Oh, it's out. Out.
Come on, be gold.
Can't see anything yet. (LOUD BEEPING)
Oh, hang on!
Feel the weight now, Vinnie. Hey!
It's gold.
Ooh, it's a nice bit, mate.
Ooh, yeah.
Could be an ounce in this.
Hey, mate, look at that.
It's even got a pyramid shape to it, almost.
Might be your crystal you've been looking for, finally.
We'll have to get it cleaned up and have a geezer.
Just full of pipe, OK, mate.
I can't clean it up here. I can't suck it out.
It's got to come out with a brush.Yep, yep.
The rarest form of gold - crystal gold -
is formed when crystals rapidly grow
in a mineral rich gold vein.
Its value is determined by the uniqueness of its shape
and configuration,
rather than weight alone.
Ooh, yeah!
You know, since we've been doing this lease
we haven't found two good bits in one day yet.
Yeah, in the one day, nuh. Nuh.
This is the first time.
I think we're on.
We might have found that patch we've been looking for.
What are you seeing in your pan?
Well, I'm seeing gold.
Hey, guys. How's it going?
Oh, your home at last. Hey, Mel. You made it.
Oh, that was such a long drive.
Hey, Mel. Hey.
What was the...what was the drama?
Well, let's just do a weigh in and we'll find out, hey?
Oh, you're smiling. I like that.
Looks positive.
You went and picked up gold, didn't you?
Maybe. Well, the whole team's here.
Shall we do it?
The Gold Devils' crushing circuit, Lloyd,
was shut down after the motor caught fire,
leaving their wash plant, Barnabee,
and their fine gold tests as their main source
of gold this week.
Start with Lloyd. Lloyd, yep.
After you burnt it down.
Am I ever going to hear the end of this?
No, probably not.
Fire slowed us down but still produced something.
Wow. Nice colour.
It is. It is.
7.1 ounces. Well, that's not bad.
This one here is from Barnabee for the week.
Just been slowly ticking away.
6.35.
Not bad for the week. Well done, Darren.
That's big, Darren.
Well, with my test with that hundred tonne,
I found a lot of fine gold.
The team needs at least two ounces of gold from the test sample
to justify building a 25,000 dollar heap leach.
So let's see what it is.
Wow!
2.78, 2.8. Wow!
2.8 ounces out of a hundred tonne test.
Well, do you know what?
I was sceptical but you were right.
What have we got up there, nearly 2,000 tonne?
2,000 and that's going to come close to two kilos of gold.
If we leach that, that's an extra two kilos.
That's amazing.
I'm really impressed with that.
I reckon it's worth it.
It's worth the investment. Yeah.
Can we spend the money now, Mel? Yeah, you can.
(THEY LAUGH)
More importantly, you've got this big smirk on your face.
Yeah.
So the guy's been ticking away up there at Fair Lady
and um, yes, he's given me something to...
Whoa, no way! What the hell?
Far out!
That's crazy!
Are you kidding me? Pretty good, hey?
(LAUGHS)
I so wanted to tell you.
Yeah, it's over a kilo. That's over a kilo on its own.
I know.
Nice surprise.
So that brings us up to 48.5 ounces for the week.
That's not too bad.
That pushes the current tally over 300.
With that extra kilo, that's a game changer.
Yeah.
Let's chase that. That's what we're here for.
Like that, that is what we're looking for.
If we can just keep one person back here
to run the heap leach, set it up, have it running
and everyone else just goes to Fair Lady
and tries to produce that. Yeah.
We've got a plan.
Fair Lady and leaching.
Yep. Alright, are we doing it?
Gold Devils!
Seen any gold in there?
Yeah, I've got a few bits.
Good. Yeah.
And how did you guys go? Well, I don't know.
We're gonna have to put it on the scales and have a look.
In Victoria's Golden Triangle,
Bibbi, Vance and Murray added a mini wash plant
to their operation,
in an effort to boost their gold haul.
It was one of those weeks.
We've been moving around everywhere.
Oh, yeah. Spent a lot of money on diesel.
Yep.
But let's chuck some gold on the scales and see how we went.
Yeah, definitely.
Alright. Oh.
1.072.
Is that it?
No, that's not it actually.
Ready?I mean, you guys spent money on that thing.
Hang on. We've got a bit of a surprise for you.Yeah.
Yeah, show me.
Oh! What? (LAUGHS)
That is magic!
5.12 ounces there.
Whoa, that is fantastic, guys. Not a bad week.
Guess what? What?
This one here is a gold crystal
and it's probably worth more than all that gold together.
Based on its shape,
Murray's crystal gold nugget
could be worth over 1,600 dollars -
five times the current gold value.
But that's the biggest one I've seen yet.
Oh, that's stunning.
Yeah, that is beautiful. That's a ripper.
6.4 ounces. Unreal.
Eh? Not bad. That's really good.
Oh, look that's awesome.
Awesome work. Good work. Well done.
Little trammel girl. Alright.
Let's have a look.
Here we go.
Take that off and we'll just do this?Yep.
11.36 grams... That's not too bad.
..minus three grams for the jar, gives us 8.36 grams.
You've actually picked eight grams of small pieces
out of the machine already?
Yep. Yep.
The 700 dollar return from 20 tonnes of pay dirt
means they could pay off the wash plant in just two weeks.
Brings us to roughly 6.65 ounces.
Just under 27 ounces total for the season so far.
OK. 13 to go, guys.
13 to go.
Let's go get in some more gold.
Let's go! Come on! Woo-hoo!
Hey, Murray, looks like we're in with a fighting chance
to hit this target, eh?
Well, we are, mate. Yeah.
And that lifts the spirits a hell of a lot, mate.Yep.
Hey, Chris!
I reckon that's it.
Shut it down and we'll do a clean up.Yeah.
Sounds good. Alright. Shut it down, eh.
Good job, darl.
I think we've nailed our 50 tonne.
If there's nothing in the concentrates
then there's nothing more for us to do.
Yeah, well, this is the scary part.
This determines whether we're staying or going.
That's right. This could be the end of us.
The Gold Retrievers set themselves an ultimatum -
to produce ten ounces of gold this week
or they'll walk away from the operation.
You know, the nerves are sort of up now.
I really just don't know whether we're going
to get ten ounces out of it.
Alright, so there's our gold bar.
Cool it down.
So that's it.
All that hard work and effort,
60 tonnes of dirt has come down to that.
Howdy, team.
Here's the man with the gold.
How did you go?
Well, we got a gold bar.
Oh, wow!
An absolute beautiful gold bar. Oh, it looks great.
We've put in a lot of effort this week just to get that.
So I mean, you know, I think well done to us.Yep.
Even achieving what we've achieved
with the problems that we've had.
So many problems.
It's just been absolutely ridiculous, mate.
So to come out the end
with a gold bar, at least, is fantastic.
But if it's not ten ounces
then the Devil's Cut is not viable.
It's not worth us being here.
Yeah. Yeah.
Alright, here we go.
Nah. Nowhere near. Not even close.
What have we got? 5.4.
(SIGHS)
Mate, it's...yeah.
(BLEEP) heart breaking.
It is.
It's been a hell of a ride, though.
It has. Um...
But, uh, I think this is the end
of the Gold Retrievers, unfortunately.
I think so, mate.
You know, this venture that we're doing
is not working, mate.
So I think we need to go our separate ways and follow,
follow other ventures, you know? Yep.
Well, it's been a pleasure. It has, mate.
It's been (BLEEP) great ride.
Mate, we found a heap of gold along the way.
I'm proud of the work that we've all done.
I think we've achieved some great things, you know?Yeah.
So what do you reckon, we go and have a beer?
Yep, for sure. Let's do it. Alright. Come on, guys.
That really wasn't the outcome we were after.
At least we can sleep easy at night
knowing that we gave it our best.
So for me, now, it's onto the next adventure.
That's the end of the Devil's Cut.
Whatever we decide to do,
just know I'm gonna be right there with you.
Yeah, fantastic, exactly where I want you to be, darl.
I love you. Love you too, darl.
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