NARRATOR: This time on Aussie Gold Hunters...
We're once again moving equipment to set up another project.
The Gold Devils move their operation
in a last bid to save their season.
This could be a major source of gold for us.
Whether it be in time this season or not, I dunno.
But Mel's hunt for gold in an underground reef...
I'm going to be really gentle
'cause it's a little bit dodgy down here.
Oh my god! This could be what changes our season.
..puts her in grave danger.
Oh, my god! Whoa!
The Ferals lose their excavator to rival miners.
What about that loader, mate? Are we gonna able to use that?
We're gonna need that as well.
Take it.
And locating a gold-rich fault-line
is the last chance to get their operation back on track.
Oh man, have a look at that one. Cracker.
In Victoria, Vince, Bibbi, and Murray break new ground...
We're going to be putting a lot of our hopes into this area.
..in a race to find big gold before their season ends.
(BEEPING) Geez that sounds all right, Vince.
The anxiety.
Oi! What?
Stand up. (LAUGHS)
(WOMAN SCREAMS) Oh, my god!
MAN: It's been a bit of a disastrous season.
We've been spread very thin all across all projects
and the gold production just hasn't been there.
We're seven hundred ounces shy of our target
and at this time of the year it's getting
you know, extremely hot as well.
It's coming towards the end of the season.
We need to find as much gold as we can
so we're once again moving equipment,
taking the time out of gold production
to set up another project.
It's just never-ending.
In remote Western Australia, the Gold Devil's Paul Mackie
is on a four hundred kilometre desert trek, hauling
hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment
on a triple trailer road train
from the Phoenix Project to their Fair Lady lease.
A lot of transport costs this year. It's been quite ridiculous.
We've got probably another six thousand's the minimum
for this move that we're doing today.
Alex did want the ball mill to come down on this load
but we couldn't actually get it on.
It's a lot of diesel, a lot of time and effort,
and yeah, another day with no gold production.
Yeah, we're not going to get
anywhere near our thousand ounce target.
Hey, hey! MAN: G'day Paul.
Well, the truck made it, but no ball mill?
No. Didn't actually have any room. Where's Mel?
Ahh, well, she's down a shaft exploring.
We'll have a chat with her later about this ball mill
'cause that was a key part of this operation.
I thought that was arriving in this load.
But anyway, problem for later. Problem for later.
Let's just get this thing unloaded so we can get him off the clock.
Yeah.
The sooner we get these bits off,
the less money that's going to go out of our account.
Every hour we're paying the truckie, burning diesel.
Time is literally money right now for us.
Running this gear all across the country isn't cheap.
And at the end of the day we need gold to come back in
because it's sending us broke at the moment.
It's getting that close to the end of the season.
It's starting to heat up
and quite soon we're not going to be able to operate out here
'cause it's going to be too bloody hot.
We've got the preliminary crushing gear here.
But the thing with the ball mill is it grinds
and it mills the dirt down to virtually dust.
And by doing that you liberate so much more gold,
and without it, bit concerned that we're not going to get the gold
we need right now.
It's getting late in the season to be doing all this
and that bit of gear not here
is just going to push us back further.
The old timers mined this in 1895 to the 1900s.
Back then they got about three thousand ounces.
And I mean they were doing that with hand tools and candle light.
I'm going to hop down there
and see what I can find with the detector.
After gold was first discovered here in 1895,
a group of prospectors, led by David MacGregor,
found a rich outcrop of gold-bearing quartz.
The ensuing gold rush formed a town
but by 1900, only 16 people remained,
with prospectors moving on to more lucrative goldfields.
Wow, you can actually see a reef of quartz through there,
which is continuing up through here.
It's just incredible.
But they had to leave it here, you know, to protect themselves,
to hold everything up for their safety.
Which means that they would have left a lot of gold behind.
So, with modern technology, you know, I can run the detector over it
and hopefully find some gold that they couldn't get.
With their other leases failing to deliver,
the team is focusing all of their resources here.
But with just a few weeks left in their season
their two point six million dollar one thousand-ounce target
is slipping out of reach.
ALEX: We're way behind our season target.
Three hundred ounces in. Seven hundred ounces to go.
I don't like our chances
but we're still giving it a red hot try.
And that's this truck out of here.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Wow.
Well I'm just going to dig a little bit here.
I'm going to be really gentle
'cause it's a little bit dodgy down here.
Oh, my god, you're kidding me.
Oh, my gosh, that's gold. Oh, my god!
This, this is the stuff that they left behind, you know,
and this is really prickly so it's reef gold.
So, this is the source of the gold.
This is just insane and, you know,
there's quartz running all the way through here so, you know, we could
have gold pretty much running through this whole thing here.
This could be what changes our season,
gets that thousand-ounce target, if not more.
Over three thousand kilometres away
in the rain-drenched state of Victoria,
is the legendary Golden Triangle,
famed for producing some of the biggest nuggets
ever found on earth.
It's the last big push here, darling.
We need a miracle to happen. What do we need?
Thirteen ounces? Yeah, definitely.
A bit over thirteen. Yep, yep.
The problem this season, it's just been way too wet.
It's been one of the wettest years I've seen out here.
We haven't been able to get down to the deep ground
where the old timers' diggings are.
Yes.
Instead, we're up here mucking around in virgin ground,
burning through teeth, burning through diesel.
The ground's that hard that
these teeth are going every couple of weeks.
I don't know how long we can keep going like this
without making any money.
Hard to stay positive when you're
thousands and thousands of dollars in the hole.
I know.
Me giving up my job and you know,
not having any gold coming in has been pretty tough.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Rookie miners Bibbi Gerali and partner Vince Malacria
are preparing for a final push on their Talbot lease.
Alongside mining veteran Murray Cox,
the team are still over thirteen ounces short
of their forty-ounce target.
Let's go and dig some gold.
Let's go dig some gold. Whoo-hoo!
This season, Vince and Bibbi's long-standing mining dream
became a reality,
working side- by-side after years apart due to Vince's remote job.
It's our first day, first hole.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
With mentor Murray Cox's guidance they made quick progress...
That's more than an ounce, eh?
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
What's that there? Yeah, look. Hey!
(LAUGHTER)
No way, darl. Beautiful.
Congratulations.
..and the Geo-Magnetic survey
measuring underground metal deposits,
showed big gold potential on the lower end of their lease.
VINCE: Look how much water's in the hole.
Oh, this is a disaster.
But record-breaking floods
ruined their hopes of exploring this gold-rich ground.
We cannot go down the bottom end.
So what, we're just gonna dig here where there's no gold?
The trio are now over $30,000 short of their $104,000 target.
Alight guys, you got them all on? Yeah mate, they're on.
Excellent because I've just been down
and checked out the ground down there.
BOTH: Yes?
It's dry enough for us to have a crack at.
Oh! Ripper.
Fantastic. Yay. OK?
So, this is where we're gonna have a crack and we'll see how we go, eh?
Hopefully it's our season-changer, mate.
Yeah mate, it might save our season. OK?
Alright let's fire up and go get into it.
Alright.
We've been hindered by rain all year.
The ground is just saturated everywhere we wanna dig.
But right at this stage
we've got one little section down here that's dried out enough
to have a real good crack at and hopefully that'll save our season.
Spent a lot of time, money, effort,
blood, sweat and tears,
fuel, diesel, breakdowns,
one thing after another on this joint.
No gold coming in.
So, fingers crossed that this spot down here Murray's chosen
starts paying off,
'cause me and Bibbi are both out of money.
So be nice to get some gold out today.
This section of the paddock is familiar territory for Murray
who pulled around 400 ounces of gold from his neighbouring lease.
His biggest nugget weighed in at over 40 ounces
and would be worth over $100,000 at today's prices.
MURRAY: Even if we could just hit some surface gravels just here
I'm sure there'd be gold here.
We're going to be putting a lot of our hopes into this area
to get us back on track.
Gravels are a sign that an ancient river once flowed through the area.
The riverbed, acting like a sluice, trapping gold nuggets.
Had some good holes, which have actually produced good gold
but nothing around it, you know.
We can't just rely on that one nugget a week
just to try and make some money.
But even those one nuggets a week aren't making us any money.
They're just covering costs.
It feels like everything we've done,
you go two steps forward and one step back.
A lot of disappointments but still haven't given up.
MURRAY: Now I need Vinnie in on the ground with the excavator
and he can start digging while I strip more ground.
If you hit any gravels over there, Vinnie,
give me a call will you, mate?
I think there might be a little bit now.
Oh, OK. I'll come out and have a look mate.
VINCE (OVER RADIO): Righto.
There's no gold coming out of the ground at the moment
so we want things to change pretty quickly.
It's burning diesel, burning time.
This is unreal, mate.
I can't believe all this gravel and no gold.
The financials of this lease just don't add up, mate.
I'm sick of wasting money on (BLEEP) fuel
and we're just wasting our time being here.
I'll tell you, this is going to be my last effort here, mate.
How's that cut looking, mate?
Do you want me to go and run over it?
Yeah mister, I'll just back up out of the way
if you want to have a swing over it.
Yeah, no dramas, man. I'll get in there.
Hopefully we find something.
We didn't find anything in the last couple of cuts
so, see what happens.
In Western Australia's scorching Pilbara Region,
The Ferals's gold search has dried up
on the two kilometre square Mount Shovel lease
they're mining for boss, Kim North.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Ooh!
I got another little target.
Ooh, Nath looks like he's on a nugget over there.
Ahh, yeah, there ya go.
A little gram piece.
It's gold but it's not good enough for us.
We were having such a good run before.
Now it's just sort of drying up.
Three little bits, mate,
from the last how many cuts I can't even count.
Last week...
Fourteen ounces. We've fallen a little bit short.
The Ferals missed the fifteen-ounce weekly minimum
set by lease owner Kim North.
I don't know what that means for the rest of our season.
I really hope Kim will give us another chance.
We haven't made target and I don't think he's going to be happy.
Now the team are waiting for
the mining magnate's response to their disappointing haul.
Hey Nath,
looks like Levi's on his way back but he's got someone with him.
Zane, nice to see you mate.
Zane Mettner is a lease explorer for hire
who searches hard-to-access gold ground for Kim.
Well fellas, I went and caught up with Kim
and not good news for us.
We're losing the machinery
to the other crew that are on the next lease over.
They're on really good gold. Our gold's switched off.
Kim's giving them both machines.
When are they coming to grab the machinery?
They'll be over in a couple of hours.
(BLEEP)
Mate. (RETREATING FOOTSTEPS)
Yeah, so, that's where Zane comes into the picture.
He's come out to bloody help us get back onto it.
Kim's pretty keen to get back on the gold
but he wants to see some gold before we get the machines back.
I got a bit of knowledge off Kim yesterday
and I reckon there's gold over near the edge.
And if we're lucky we can get back on the seam
and get some good pay.
Bloody good to have you back onboard, young fella.
I'll get youse back on it. (ENGINE STARTS)
Take it easy lads.
The ground we're on is about 3.5 billion years old.
This type of rock is all fractured and ancient.
This is where the shear zone is.
This is a good place to start looking for the gold.
The shoal shear zone is a fault line hundreds of kilometres long
that runs parallel to the Pilbara Coast
and up to 25 kilometres inland.
It was created billions of years ago
by the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates.
Then hot, pressurised fluid,
carrying gold and quartz from the Mantle,
travelled towards the surface,
cooling to become hardened quartz veins containing gold.
In recent years,
a number of significant gold deposits have been discovered
along the shear zone.
So according to Kim,
most of the gold in the shear zone's coming out of here.
We haven't proved it yet but if we can, well, that's why I'm here.
We can get them back on the lead
and yeah, hopefully, get these boys smiling again.
Hey boys, there's someone coming now.
This the fella, eh? Yeah.
Righto. See how this goes.
Mick and Michael Napier have been hired by Kim
to work his neighbouring Snake Eyes lease.
They've been delivering
a consistent 30 ounces a week for the past few months.
Mate, we're going to have to take that excavator.
What about that loader, mate? Are we gonna be able to use that?
We're gonna need that as well. LEVI: OK.
So, you guys have gotta do what you gotta do.
Sorry about that but... Take it.
That was the agreement.
Kim's the boss.
It's his show out here and if you're finding more gold than us,
well then, he's all about the money, mate, so...
See ya, guys.
To lose machinery, well, that's a bit of a kick in the guts.
LEVI: We're off the gold,
and Kim's just taken the diggers from us.
We're screwed.
ALEX: Melanie! MELANIE: I'm down here.
Oh, there you are. Hi.
What are you doing down there?
Oh god, I've been having so much fun.
(LAUGHS)
Hey, Paul. Hi.
How you going? Good.
Good. How did you go with the move? Got the road train here.
Oh, good. Not everything we wanted but...
Have any luck down there?
I did. Do you wanna see what I found?
Always. Ta-da!
Holy crap! Wow.
Where the hell did that come from? Lodged in the wall.
It's a beauty. Yeah.
So, I can't wait to get the crusher and the ball mill running
so that we can open it up and see what's in there.
Well the crusher's here. That's the good news.
Yeah? The ball mill's not.
Why is that? Ahh, a couple of reasons.
Because he rocked up with a triple road train.
You can't run an oversized load on a triple.
So, I loaded up the triple and left the ball mill behind for now.
It just is what it is. I didn't really have much choice.
I tried ringing you guys but I couldn't get hold of you.
Yep.
Realistically, right now with the way we're so cash-strapped, I mean,
we could hit maybe ten ounces for the week.
That'd definitely help cover the costs of everything
and justify another big move.
I'll go up there and carry it on my back all the way back myself.
(CHUCKLING)
What do you think about that plan? Yeah.
No time to lose. Just gotta get stuck in.
Yeah.
'Cause I really wanna get stuck into there.
Honestly, after you go down there and see it,
you'll want that ball mill up here, ASAP.
Let's get into it then, hey?
Yep. OK.
The Gold Devils now need an additional $6,000
to pay for transporting the ball mill,
on top of their normal running costs.
ALEX: I know Mel's dead keen on getting the ball mill here,
basically throwing everything at the Fair Lady project.
But she understands better than anyone
how easy it is to spend money and keep your finger on the budget.
Hopefully we can prove this place up.
If we can, this could be a major source of gold for us.
Whether it be in time this season or not? I dunno.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh! (DETECTOR CONTINUES TO BEEP)
That sounds really good.
Wow!
This is in line with the reef where the signal came from.
See the reef through here? Wow!
Wow. (BLOWS)
There's gold all through that.
That's still reef gold.
Alright, I'm going to keep looking.
You can see the quartz through here.
They would have been chasing visible gold.
(ROCKS SLIDE) Oh, my god! (BLEEP)
(BIRD SCREECHES)
(NATHAN SIGHS)
Kicking into the end of the season,
start of summer, it's really starting to get hot.
Yeah, we're in a bit of a bad spot at the moment
without having any machinery.
We've got four of us on the ground detecting,
trying to get back on this gold.
You know, we're so close to our 100-ounce target.
We've got 16 ounces to go
and there's no (BLEEP) way that we're gonna find that
without that machinery to get down deep.
I'm over it at the moment.
I could quite easily just walk away from it.
In Western Australia's wild Pilbara region,
The Ferals have to work without machinery
in an area where temperatures can get as high as 50 degrees.
To get their equipment back
they'll need to prove to lease holder Kim
that they've relocated the gold seam.
RYAN: I'm a little bit pissed off, you know.
I would have thought your uncle would understand that
we've put everything on the line out here.
We've made him a lot of money in the gold that we've found.
There's not much we can do.
I have been mulling over it
and if we get back on the gold
I'm gonna go over and see these fellas
and see if we can cut a deal with them because
they're not going to be using the machinery all day every day.
Maybe these fellas are gonna be reasonable
and we'll be able to work out a deal with them.
Yeah but we've got young Zane here, mate,
and he did good last time,
got us onto that fault line that had all this gold coming out of it.
So fingers crossed he can do it again.
Yep. We really need it.
A kilometre away, Zane Mettner is detecting a shear zone
for gold he hopes will get the Ferals back on track.
ZANE: Finding gold's never easy but I believe we're in the right area.
Kim says we're in the right area.
Just need to find out where the gold lead is.
I'm definitely under pressure.
I feel like they're sort of relying on me to find the gold.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Oh, here we go.
If this is a nugget, we are on here because
we found a couple up there already and it's coming down this way.
This is the best target I've had all day
and it's over a wide area so it's either deep or it's big.
I'll take either.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh. (DETECTOR BEEPS)
Come on, let's get there.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
(DETECTOR BEEPS) She's out. Let's get it.
Let's see how we go.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Oh, here we go.
Oh man,
Have a look at that one. Cracker.
That's a good four or five grams maybe.
ZANE (OVER RADIO): Copy Levi, are you on channel, mate?
Yeah Zane, how did you go, mate?
Just picked up I reckon a four or five grammer.
No way. Really?
Yeah mate. Found two nuggets on a nice little line here.
Well, maybe I'll go see if we can grab the digger for a few hours.
Zane's line of nuggets
is a good sign that they may be back on the gold seam.
You little beauty. Look at you go, mate.
Hi, boys. (LAUGHTER)
You've got another one, bro.
Have a listen to that. (DETECTOR BEEPS)
(DELIGHTED LAUGHTER)
You little beauty, mate.
I've found two like that now. Yeah, boy.
Check that out, bro.
Kim's data said it was here. The shear zone runs this way.
I reckon this could be where it is, round here somewhere.
Mate, I really hope Levi can get that excavator, eh.
We're not going to get that 100-ounce target unless he can.
No, I know.
Walking around out here in this sun killing ourselves, no good.
We need to be on that gold and we need to get down deep.
We can walk around all we want and find new patches
but unless we've got machinery to dig it up, you know, we're stuffed.
And hopefully we can come to an arrangement with these fellas
and share the machinery
because at the moment you know, we're just treading water.
We're not making any money for ourselves or for our families.
MURRAY: I've never had an unsuccessful mining lease
in my life.
Look, if nothing comes out of the next two holes,
I'm ready to walk away.
When the gold's not there,
you don't just keep spending money chasing it.
Murray's starting to lose faith in this joint
and so am I a little bit.
I can't do this on my own, you know.
Without his experience, all the knowledge,
he knows the ground, he knows what he's looking for, you know.
I know a little bit but not enough.
See if I can twist his arm for a couple more holes and if not,
we're going to have to pull the pin on this.
It's just not feasible.
This is absolute crap you know.
We should have blown past our 40 ounces by now
but we're nowhere near it.
Nowhere near it. We're not gonna get there.
Not when it's like this.
In Victoria's Golden Triangle,
Vince and Bibbi's lease
has dried out enough to start digging promising new ground.
But the clock is ticking
and they still need ten ounces of gold to reach their target
before Murray pulls the plug on their season.
(DETECTOR BEEPS FAINTLY)
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY)
Not going to be a piece of gold.
We haven't found anything down here, mate.
Nah, that sounds too good.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
Ahh, no.
What?
It ain't silver.
There you go. That's alright.
That's alright, mate.
What do you reckon? Five, ten grams?
Geez, it looks bigger than that from here
but I'm getting old and my eyesight's bad.
Hey, toss that up here. Alright mate, you ready?
Ripper! Look at that.
Unreal. Good half ounce here, Vinnie.
Excellent. That's great. Unreal!
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Mate, there's another target in the wall here.
Yep. Hang on. I'm coming down, mate. I wanna have a look at this.
Unreal.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Still in there.
Come on. We need this one.
Hey look! Look, look, look, look, look, look.
(LAUGHTER)
Oh, yes! That's more like it, mate.
Ripper buddy.
Have you found something? We've got something, babe.
Hey, come down here and have a look, babe.
Yay! Oh, you ripper!
Look at that. Look at this, darling.
Oh, wow!
Look at this babe, two out of the one hole.
Oh, my god. Yay! Unreal.
Well done, guys. Well done.
I didn't bring a jar 'cause I didn't think we were gonna get any gold.
Well done. Go for it! Yep.
We might save our season yet, darling.
I know.
(BLEEP)
Oh, my god!
Nah, I'm out.
Eugh! Gosh.
PRODUCER: Are you okay, Mel? Yeah.
Oh, whoa, that was scary.
Get outta here.
Yeah, that was really scary.
Look, it's better to get out of there
when it gets unstable like that.
I know there's more gold down there but yeah, it's not worth dying for.
So, I'd rather come back with the machines and try and dig it out.
Yeah, it was fun while it lasted. Phew!
With the old timers' mine shafts proving too dangerous,
The Gold Devils' hope for 1,000 ounces
are pinned to Paul and Alex.
PAUL: You know, it's over a forty-degree day today
and you can't just have one person standing out in the sun
the whole day.
You'll end up with heat stress or worse - heat stroke.
We've all had it before and we never want to get it again.
The cramps and the headaches just aren't worth it
so it's easier to just swap out every hour and keep everyone safe.
Summer is definitely here.
The temperature has just gone from being bearable to absolutely insane.
The water is just literally evaporating out of your body.
It's completely a brutal environment
and I think it's going to shut our season
long before we're going to get our target.
You just can't fight the heat out here in the desert.
It's brutal.
Where I'm standing here,
just wanna come and take another bite out of that?
Looks like there might be some of that blue quartz poking its head up.
ALEX (OVER RADIO): Roger. Coming through.
The blue quartz veins that they originally uncovered out here
were running close to 19 ounces to the tonne.
We wanna find more of that blue quartz
because that's going to be the ultimate payday.
Oh, that's tough. We need the excavator down for this job.
This is just a bit too rough.
Well, this little loader's struggling to get through it
so if we want to go deeper,
bring the excavator down and have a good look at it.
Yeah, we probably do need to check it out with the excavator for sure.
The 46 tonne, 315 horsepower excavator
has enough power to break through the tough,
concrete-like ground that covers the Gold Devils' lease.
PAUL: You wouldn't expect it to be this hard but you know,
thousands of years of rain and moisture and all the rest of it,
she's just compact.
It's like trying to dig through concrete.
ALEX: Ahh, Paul's gone down a couple of feet now.
It's definitely into virgin ground.
Be no metal detector that's ever been down that deep
so there's every chance.
But yeah, we're going to need to
see something coming out of the ground soon.
It's a lot of diesel to be digging trenches like this
so they've got to deliver.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Oh, hello.
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY)
That's a big sound.
That is a big sound. Old timer's sardine can maybe.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) It's still there.
Eugh!
It's a hot day for doing this.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) It's still in there.
Come on mate, put your back into it. (ALEX CHUCKLES)
Here, give me a go.
Geez, that is hard.
It's all ribble wash, isn't it?
(DETECTOR BEEPS) It's still in there.
Oh geez, it's too hot for this.
Excavator?
I reckon. Alright.
Digging this deep down,
could be rubbish in an old hole, who knows,
but a sound like that, if it's gold, that could be a big nug.
So, let's hope the excavator finds it
and we haven't just lost whatever that was.
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY) It's loud, whatever it is.
It's in the pile here.
Oh!
Paul! Check it!
PAUL: You're kidding me.
Holy crap. Check that out.
Yes!
Oh, I so thought that was going to be another bit of tin.
That's a big nug.
That's over five ounces easy. Wow!
You did it, mate. You did it.
And there's so much more ground here to cover.
What else is gonna come up? Oh, that's long overdue.
That could be a game-changer right there.
LEVI: Kim's kind of thrown a bit of a spanner in the works here
and decided to give the other crew the machinery.
You know without digging for the gold we're not gonna find it.
In remote Western Australia, The Ferals's Levi North
is hoping to secure the loan of heavy machinery
from the competition Mick and Michael,
who've been mining Kim's neighbouring Snake Eyes lease
for the past three months.
How are you going fellas?
Yeah, good, mate.
I've just come over to see youse about the digger situation.
Just wondering if it's possible you might be able to lend us a digger
or share a digger at some stage.
MAN: We're on really good gold, mate.
I could show you a few bits of gold.
This'll show you
why we're reluctant to hand the machine over, mate.
Whoa!
Now you can see why he said
we got priority on the machines for digging over here.
At some point I'm sure youse both gonna have to get out
and have the swing,
and you know, even a couple of hours here and there
just to keep us going, would be great.
Yeah, I reckon maybe we can let you have it for a few hours.
Oh yeah? Here and there.
But when we need it, we need it.
So we'll come straight over, you know.
Alright. Thanks, Mick. Good on ya.
Thanks, Michael. Levi.
Whoo! Ha, ha, ha.
So, I'll come in there
and probably dig a costean down the bottom, fellas.
Let's see if we can get back on top of this gold, hey.
Whoo-hoo!
What we do is we dig this costean, or a trench,
where Zane's been picking up some nuggets.
Throw the dirt up
and if there's going to be any gold we should find it up in our piles,
or down in the trench or in the edges.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Ooh, got a bit of a target here.
Sounds like a nice chunky piece of gold.
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY) Whoa, it's in the scoop.
Not gonna lose that.
Oh, look at that. There it is.
(LAUGHS) You little ripper!
Oh, you can see it's a bit shiny.
It's been hit by the bucket but that is a nice specimen.
See all the quartz, all the different pieces in it?
So that's definitely shed from a gold seam.
That's got to be about half an ounce.
Just gotta keep going hard
and pick up as much as we possibly can before this summer sets in
and the heat drives us off the land.
Air con's really struggling in here
so I've got these windscreen visors up
just to try and keep some of that heat out.
I'm feeling for the fellas out there.
Got a target here that's a bit deeper.
It's making me work for it.
But it's a good sign that we've got some deeper gold.
This ground's rock hard. Oh, isn't it just, hey.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) That is still in the hole.
Oh, well. That's a good sign, brother.
Yeah. Let's see what you reckon?
Righto. See if she's out.
Phew! (DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY)
Oh yeah. Yep?
She's in through there, brother. Righto.
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY) Yep, scoop.
Oh, first scoop bro.
Good time. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
Hand.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) Scoop.
Oh, ho, you little ripper!
There it is, mate. Look at that bugger, mate. Eh?
Whoo-hoo!
We're back on the gold, bro. Yeah, bro. Whoo-hoo!
You little beauty!
How did you go, boys? Check that one out, boss.
Ooh!
That's a ripper. Isn't it.
That's like, close to half an ounce, hey?
We've got Zane to thank for this. We're back on the gold.
Hey, weigh in tomorrow fellas, so let's get as much as we can
and hopefully we've got something to show for our efforts.
Yeah.
MURRAY: That's fantastic finding those couple of bits.
What we've got to do now is try and find a trail
and that trail might just lead us
to an untouched lead that has never been seen before.
And if we get one of those we're really in for good days.
Vince, Bibbi and Murray have found the riverbed
that connects their lease
to Murray's most profitable piece of ground,
his adjoining lease
that's already produced hundreds of ounces of gold.
VINCE: We're onto the gold now.
This could change our season.
So, we're gonna punch another hole down,
see if we can find the edge of this gutter
and follow that along and we should be onto some good gold soon.
Hey Vinnie, there's another shaft there mate.
Yeah, looks like it, eh.
It's a good sign, mate.
We must be on the lead here 'cause there's a shaft there
and there's a shaft there
so it's good signs if the old timers were here digging.
They didn't punch all these shafts down for no reason.
There would have had to have been some gold in there
for them to go to that extent.
Hopefully they left something for us.
BIBBI: It's been a really expensive year
and unfortunately the rain as well, it's cost us a fortune.
We just need to sort of recoup all these payments and everything,
and with finding this little bit of extra gold...
(DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY) That sounds good.
..we really need it.
Scrape the top off.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh, wow, sounds good. (DETECTOR BEEPS LOUDLY)
Oh, you're kidding me.
Ahh! Oh, yes!
My god, this is about $2,500 in one piece, one piece of gold.
(DETECTOR BEEPS)
Geez, that sounds all right, Vince.
Listen to that, guys. (DETECTOR BEEPS)
Oh mate that's got to be a chunk, mate.
Ooh, yeah.
Look at those gravels, Vinnie. Crunchy goodness.
You haven't worked so hard all day, mate.
(BIBBI LAUGHS) Quick, quick, come on.
Just go over it again to see if it's still there.
(DETECTOR BEEPS) It's still there, mate.
She's still... Ooh! Geez, I'd better be careful mate.
It might be down in the crevice in those slates.
Yep. Get this puppy out, mate.
Come on. Be gold.
We dug that deep for an old pick head once
and it sounded exactly the same as this.
Oi! What?
Stand up. Come back.
Ahh! (LAUGHS)
(BIBBI SQUEALS) Oh, my god!
(SQUEALS AND LAUGHS)
Look at the size of it! Unreal!
Oh, my god!
That's our season. Oh, unreal!
Frickin' kidding me!
What a buzz! Unreal.
Geez, mate. Feel the size of it.
That's come out of this little strip there.
That's more than we've found in the whole (BLEEP) lease just there.
Look how heavy it is.
That's our season. That one nugget. Oh, my god!
Oh, unreal. Frickin' kidding me.
What a buzz, hey! Unreal!
LEVI: Just come into Kim's yard
and I'm going to melt up our species.
So, I've just crushed them up
and we've probably got about four or so ounces of specimen gold here.
So, you know, every little bit of gold counts.
At the Ferals's base camp,
the team need enough gold to convince boss Kim North that
the ground is worth the use of his heavy machinery.
When you find a lot of specimen gold,
you melt all that gold up into a bar
and that way we know exactly how much gold we have.
There it is.
Alright.
(WATER HISSES)
There we go. That's a nice bar.
Yeah, it's been a bit of a crap week, boys.
You know, we lost the machinery
and the gold was running thin on the ground.
Thanks for coming out, mate, and getting us back on that lead.
No worries.
It was really good, but look, here comes Levi now so...
Hey, fellas.
..get the scales on the table and see what we've got.
There we go. Oh, nice bar, mate.
Look at that.
That's all that small gold and the species crushed up.
Yeah. Chuck it on the scales and see what we got.
Bar first.
(WHISTLES)
Three point six seven ounces.
That's all right. That's not bad at all.
That's a nice little bar there.
And I just cleaned up those bigger nuggets
because they're probably worth more as nuggets,
as hanging pieces, than melting it.
Come on, baby, what did we get?
What have we got there? Five point seven five.
Mate, that's close to $15,000.
Not a bad week.
Not a bad week considering, you know,
we got messed around with stuff.
Yep. I'm happy with our result.
Not sure how old Uncle Kim's gonna feel about it but...
Well, we were only an ounce short last week, mate,
and he didn't like it so...
Yeah.
And Mick and Michael, they're on some really good gold
so I understand where Kim's heading with that one.
It's switched off for us.
Well, maybe we can start doing night shift.
Mick's using the machine during the day.
If we start using it at night, more machine time equals more gold.
Yeah. We could do that.
I reckon night shift's a good call. Absolutely, man.
Anyway boys, the gold's still out there to be found so...
That's it. ..how about we wrap it up.
I reckon, man. I'm keen as, hey.
I wanna get out and get some more nuggies, eh.
That's it. That's the spirit.
It's still out there so let's go get it, eh?
Righto boys, let's get back out there, eh?
Come on you Ferals. Get on the nuggies.
Come on, brothers. (LAUGHTER)
ALL: Whoo-hoo!
MELANIE: Weigh in time? Yes.
Perfect. Let's do it. Back of the ute.
So, what was the ground like over there?
Oh, it's pretty hard.
The top clay layer is just so compact.
Basically like concrete.
But we did find some more blue quartz.
Yep. Oh, good.
In the ground.
So, that's encouraging that there could be another reef down there.
Yeah. Well, show us what you got.
This big chunker. Oh, wow, that's awesome. Well done.
I'm very happy with that one. Yeah.
Five point four ounces.
Wow that's impressive.
And yeah, we've got a few more to add to the equation there.
OK. (GASPS)
They're nice.
Oh, wow.
Alright, well, I don't have that but...
Eleven point nine.
So, pretty much twelve ounces.
Twelve ounces. More than ten.
Yeah, I think you said
you're carrying that ball mill down on your shoulders.
I did say something stupid like that, yeah.
Well just the fact that you found a source of reef gold,
it's definitely worth milling.
This is really encouraging, really encouraging.
With just a few weeks left in the season,
this haul leaves the Gold Devils over 650 ounces short
of their ambitious 1,000-ounce target.
But the reef gold means they could be close to a strike
that could transform their season.
Alright, so, we're throwing everything at Fair Lady this season?
For the last of it, yeah.
For the end of the season? Yep.
Let's do it. Alright.
Gold Devils! Whoo!
BIBBI: What a cracker of a week, honey.
VINCE: Not a bad end to the season was it, darling?
MURRAY: How's it going guys? You got it cleaned up yet?
Yeah, mate. On the last bit now.
How's it lookin'? Beautiful.
Oh, you tell me. Look at this. Oh, geez.
That's beautiful-looking gold.
Isn't it? That is ripper stuff.
Are you ready to do a weigh in? Yeah.
Let's do it. End of season weigh in. Let's do it.
Alright, let's go.
Vince, Bibbi, and Murray
are hoping to end their season on a high
after receding flood waters allowed them to access
what they believe to be a gold-rich,
virgin patch of their five hectare lease.
Well, I tell you what, guys,
it came very, very close to not finding this.
I was ready to give up. I'm telling you now.
I know, mate. And look what happened.
Let's see if we got our 13 ounces.
One point three eight-ish.
Alright, next.
Get them on there. Look at these guys.
Oh, my. Oh, wow.
Alright.
Excellent. Eight point two ounces, guys. Well done.
Let's go the big stonker. Yeah.
Well, that's an issue isn't it? (LAUGHS)
That's overloaded guys but there's an old timers' trick here.
Yeah. Two sets of scales.
Yep. Split him over half.
Yes, you learn quick for a young bloke.
Wow. That's twenty point four ounces, that big piece.
Wow!
That's a $65,000 piece, mate.
That's right, mate,
but unfortunately I've gotta split it with you.
I'd like to keep the whole lot.
The end of season total. Grand total.
Over our 40 ounces,
we ended up with roughly fifty-five point five ounces so we smashed it.
Whoo!
You might to have to fly in, fly out any longer, mate.
No. Fifty-five ounces for the season.
What's that Murray?
That's around about a hundred and thirty,
a hundred and forty grand, mate, just off me head.
Top job, team. That's pretty good.
Looking forward to next season. Let's go get a beer.
Yay! Whoo-hoo! Let's do it. Let's go celebrate.
Yep. Let's go.
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