(KNOCKS ON DOOR)
YANNI: Hello.
MARK: Hey! Mark! Wow.
How's it going? Haven't seen you for ages, man.
You're doing well. Look at ya. Am I? You're looking all right. Yeah.
Do you want to have a seat? Yeah. No worries.
I heard that you've got a special piece that you want to show me,
so can we see what it is? Oh, I have.
We found something pretty special. You have?
I'll give you a look. I'll try and put it together for ya. (CLEARS THROAT)
What we think it looks like...
Lots of colour.
Nice bit of stone. Mmm.
So what we think it is is the forearm of a claw.
Yeah.
'Cause it's got the striations or whatever they bloody call them in it.
So, yeah, we're just not sure what it is, that's all.
Mark, this is not just, if it's a fossil,
but this is very good quality. It's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah.
The red bar in there. The red bar is insane, yeah.
Wow. Yeah. Where did you find this one?
Yeah, we found it at the Twelve Mile.
The Twelve Mile? Yeah, Twelve Mile.
Yeah. Wow.
I haven't seen this quality crystal opal from Twelve Mile in a long time.
Yeah, yeah.
That's very good quality.
Obviously, the value of opal, you know, I don't have to tell you. Yeah.
But if it's a fossil, then... What might it be worth then?
It would make that piece at least...
$350,000 to $400,000. (EXHALES)
Oh, wow.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
It's... it's interesting.
It's very interesting because it's not a vertical and it's not...
Yeah, that's... It... Opal doesn't seem to form like that.
That's right, yeah.
NARRATOR: In Adelaide, South Australia,
Blacklighters' team leader Mark I'Anson,
his partner Rachel and father Don are assessing what they think
is an opalised fossil
by Yanni Athanasiadis, an authorised opal valuer.
And it fits perfect as well.
In this, there are two things.
First of all, I'm amazed with the quality of opal.
Only in shells and pipes I've seen this quality.
That sort of colour. Yeah, yeah.
It was something and it was filled in with the silica...
Yeah. ...hundred million years ago.
So you think it's definitely a fossil.
It's just hard to say what it actually is?
Yeah, yeah, awesome.
Do you know how many ounces? It's two and a quarter, I think.
Two and a quarter. Yeah. So, two and a quarter.
Two and a quarter.
I'll say you have about $55,000 worth of just opal. Just opal.
Yeah, that's awesome.
But it's, uh... it's definitely a fossil.
You multiply that by quite a few times.
Whoo! (LAUGHS)
Yeah. Yew!
Well, congratulations.
Thanks heaps. Really appreciate your time. Legend.
Yeah. Great to see you.
Don, very nice to see you. Keep well.
Oh, that was amazing. I... I feel absolutely stoked.
Now we know it's a fossil.
We've just got to find out what type of fossil it is, and it's worth big money.
We've found big money!
We're trying to get in touch with a couple of people at the museum
to get that actually identified at the moment.
'Cause that's the big mystery, what is it?
Looks like a crab claw. Could be from an old crayfish.
It could've been from a scorpion back then that had big claws.
You just don't know. It was a long time ago when that thing formed.
To tell you the truth, I don't really care what it is now.
As long as it's a fossil, I'm pumped.
Whatever, if it's a Freddy fossil or a Dougie fossil, I don't really care.
I'm just pumped.
Let's hope we find some more or the rest of it.
Like, it'd be good to find the rest of that fossil.
The jetsetter's back. Oh, he's back. MARK: Nice to be home.
Nice to be back, actually. Yeah. Yeah.
How'd we go?
Not too bad. Not too bad.
The opal value, he reckons over 50 grand just in opal value.
(BLEEP)
But if we get that certificate saying it's a fossil,
which he thinks it is a fossil, this could be up around 400 grand.
Oh! (LAUGHING) There's some numbers.
Hey! Four hundred grand, eh.
I'm pretty happy with it. We should go find some more.
Yeah, it come from just down there. Just there. Let's get more.
Let's hit it. Let's hit it, man. All right. Sweet. Absolutely.
On their Twelve Mile claim, Mark I'Anson, Paul Coon,
and John Nassar are back working their open cut mine,
where they unearthed the apparent $400,000 fossil.
Having both excavators running now,
you know, double our progress.
Johnny can move some of the top,
while we're down the bottom facing up and hopefully finding some opal.
We think it'll work.
Life's too short to think you've got forever to dig here, dig there, dig there.
We have to go fast.
We're gambling on this season, big time.
At the moment, we've got Mark down here getting all that dirt out for Paul.
Paul's gonna be ripping at the wall.
I'll be taking this dump off and tossing it out the way,
so pretty well all I'll be doing for the next, probably, few weeks
is just spinning around in circles, dumping dirt.
Oi, You gotta try and stop leaving that (BLEEP) like this, man.
It's too (BLEEP) hard for me in here. Just...
I... I did that deliberately, mate.
It'll take me two hours to (BLEEP) try and move so I can dig! I did as good as I could.
It's (BLEEP) like this!
That's because that's what the dozer does!
You can't get it flat!
I can't even dig that. It just wants to flip me over.
That's as flat as I can get it, man!
(DRILL WHIRRING)
All right! We found some opal all in these mudslides and stuff,
and it's running right up into this rock band.
It's definitely not the safest way to be doing it this way,
but I want to see as soon as that rock falls off
if the opal runs up in the cracks that he's forming, so...
(HUFFS) Have a gaze at that, mate.
(DRILL WHIRRING)
Cozza! Oi!
(BLEEP) Oh.
(BLEEP)
Man, where's that? That come from the top, bro.
Sorry, man. I only just caught it.
Oh, (BLEEP), bro. Did that hit you?
You all right? I'm all right, man. That just landed next to me.
Just seen it in the corner of my eye coming straight down.
That's bigger than my head. (LAUGHS)
Andamooka, South Australia.
Brothers Cozza And Matt Kathagen are battling an opal drought
they've endured for almost three seasons.
Yeah, it's quite a difficult season for me.
I got a lot on with a new baby now.
So it means a lot less time out here in the field this year.
So we've gotta find some opal to feed this family.
Yeah, I've got two boys, and Matty's got a boy and a girl now.
So we've both got growing families, they're all getting hungry, so we really need to find this opal.
It's a bit hard from up here now, mate.
It's really dangerous trying to knock these down. (GRUNTS)
(LAUGHING) Look out. You got the big one, mate.
Ready?
Oh, yeah!
That's the money. That was the killer.
There's a couple here.
Let's go get some material. All right.
And we start filling some buckets up then, eh? Yeah.
It's a really slow-going process here.
So all the opal we've found so far
is kind of coated in this dark brown stuff,
so it looks just like the dirt.
So anytime you find a bit of opal,
it's important to take everything around it with ya.
Go wash it all out,
and you'll be surprised what comes out.
I've got three buckets out already. Yeah.
Just filling up this fourth one, and we'll get going, eh?
I'll go bring the ute down and load 'em up. I don't want to carry 'em all the way.
Nah. Bloody enough work picking at the walls here.
(GRUNTS)
Well, let's get this back into town, bro. Yeah.
You got the picks and everything? Yep.
All right, let's give it a wash. Hope for the best.
All right, mate, let's do it. You beauty.
We got to try and rack up ten grand this week.
Then we've got the buyers coming.
Adrian and, um, Annemarie, I think it was.
They're gonna open up a shop or something.
That's why they're here looking for some opal,
but they're not having much luck, so...
Let's do it! Let's have a look.
All right.
(EXHALES)
Cool.
All right, bruv, You all right here for a minute?
Gonna check on the kids and the missus. Yeah, I'm good, bro. Yeah, sweet.
Just sifting out a bit of the looser dirt
to get the rocks so I can have a look at 'em.
Give 'em a bit of a hose off and a wash around.
So without having a bit of a wash on it, you can't see.
So, this is the latest Mooka Boy. (GRUNTS)
This is my little son, Atlas, only a few weeks old now.
Nice and asleep now.
He looks nice and cute, but, mate, he keeps us up all night,
don't you worry.
(SIGHS)
How's it going, bro?
Check this out. Two buckets, no colour.
Yeah, this ain't gonna work like this, eh.
Need a better way, eh? Need a better way for sure.
(ENGINE SPUTTERING)
(ENGINE REVS)
BOGGER: Did you check the oil?
Yeah, there's enough for today.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
Yes, there's a crack there. Yeah, you don't put that on tight.
Oh, right, you just let it bop around, do you?
Just... just touching.
It'll go down, hopefully.
Well, the power pack is still going, but only just.
And we've just discovered the radiator's split as well.
So we've got water coming out of the radiator,
we've got oil coming out of the motor.
It's only on half power. We can still do something.
Well, our season target this year is 200 grand.
And actually we're going pretty good,
but unfortunately with that heap of breakdowns,
this power pack, it is a major.
It's completely (BLEEP), so we've got to build a new one.
In Grawin, New South Wales,
the Bushman's ageing mining machinery has slowed their season to a crawl.
SAM: The power pack's on its last legs.
We're having to use it for now, but Les is working on the other one.
So hopefully, we'll get it going as soon as possible.
You got her apart, Les?
LES: Yeah, mate.
So I think the best thing to do is just get it going for now,
and then we'll do all the pretty stuff on it as we go. As we're going, yeah.
I might bring the Landy over and we'll drag these wheels out of the way,
so you've got a bit of room to work here. What do you think?
Yes, it's gonna work well.
All right.
Yeah, Les has done a hell of a lot of work.
It certainly doesn't look like a front-end loader anymore.
It's just one of those jobs, we just need it done
'cause we can't dig properly.
Yeah, Rod's gonna drag the back end of it away out over there,
so we can get to it a bit better.
Chain on the front.
(TOOLS RATTLE)
I'll make sure it's out of gear, too.
That'll help.
Try that.
It's, uh, a tricky thing.
Neither of us are hydraulic engineers, and we just have a go.
And that's pretty much... (CHUCKLES) ...what we always do is have a go.
And if it works, it works, and if it doesn't, we'll try something different.
We're still trying to work it out how it's gonna work, and where the things go.
Oh, well, we'll get there.
It's gonna take a while, but that's all.
BOGGER: Yeah, so last time we were down here,
we pulled a $43,000 parcel out of the wall.
That's pretty substantial.
It's been a fair while since we found anything with that amount.
So if that keeps happening, we'll be happy.
Righto, Sam. Let's go and make ourselves rich, mate.
SAM: I hope so. (GRUNTS)
Hey-oh. Okay.
We have had a bit of strife with the digger lately, you know,
but because the power pack's not working to its full capacity,
when I try to slew one way, it just won't slew.
This is really slowing us down.
We're in exactly the same place where we found the 43k,
but we've just gone in further because it's already making opal,
so we may as well keep following it and see if we find some more.
Shit, that's hard. BOGGER: There's white horse.
I'll try my best not to kill you. Okay?
Yeah, righto. You just try your best, mate.
Can't promise anything. Yeah, I know.
Whoa! Yeah, here you go.
Straight up off the bat, mate. Big piece.
White horse everywhere, isn't it? Oh, it's unreal.
Look, there's just a big vein of it right there. Yeah.
White horse is a rare silification of pale rock...
That's harder than concrete. Dreadfully hard.
It's 50 times harder than concrete generally.
...and a good indicator of opal, which also needs silica to fall.
I'm gonna try and take that corner,
but I need you on the other side, Bogger.
Yeah, definitely, mate.
Ooh, she's gonna come down. Just be careful here, mate.
Careful. Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Hey!
Far out!
You all right? Yeah, I'm all right, mate.
That's a big lump. Jeez.
That's what we're gonna do next.
Get this out of the way, this massive lump of white horse.
The Bushmen rely on a diesel-powered blower
to extract mined waste dirt.
After being sucked through 30 metres of pipes,
it's dumped into a waiting truck above ground.
The blower's not working properly.
SAM: No, it doesn't sound right, does it?
PAUL: Everyone's (BLEEP) me off today.
And no one's got a (BLEEP) idea what they're doing.
I'm just struggling, trying to get a nice flat pad for myself to sit on, you know.
Mark's (BLEEP) pushing down there, and he's putting me on the side,
and you sit there digging,
and it just wants to pull you, it wants to flip the machine over.
So we're just gonna try and flatten that out a bit better.
MARK: Oh.
Something wrong with the dozer.
Are you there, Paul?
Yeah, what's up? We got a big problem here.
There's a massive leak coming out of the (BLEEP) dozer.
Oh, you're (BLEEP) joking.
All right, let us come over and have a (BLEEP) look.
Righto, I'll shut it down.
(GROANING) (GROANS) spilled on us.
Oh, it split the sleeve in the water jacket.
We've got to fix it. Pain in the arse, but, yeah.
In Coober Pedy, the Blacklighters' dig for high-value opalised fossils
is dead in the water.
At least it's getting a flush.
That is gross, man. Look at it.
Oh, that is sick.
There's our problem.
Oh, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
That shouldn't be that hard to fix.
(SPUTTERING)
Oh, for (BLEEP) sake.
(ENGINE REVS, DIES)
Let's see if this (BLEEP) thing's got enough juice.
(CRACKLING)
Yeah, today's been one of those days, you know. (BLEEP)
But you get those out here, there's nothing you can do about it.
Suck it up. Keep moving forward.
We've got a couple of gaskets that gotta go on top, and a really tight seal.
We gotta have a real tight seal 'cause it's holding water pressure.
(GRUNTS) Well done, Paul.
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
Yeah, so we're hoping we've solved the problem there with the leaking coolant.
Fingers crossed once it heats up and he puts a bit of load under it,
you know, hopefully she doesn't blow.
Yeah, so the last time I was digging in this spot, we came across a unusual fossil.
But you never know what we could find in here. There could be anything.
Yeah, I've seen something (BLEEP) back there.
I don't know what it is, but it looks all right.
JOHN: That's colour, dude.
You got the jacky, Johnny? over here, man.
Looks like there could be colour.
Ooh! Oh, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Oh, is that where it is? Yeah, that's where it is. That chunk there.
Bit of a mix of shells.
Bits and pieces of them joined up to tease us a little bit.
This is like where that other shell come from. It was in the floor, wasn't it? Yeah.
It's all in the level down here. Oh, that's beautiful.
Look at the beautiful colour. Yeah.
Oh, look, full one in the bottom there. Right on the bottom. Oh, sick.
Yeah, we've got a full mussel there.
This one up here's got some colour,
but this one here, that's in the dirt, that's a full one.
Nice shell there.
Oh, look inside of it. Yeah, I know there's heaps in there.
All in there!
There's shells all through it.
Big shells all through this. (CHEERS)
Oh! Oh, dear lord!
Trace bucket! Chocolate milkshake!
(CHEERING)
Oi, that's a chunk of opal, man. Take your time, go real slow. Watch your finger.
(BLEEP) could be good, man.
Look what's left in the wall dirt! It's a slab!
(WHOOPING)
Look how thick that is! Oh, that's gem crystal!
Don't put that in the bucket, man.
That is an absolute (BLEEP) beauty.
Oh! Hey, hey, hey!
(CHUCKLES) Oh!
You beauty! Look at that!
Oi, look! Yew!
That's a stone, man. That's a (BLEEP) beauty!
None of it escaped.
Oi! That's off its chops! Yeah, no (BLEEP)!
Oi, I've just broken that bit up. Look at the colour, man.
Oh!
I'm seeing a lot of reds, a lot of greens, a lot of yellows, a bit of everything in there.
It's coated, it's got a skin on it, so can't wait to see it tumbled up. It's gonna look awesome.
MATT: Yeah, it's definitely a bit of a low in our season,
so Cozzie and I have come up with another idea.
We're gonna take all of our processing gear out to the mine,
and hope we can set up some sort of production line.
Cozzie's bringing the dirt out, I'll clean it, sort the opal,
and we're just walking away from our mine with a finished product.
I hope this works, man.
We gotta try something 'cause whatever we were doing yesterday ain't working.
At the beginning of another dire season,
Matt and Cozza Kathagen want to confirm opal-bearing ground earlier
by building a processing plant just metres from the mine where they extract the dirt.
Found some wheels from an old bed, a drum, and a milk crate.
And we got this.
This is a windscreen wiper motor off a car.
Does a good job of making the barrel spin round and round.
RCD boards. We've got solar, but we ain't got any sun,
so we might have to power it up a different way today.
Hopefully, it cleans all the opal pieces up so we can see them.
Fingers crossed she works.
Three, two, one.
All right, look at that, mate. That's it! Job done.
(LAUGHS) Well done, mate.
It's only small, but this will do, mate.
Like, as they're pulling buckets out, I can just keep changing them.
Yeah. Yep. All right, mate, I'll pack all this up.
Let's get down in the hole.
Hunting for opal in Andamooka is generally as easy as finding an old seabed level,
'cause you can tell by all these little water-worn rocks.
So they've been in water for a very long time to get round.
So right here you can see, I'm just sort of following a line of these rocks.
And right here, it turns straight down into the ground.
Which is kind of another ingredient we need.
Opal comes up from the bottom,
it works its way up these little levels,
finds somewhere hard, it pools up,
and then hopefully, that's where you find the precious opal.
It's not in every single crack in the ground,
but we've got to check every single crack in the ground.
I can't find (BLEEP) opal, bro! Yeah, I'm not having luck this morning.
Hey! Here we go, brother.
I got a run here too, Cozzie. Good work, bro.
It's only small still, but it's here.
(GUFFAWS) We are on, bro. We're on.
Oh, we'll leave this one here? Yep. Shift under it. I'll come with you.
I'll hold the buckets. We'll do it together at a time. Yep.
Whoa, that's stacking up.
That's still running here. Yeah.
That's the end.
So I'll go wash that out, see if there's any colour in it.
You want to go and pull out that other bit you found? Yeah.
Yeah, let's see what we've got. I've got my fingers crossed, mate.
Because there's so much white horse in this ground,
being a big rock, go up and block it somewhere.
BOGGER: Yeah, mate.
ROD: What you might have to do, I think it's blocked where that is there.
Ah, great. So you might have to go up
and see whether you can see where the blockage is.
Yeah, righto. And try and clear it.
Right. No worries. Be careful.
This is a massive issue for us,
because if we don't have the blower going
we can't move any dirt and we can't move forward anymore.
So we need this blower to be going to continue digging.
Can you look down it and see a blockage?
I can only see to the kink, and there's nothing there at the kink.
Wonderful. So that means it's right up in the top.
(OVER RADIO) You know, the big curved pipe.
The round one or the square one? (OVER RADIO) The square one.
On top of that square plate is really, really thick metal.
Yep. Give it a couple of bangs on top of the curve.
(OVER RADIO) Yeah, righto.
I think he wants me to climb up there
and bang the top of this pipe.
And I haven't told him yet, but I'm afraid of heights.
So, we'll see how this is gonna play out.
Do I need to climb up on top of this blower cage to hit it?
SAM: He's afraid of heights.
It's just, yeah, it's definitely up there somewhere, so...
work your way up if you can.
I don't like the feeling of this mate. (STRAINS) Not at all.
Oh.
I hate this.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYS)
Ooh. Just hold on a minute, mate.
(CLEARS THROAT)
(UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYS)
She's a goer, mate. Come on down!
Beauty! We're back in action.
Back at it, mate. Whoo!
(SINGSONGS) And we're on, and we're mining.
Soft underneath there. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, it is.
Oh! There's always a worry when that happens.
You never know how much it's gonna go. Yeah.
Yeah! Pull up. We're on!
Oh, you beauty! Hey! All righty.
At the moment, Bogger's just taking the dirt down from underneath where the opal is.
It'll just make it easier to actually get the opal out of the wall.
Hang on, Bogger. Hang on.
How are we gonna go about this, I reckon what I'll do, we'll drop this.
I'll drop that out. Yep.
We'll take this toe out again. Yep.
And then we'll bring that potch out and see what we get.
Hang on a minute.
Oh! It thickens up.
Just watch it don't fall.
Ready?
Oh, that's nice colour.
I see that orange from here. That's nice colour, mate.
Let's bring out the colour.
That's getting bigger, Bowie. It's getting bigger, Bugger.
I can see red in there, mate. I see bloody red and green.
(LAUGHING) Hey! Check that out!
Look at that! Look at the size of him, mate.
That's huge! It's big and bloody cheesy if ever I've seen it.
Look at the red in it.
Look at the red in that. There's some money in that.
I'll tell you, we're doing all right here.
Finally gonna put a smile on Les's face.
Yeah, hopefully.
Look at that.
Mate, that is phenomenal colour on this,
That's unreal. That's so bright.
There's no feeling like it, there's absolutely no feeling like finding colour,
you know, and we've had so many things go wrong,
but whilst you're finding colour you can fix those things that go wrong.
It's a fantastic bloody feeling.
MATT: We've used what we call "tumblers" a lot in the past.
It's basically just putting water in with the dirt, rocks and opal,
spin it up so all that dirt turns to mud.
We get rid of the mud, we're just left with rocks and opal to sort.
So hopefully this one lasts.
It's running good now, but it's time to put some weight in it and test it out.
At Lunatic Claim, Matt and Cozza have set up a tumbler
to identify opal-bearing ground faster
without leaving the mine.
Okay.
Oh, yeah, that's some opal.
No colour yet.
Decent pieces, though. These are what we call cutter pieces.
Big enough to get something out of,
but just not carrying that colour quite yet.
Another full bucket for you, Matty!
All right, man, I'm coming. You just need to bring some water down.
I might have found some coloured concrete,
Ooh, Cozzie's had a find here. We might be onto something.
Have a look, man. Give it a wet.
Ah, yeah, this one's got colour.
You're kidding me. Show us.
Oh, yeah, that's got colour. Yeah, look at it, bro. (LAUGHS)
Concrete, also known as rainbow matrix,
are slabs of hard, pale rock with opal embedded throughout,
unlike seam opal that can be separated from the surrounding clay and dirt.
I'll get this up there. Get it washed up and we'll see what we've got, mate.
Oh, too easy. Oh, I wasn't expecting concrete today.
Yeah, look, a lot of people think opal mining is all about digging the wall.
You actually spend more time processing your dirt than you do digging.
So, it's a bit of a pain, but I'm loving this little setup.
Yeah, no, this is a bit of fun.
Hey, Cozz! You gotta and come see this, bro.
Oh, yeah. Why, we got some colour?
We've got some colour, bro. Just come have a look, man. Yep.
Oh, man! That's nice.
Really bright blue-green stuff.
Look at this one. I can see the reds poking through. Bit of jelly.
Yeah, that's nice.
Not a whole lot here, but there's definitely some money.
I reckon I can get a couple of stones out of it.
You heard from them buyers that are coming tomorrow?
Yeah, well, they reckon they're after a parcel.
Yeah, they wanted cut stones, didn't they?
What do you reckon set the machines up too? Give her a buzz up.
Yeah. I mean, you've got a bunch of concrete.
What about we cook some up as well?
All right.
Um, never really cut out on a claim.
I know the old fella's used to,
so maybe we better take a lesson from them and see what it's all about.
If we're just gonna sell this stuff in the rough,
we're only gonna be able to get so much, um,
maybe a couple hundred an ounce.
But if I can get a few stones out,
it'd be worth a couple hundred a carat. It's a big difference.
Yeah, so we want to give some of this coloured concrete
or rainbow matrix that we found a bit of a test treat.
So to treat the rainbow matrix, we make a sugar solution, sugar and water.
Let the sugar soak in for as long as we can into that rock,
and then we put it inside the acid.
So, we lost a little bit of sun out here. It's a bit hard.
But, um, just gonna chuck a couple on some daub sticks,
and see if I can round up a few stones in this parcel too.
How's she going over there, bro?
Mate, a couple of these have come up really bloody nice.
Give us a look. No, no, you wait till I'm finished, mate.
Right, okay. It's like that, is it?
(LAUGHS) Oh, yeah.,
Oh, they're cooking nicely, mate.
I got the acid, bro.
Here's the dangerous part.
We need to be really careful with this stuff. Keep it separated.
It can be quite reactive with water.
I'm going to pull them out, bro. Let's have a look. Yeah, let's have a look.
Hopefully, hopefully.
Just need them to turn out nice enough for this sale.
Oh, it's not bad. It's not bad.
That one come up bright. Yeah, coming out pretty good.
Look at that. You can see that colour pop there. Yeah, beauty.
Sprinkle some bicarb to neutralise any acid left over.
Cool. All right, mate, they come out pretty good, didn't they?
Yeah, man. That made the colour pop.
Yep. It's got some good pattern in it too, bud.
So that was a pretty good effort.
I want to see what you won't let me have a look at, mate. Come on. I've got it here, bro.
They come out really nice. I got a couple of matrix ones out.
(GUFFAWS) Bro!
This is the full colour crystal, mate.
Oh! (LAUGHS) Look at that!
It's a bit of a fairy pattern, but it's a beautiful stone.
It's solid, man. That's killer. All solids, man. (CHUCKLES)
Make some money, bro. All right, I'll get setting up.
I'll be back.
MARK: Ooh, this is a nice stone. I'll tip this out.
That's some of our nice stuff, man. PAUL: Look at that. Look at that.
You want to have a look at this, give us your opinion on what you think we're running here?
Look at that.
That come in one just little blob.
You don't often find 'em that small. RACHEL: No.
Beautiful. Beautiful gem. Yeah, like that is...
that is magnificent. It is yum. But even some of them shells, man.
There's a beautiful colour. Look at that.
Look at that one. That's a beauty, man.
The Blacklighters have classic white Coober Pedy opal,
featuring the full spectrum of colours,
and a multitude of complete opalised shells
highly sought after by specimen collectors.
It's been tumbled and weighs 695 grammes.
So, yeah, what do you think we're running?
Yum. Good material. Um... Not heaps, though. No, it's not enough.
All right, well, I can... We're sitting at about eight on that one.
Yup. About eight on this one.
Yep. So, 16.
Two grand for the shells and the fossils. Yeah, definitely.
It'd be two grand's worth of fossils. Nice.
And then just the potch and colour, you know. Yeah.
So about 20 grand all up. Oh, that's good. Well done, boys.
That's a good, easy twenty. That's well done.
That's good. I'm really happy with that. That's brilliant.
Beep, beep, beep, beep. Yeah.
JOHN: Pretty good week. We did have a few little setbacks, but it was only a week's work.
So, twenty grand. You got to be happy with that.
How good's the new barbie!
RACHEL: It's the best. Oh, that's the best. Yum, yum, yum.
Oi, we can find Opal! We can, yeah! (LAUGHS)
We can!
JOHN: Hey, hey! Yoo-hoo!
COZZA: So, Matty's just revealed these stones to me.
I put them all in their little cases.
He's gone to get some buyers, so hopefully I'm ready by the time they get back.
After mining, processing, cooking and cutting opal right on their claim,
the Mooka Boys are desperate to secure a sale
to resurrect their mining careers,
MATT: Struggling a bit this season already.
We've set ourselves a target this year for a hundred grand.
Be really good if we can get some money in and get that business cracking.
Welcome to our mine!
Here's Cozzie. Cozzie, Adrian. ADRIAN: How you going?
We have come from Adelaide to have a look around,
bit of a scout around, bit of a noodling. Yep.
And we might even make jewellery. Yep.
He's a gun at making things with opals. Yeah.
I like looking for it more than just making it,
but, yeah, between the two of us, hopefully we'll get some sold.
Oh, sure. Yeah.
So, yeah, this is this week's find. Awesome.
Cool. Looks really great. We got onto a big patch of rainbow matrix. That's nice.
Just a quick test treat. Definitely gonna treat better for you.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh. I love that.
Yeah. We actually dug up some hard matrix here.
Okay. Ooh. A couple of little pieces here for you to look at.
That's about seven ounces all up there.
This is what that can turn into, though.
ANNEMARIE: Oh, wow. Let me get this one.
Oh, beautiful. Let's have a look.
Oh, wow. That's really nice.
The Mooka Boys' parcel is a mix of treated concrete opal,
hard matrix and seam opal in the rough and polished.
Displaying the full spectrum of colours,
the entire parcel weighs 5.3 kilograms.
So, do you reckon all of it?
Well, what's the price on all of that?
Price? Well... What are you thinking?
Well, (STAMMERS)... Let's go have a quick talk.
We'll talk together. Yeah.
We didn't think you wanted to buy it all, so...
We didn't either, buddy. (LAUGHS) MATT: Yeah.
We'll just put together a quick price, and we'll come back to yous. Sure.
Ooh. What do you reckon, bro? I didn't think they'd want it all.
No, me neither, bro. This could be a good sale, so.
Ten grand. (CHUCKLES) Easy, bro.
I'd be happy with that, bro. That covers the cut stones?
Yeah, that's the five grand for the cut stones, five grand for the rest.
All right, man. Yeah. (BLEEP) Let's do it.
All right. What are you guys... Where are you... Where are you at?
MATT: Look, we had a chat. Um...
I know you guys are out here working hard.
We'd love to see new people out in the field.
Yeah. Um... (SIGHS) How about ten? Ten grand.
(CHUCKLING) What? You take the whole lot, mate.
I'll even give you a couple of secrets to the mine later on.
You reckon ten? Yeah, I reckon. That's amazing.
No, we want to see you guys do well and... Thank you.
And if you've got any phone calls when you're treating the stuff, just give us a call.
I think we definitely will be. Yeah. Yeah, cool.
Killer! (LAUGHING) ADRIAN: Awesome.
I thought we were only gonna make a sale on the cut stones today, which was five.
We've doubled that. I'm bloody happy.
MATT: We like to be fair out here. We know these guys have been out opal hunting as well.
We know what it's like. So we want to make sure they go away with a good deal.
Thank you. Thank you.
MATT: All right, cheers, guys. ALL: Cheers.
I reckon we've got some bloody nice stones in there.
We certainly do. It's bright. And they're big. Yeah.
And with all these jars,
I don't know whether we'll sell all these beginner jars, so...
I reckon we'd be 15, 20 grand.
I think easy, with that many big stones and that many jars,
we'll be on the money. Hopefully a little bit more.
After a week of mining,
the Bushmen have grey-based seam opal,
displaying the full spectrum of colours,
including rare and highly sought-after red.
It's been rubbed, and weighs 820 grammes.
Duck down, Bogger, you're too bloody high. I'll squat down.
Well, g'day, all of yous. G'day, viewers. Hey, Chris!
How you going, viewers? G'day, Chris. Hey, Glen.
They're hoping to sell the whole parcel in an online auction.
Well, Les. What was this? There you go.
"How is sexy legs Les going?" from Trudy.
Trudy? Yeah, Trudy. Ah, a secret admirer, Les. Well.
You might be on here, Les. SAM: Yeah. Could be.
Well, I don't know. We've got a fair bit to get through tonight.
So, what do yous reckon we give it a burl and kick her off?
Righto. Here we go.
Now. Turn the lightning bolt on.
Righto. First one up. Thirty-one carats in this one.
A nice opal with plenty of colour bar.
All right, we're gonna kick this fella off at $400.
The donger is starting now.
You've got one minute. Don't miss out.
I think we're gonna do pretty good this week
because we've got some really nice opal.
We've got some beautiful rubs.
So, you can never tell whether there's a lot of money around or not.
But we'll take whatever we can get.
There we go. That one goes to Leanne.
Uh, 21 carats in this little stone.
ROD: This is an incredibly red stone.
Donger is starting now. You have one minute.
ROD: One minute to get your bids in.
There we go, Leanne. That's your one. Wow, Leanne. Two parcels in a row.
This one's so big, I can't get it out of the bag, Les. SAM: Well, then.
Monster of a stone. Too big for the camera. (CHUCKLES)
It's too bloody big for the camera.
The donger is starting now.
We're aiming for 15 grand as a minimum tonight.
The sales are going steady at the moment, so hopefully they keep going that way.
We're starting to get through them now.
Don't forget, we've got some absolutely cracking beginner cutter jars
and I got a heap of them.
850 for Kevin. Twelve seconds left.
LES: Forty-nine carats in this stone.
So, it's got really nice patterning.
SAM: Sold to Broden Howgate.
Yeah, righto, mate. You got the last parcel.
Ah, Bogger! He wants our signature too!
I can't believe it. I'm feeling like part of the team.
Thanks to each and every one of yous.
Good night, guys. Good night.
LES: Good night.
That was awesome. ROD: Been adding it all up.
What are we looking at? Rod?
(SIGHS)
$21,065.
Whoo-whoo! BOGGER: Hey!
Sounds like I have pocket money to go to China.
That's a little bit over 15, isn't it?
Not bad. That's Awesome. Reckon we did all right.
SAM: We did fantastic! ROD: We did bloody good. Good on yous.
Everyone's getting a present from China.
Oh, they'll be cheap too, Sam. Shut up. You're not meant to... No.
Yeah, we really appreciate everyone that gets on the page
when we do our lives,
because, you know, what they do keeps us doing what we do.
About time he bloody shouted. SAM: Yeah, exactly.
Ah, you'd think he's a bloody pommy. Yeah.
Have a go at this, guys.
Whoa, look at you. That's fancy! Ooh, on a tray! On the platter.
Wow.
There you go, Rod. You're getting flash.
Silver and all!
Well done. Silver platter.
Isn't that flash. No, Les, it's not scrap metal.
You can't take it, Les.
It belongs to the Hilton.
Well, seeing you're going to China, which is overseas... Yeah?
...there is a bit of a tradition. Yes?
If you give someone a bit of opal, as you know, Sam,
it gives both people good luck. Yep. And it brings you back.
Awesome. Yeah, nice. So we dug that down Dead Dog.
So take it over to China. Make sure you come back with it.
That I will, Rod. Thank you very much.
I'm really excited to go to China.
Like, it will be sad not to be digging,
but I love travelling and I love experiencing different cultures,
so it'll be good to get out of the opal fields and try something different.
Let's tear the tops off a tinny. Yep.
Then pour it down the throat. (LAUGHS)
All the best for China, Sam. All the best, Sam. Cheers, guys.
Thank you. All the best to all of us. Good luck.
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