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00:06There's a secret war going on in the outback town of Claremont.
00:14The gold here is so good and the value of gold now is so high.
00:19Look at that.
00:20Dog ate dog. The wars are on.
00:22Never once in my whole life did I ever say to you that you could have my logo.
00:30Three mining teams.
00:31We have a load of money into the mine so we have to make it work.
00:36Fighting it out on the one patch of land.
00:39This is just some of the stuff Donnie's been walking over.
00:43Guys, I'd be lucky if I don't walk over his big nose.
00:47This time.
00:49There was gold getting caught in corners of the machine.
00:52Gold everywhere. Little flakes of gold and little nuggets. It was awesome.
00:55Richie and Kimberley's $1.2 million investment finally starts to pay off.
01:02Well, that's a good sign.
01:04It's great and overloaded.
01:07Oh, I just did.
01:08Hey, look.
01:09Who's the mysterious stranger poaching on Matt and Damo's lease?
01:14Hey!
01:14How you doing?
01:16And in the pit at Swiss Diggies.
01:18What did I say? Don't detect until I turn it off.
01:22Look, you...
01:23Back.
01:23Donnie and Ronnie's double act blows up big time.
01:27Take your...
01:28It's actor.
01:29Get the...
01:30Get out of the pit.
01:31And...
01:32Oh!
01:50There'll be some good nuggets in here.
01:52There will be.
01:53Claremont, Central Queensland.
01:55And Team Swiss Diggings are hard at it.
01:59Mine owner Dennis is on the gold.
02:02There we go, though.
02:04Whoo-wee!
02:05Yeah, it should be seven grams, I reckon.
02:08That's a good little piece of gold.
02:10Only problem is, Dennis is 25 ounces short of hitting his 100-ounce season target.
02:18And he's running out of time.
02:20In a matter of weeks, the local temperature will soar into the high 40s and the season will be over.
02:27Our target, you know, I reckon we're going to fall short, Donnie's also hard up against it.
02:35I didn't think there was any colour out there, but I took some of that bank out there, mate, and
02:38there's colour going in underneath.
02:39Yeah.
02:39There's a big bit of a pocket here, so...
02:42He wants to help Dennis hit his target.
02:46But at the same time, he's got his own target to worry about.
02:51I'm hoping we might pick up a bit of gold in there.
02:54With Ronnie's help, Donnie's raised 50% of the 37.5 grand buy-in price he needs to secure the
03:021880 lease.
03:04But without the rest of it, all bets are off.
03:08There's some beautiful gravel in there.
03:11There is some good news.
03:13Donnie's got his trusty old excavator back in action.
03:17And that means he now gets to keep 70% of everything he finds.
03:22By using his excavator, his original 40-60 deal with Dennis has flipped to 70-30 in his favour.
03:30Trying to pay for the new lease up the road so that I can get 100% of the gold
03:35instead of bloody 70% of the gold.
03:38I've still got about 400 metres of lease edge to go up to the next white peg.
03:44I wanted him to check and make sure that he was at the bottom end of that run that I'm
03:49currently on at the moment.
03:50But Donnie and Ronnie are on hard, rocky ground at the bottom of an old creek bed.
03:56It's back-breaking work.
03:58We call it BDM mining.
04:00So it's brain-dead mining.
04:02And, you know, where you go and march from one peg straight down to the next peg.
04:09And you just do everything in front of you.
04:12At the opposite end of the old creek system, Dennis is working the shallow ground.
04:17And he's hit a sweet little gold patch.
04:21Bit of quartz in it.
04:21Nice little speci.
04:23I'd say it's probably about four grams.
04:26I get that it's not ideal, Ron.
04:28We've just got to suck it up, mate.
04:30Ronnie gets 10% of Donnie's 70% share.
04:33But when you're not on the gold, that's 10% of nothing.
04:38Why aren't we following up higher where the gold was?
04:43Because the plan of a tack is to dig post to post.
04:47I don't think that's fair.
04:51Ronnie's getting frustrated.
04:52He's fed up with Dennis getting to decide where he and Donnie get to dig and detect.
04:58And Ronnie's the one who has to do the grunt work in the pit.
05:01Comes a time when you're not getting the gold, it looks like it could start costing you money.
05:07It gets a bit upsetting and a bit frustrating, and I get that.
05:15This bit of ground here has been so juicy.
05:18It's paid up really nicely.
05:21At Scratchy Moon, Matt and Damer are down to just one working machine.
05:26So the old lemon excavator's holding forward at the moment,
05:30although it's got a few little glitches that's concerning me.
05:33So give it a bit of a pat and say, good girl, get going.
05:40Their main excavator is waiting on a replacement water pump,
05:43and Matt's digger is getting serviced.
05:47So they're having to make do with the so-called lemon excavator,
05:52the one Lee threw in as part of the deal he did for a parcel of their land.
05:56The lemon excavator!
05:59All right, Leroy.
06:02Damo's working an area the duo have dubbed the Banana Patch,
06:06where the gold appears to lie in a narrow, sandy band under hard rock.
06:11The Banana Patch has been paying some just amazing days.
06:16I mean, just digging hard to get to the bottom of that gravel,
06:19and then you get down there, and it's just coming alive
06:21with just ounces and ounces of gold.
06:23But it's a bit patchy.
06:25And it's really hard on the machine.
06:28Team Scratchy Moo have banked 83 ounces of gold.
06:32They're the Claremont Goldfields leaders,
06:34and within striking distance of their 100-ounce target.
06:38Can the lemon excavator get them to the season's end finish line?
06:42In this situation, I need to be able to swap the mud bucket
06:45to the tooth bucket to be able to dig through the gravel.
06:50You, buddy, **** of a thing.
06:53This is the glitch that's been worrying me a little bit, though,
06:57because the soil noise has been playing up on the hitch.
07:02Excavators use hydraulics to unlock and swap the buckets.
07:07The hydraulics are controlled by an electronic switch,
07:10and the lemon switch is playing up.
07:15The solenoid's been playing up a little bit,
07:18which disengages the ram and allows the bucket to come off.
07:21And this spot is really important that I'm able to do that
07:24because I need the tooth bucket to be able to dig at that face
07:28because it's just so hard.
07:29I can't do it with the mud bucket.
07:35Hey, Moocow, are you around?
07:40I think we should be able to go off and follow the gold
07:44and then come back when we've made some money.
07:48It's not my decision, Ron.
07:49I can't just do what I want to do.
07:51At Swiss Diggings, the Ronnie and Donnie show is turning sour.
07:56They're off the gold and cracks are starting to appear in their relationship.
08:01I've got Ron in the cut.
08:03He's struggling and whinging.
08:05Donnie has an issue with Dennis' mining plan.
08:09That's bloody all right for somebody that owns the property and they're not paying the diesel.
08:16The thing here with Dennis is we mine from A to B.
08:19And that's what I'm sticking to.
08:21That's what he's told me to do.
08:22So that's what I'm doing.
08:23Last thing I want to do is piss Dennis off.
08:26Donnie brought Ronnie to help speed up his gold recovery process, not to tell him how to mine.
08:32I've got a good idea.
08:33How about you concentrate more on detecting the ground and pinpointing targets and not worry about how I mine?
08:41Wind, wind, wind.
08:43Dennis wants Ronnie and Donnie to follow a systematic path through the creek bed from post to post.
08:50I don't want holes being jumped and I don't want, you know, turning left and turning right and doing it
08:55to your own will.
08:55We need to sit down and discuss the reasons of why you're doing what you're doing.
08:59It's all right for him.
09:00Like, we're not on the bloody gold.
09:03I'm standing out in the bloody sun all day long.
09:08He's sitting on his arse in the machine.
09:10Hey, why didn't you bloody dig that as well?
09:14Because I'm just concentrating on this creek to start off with.
09:17Ah.
09:19How about you worry about detecting and I worry about how I dig?
09:23Yeah, when I'm detecting, stop picking on me.
09:27Mate, I'm not picking on you.
09:28How am I picking on you?
09:30That's how I bloody feel.
09:36This is going to be a good day today.
09:52All righty, so we're back in business.
09:55Finding that gold.
09:56At 18.7, after months of disappointing setbacks and cost blowouts, both gold processing machines are finally up and running.
10:07We're almost at the end of our season.
10:09We've finally got the dry block and going.
10:10We've finally got the wet paint up and going.
10:12We're finally making some gold.
10:13So it's pretty exciting.
10:15Richie and Dan are back on good terms after a full and frank discussion about how to fix the faulty
10:23wash plant.
10:24Had to do what Richie said and that was build a spray bar for it.
10:28It's working.
10:28It's running.
10:29So, I had my ideas and, yeah, it's a lot different to what Richie's were.
10:36And they may not be overly happy about it, but it's working and we're kicking hearts.
10:41Dan's wife, Kira, and son, Brayden, have been running the dry blower around the clock.
10:47Oh, you need to go slower, mate.
10:49Next one, go a bit slower, yeah?
10:52Yeah, all right.
10:52Team 1870 has only produced 45 ounces of gold for the season, and that's largely due to machinery challenges.
11:01To hit their 100-ounce target, they'll need the dry blower and the wash plan to deliver a combined total
11:08of three ounces of gold a day.
11:11They have just three weeks left to do it.
11:14Okay, bring her up a bit.
11:15Up a bit.
11:18Hey, let's go.
11:19The pressure's on Richie to find a way to process the gold concentrate.
11:25Why don't I get rid of it?
11:26I'm making a little waterfall off here.
11:28Should be coming off the table between this point and this point.
11:32Richie spent $50,000 building a gold room, a shipping container fitted out with all the gear needed to extract
11:40every speck of gold.
11:42Look, you all have to do is screw two bloody screws in and we're ready to start turning it on.
11:46I think I can bloody find a drill to do it.
11:49No, so on the hunt I'll go.
11:52The centrepiece of the room is the shaker table.
11:56It's crucial to separate the gold from the waste material.
12:01I'm up here.
12:01I've got this bloody shaker table working.
12:04That's just delay after delay.
12:06I'm going to look like if I don't have this thing running.
12:09Richard, can you hurry up and help me get this power supply before I get started?
12:12All the jewels should be back there.
12:14They're not there.
12:17Kimberly's supposed to be helping Richie with the shaker table.
12:21But she's too busy kitting out her own treasure grove.
12:25You know, you've taken me away from home, so I need to have those little luxuries out here, considering what
12:31I'm surrounded by.
12:33Dresses.
12:35Jewelry.
12:37Hats.
12:38A container fit for a Claremont queen.
12:41I've taken the opportunity to come up here and try and set up my wardrobe.
12:45While the boys have been busy fixing things, I've taken over one of the new containers that arrived.
12:50So, yeah, it's now my wardrobe and I've decked it out as much as well as I can at, you
12:55know, being stuck out here.
12:56Might keep the snakes away, you know, the sparkle.
12:59There's no denying Richie's extra spray bars have improved the water flow.
13:04So, we're still getting a bit of dirt sticking to both hoppers.
13:10But his quick fix requires way more manpower to get the wash plant running smoothly.
13:16The brother-in-law's had to come here.
13:19Kira's brother Kyle is now on the payroll and Brayden's mate Joey has also come in to lend a hand.
13:26Must have had a bigger rock go over and just blocked the entrance at a trommel.
13:30Looks like Kyle's getting it sorted.
13:32Dan can't afford any more delays or breakdowns.
13:36Time's crucial.
13:37You know, the wet season's not far away.
13:39So, every second now counts.
13:42We've got to be running as every second.
13:47Can you turn that water for my life?
13:49I might turn the feed down a little bit.
13:52There's one big block there.
13:55This is what happens when you get one flat rock.
14:06What next?
14:08Oh, our Brussels sprout.
14:09What have we broken now?
14:11Just every time we get a bit of momentum, it just starts to...
14:15At Scratchy Moo, a layer of hard bed rock has brought Matt and Damo's lemon excavator to a grinding halt.
14:23Keep going, keep going.
14:24Put a spanner on her every now and then to keep her going.
14:27Pressure all around with costs and parts and machinery.
14:32So, it's just a continual nightmare that you have to put up with in this game.
14:37Oh, God.
14:39Well, the lemon excavator, the door's about to fall off.
14:42The lemon is their last working machine.
14:45Oh, God.
14:48Solenoid's gone.
14:49It's going to take ten minutes to fit it and probably two days or three days to get here.
14:53This is getting hard.
14:55Over there, we're starting to run out.
14:57So, let's work out the next spot.
14:58I reckon that's a good use of time.
15:04Bloody lemon.
15:08At 18.7, Dan and Kyle are trying to clear a block in the wash plant.
15:17Oh, sick.
15:19There we go.
15:20Look at it flying out.
15:21Yeah.
15:22The pay dirt from the wash plant is what hopefully will contain the gold.
15:27It needs to be separated and carefully collected.
15:30And that requires another bit of gear.
15:33Now, what I'm doing is I'm actually building the shaker table to actually run this pay dirt that we're actually
15:39generating.
15:40Down the drill.
15:41Of course the drill's kept in the tank.
15:46The shaker table is designed to separate fine gold from gold concentrate.
15:52So, I've got this shaker table, it came with no manual, no nothing, so literally it's about trying to figure
15:58out how to put this thing together.
16:00Mark down.
16:01It's possible with this hand.
16:03Everything I go to touch with this hand, it is agony.
16:08Absolutely agony.
16:10Richie's still nursing a broken hand after an accident with a drill.
16:18Richie hurt himself.
16:20Oh, that hurt.
16:23So, we all know my history with power tools.
16:30Come back at me.
16:31He's still in a lot of pain and needs help to get the shaker table sorted.
16:37Kimberly.
16:42Kimberly, it's a bloody mine site.
16:46Kimberly's new luxury walk-in wardrobe is a sight to behold.
16:52Mate, seriously, they're going to mock the out of me about this.
16:55Well, this is my little space and I need my little, my little sanctuary.
17:00So, I guess I've brought the Gold Coast life and fashion to the gold mines.
17:04Dan saw me doing this instead of helping him doing the stuff that's important.
17:09This is important, Richard.
17:11So, this is me and I won't change.
17:14Better late than ugly.
17:19I'm not going to go against Dennis and his final plan because that will get me shot in the foot.
17:24I don't even get listened to.
17:26It's like, not even here.
17:29At Swiss Diggins, Ronnie's feeling underappreciated and Donnie is unsympathetic.
17:36It's the end of the season.
17:37It's hot.
17:38The dust is getting to us and we're not on the gold and, you know, tempers are rising.
17:45Mate, can you do me a favour?
17:46I've asked you before.
17:47Can you not detect until I turn the machine off, please?
17:51I tell him, wait until I turn the machine off so that I can hear the targets too.
18:01Having Donnie and Ronnie over there working away at the moment, I'm hoping they're on good gold.
18:05It's pretty warm out there and Ronnie, he's suffering.
18:09He's not real good.
18:12You know, they work reasonably well together, but they fire.
18:17Both of them have got some fire in their bellies.
18:23Just slow down a little bit, mate.
18:25Too fast.
18:25Too fast.
18:27Do you want to come down here and do this?
18:30Well, shut the...
18:32Well, I need you just to do it properly, mate, please.
18:35Ronnie and Donnie's friendly sledging is escalating into a bitter war of words.
18:43200 metres away, in the shallow, softer ground, Dennis' detector is doing the talking.
18:49Is there better?
18:52Yep, cheers.
18:54Nice little speci there.
18:56Probably four grams.
18:58Don't ask for better than that.
19:00Dennis is only a metre down.
19:03He's barely punched through the topsoil.
19:05It's good.
19:06It's still paying off.
19:06It's still coming out.
19:10Yeah.
19:12That's nice.
19:15There it is.
19:19Yeah, that's a crack of two.
19:22There we go.
19:22That's another three or four grams.
19:24I'd say maybe closer to five, actually.
19:26It's a pretty...
19:26It's a half-reasonable piece.
19:28In this area here, the nugs are good-sized nugs.
19:32It's certainly a lot better gold than what 1870's producing.
19:37Meanwhile, Donnie and Ronnie are at breaking point.
19:41Just make sure you get right up into that edge, Bron.
19:45Do you want to get off your...
19:46..ass and come down and do it?
19:48Oh, I can't.
19:49I'm not doing this, mate.
19:50Yeah, like, Dennis is over there where he is.
19:52He's on good gold.
19:54We're over here on Struggle Street, and I've got to put up with this mouth.
19:57It's starting to take in stone.
19:59Ron!
20:00Ron!
20:02What?
20:03What did I say?
20:03Don't detect until I turn it off.
20:06Look, you f***ing.
20:08Oh, really?
20:09Yeah.
20:10Mate, just...
20:11..sit up there and...
20:14..keep your f***ing house.
20:16Mate, take your f***ing detector,
20:18get the f***ing out of the pit,
20:20and f*** off.
20:28At Scratchy Moo, Matt and Damo have decided
20:31to test some new ground close to their mine.
20:35It does look like good ground.
20:37Yeah, this side looks pretty good, too.
20:40They're waiting on replacement parts
20:42for their broken-down excavators.
20:47Look, this isn't a person over there, man.
20:50Poachers, poachers.
20:51They just keep coming.
20:54Hey!
20:56Hey, what are you doing?
20:58They now have a new problem to worry about.
21:01They've stumbled across an intruder poaching on their land.
21:05What are you doing here?
21:06You're on our lease.
21:08You're on a lease.
21:08This is a lease.
21:10What are you doing here?
21:11Where's your phone?
21:11Look for gold.
21:13The next thing you know, there's this guy in the bush.
21:16I just couldn't believe it.
21:17Like, right in the middle of the lease.
21:18Where's the camera?
21:20Don't worry about the camera.
21:20Don't worry about the camera.
21:21The camera, you can't be here.
21:23How did you get here?
21:24I come from France.
21:26Yeah, I can see that.
21:27People should not be in the middle of your lease.
21:29It doesn't matter who it is.
21:30So, it's not really a great thing.
21:33You.
21:33Is there anyone else here with you?
21:35Ah, yes.
21:37Lee.
21:38Lee!
21:39When Lee's name was dropped, it was like, okay,
21:41Lee's, one of Lee's tour groups who's managed to wander off.
21:44He's over here.
21:46Having pegged the new lease he bought off Matt and Damo,
21:50Lee's wasted no time getting his prospecting tour business up and running.
21:55It's pretty strong.
21:56The money he makes from it will help fund his mining venture.
22:01I get lost.
22:02You're not lost.
22:03You're on a lease.
22:04You shouldn't be here.
22:05I have some gold.
22:11That's not too bad, actually.
22:13He's done well.
22:14You know, at that point, we sort of just backed off a bit.
22:18All right, look, I'll tell you what we'll do.
22:20We'll just hit Lee up and I'll just hit that Lee.
22:22We'll just get the money out of Lee for the gold that he's found.
22:24You can sort this out, Lee.
22:26It's good gold.
22:27Good.
22:27It's good gold.
22:28Everything, all our gold is good gold.
22:29That's it.
22:30Ah, yes.
22:30That's our gold, but we're going to let you keep it.
22:33Okay.
22:34You're going to have to get lost back over.
22:36You're going to walk back that way.
22:37Okay, this way.
22:38All right.
22:38It's worse when people are belligerent or they're doing it on purpose.
22:43And this guy obviously wasn't, you know.
22:46He was just over having a good time on a tour group.
22:49Okay, bye-bye.
22:50Merci, au revoir.
22:50All right, mate.
22:51Keep walking until you finally leave.
22:53We're going to get him on the radio.
22:55Keep going that way.
22:55Okay.
22:56Towards the sun.
22:56Okay, au revoir on GPS.
22:58Bye-bye.
22:59He's heading back through there now, so we better call Lee up.
23:02Lee McGrath.
23:03Lee McGrath, are you on channel?
23:05Lee McGrath, copy.
23:06Do you copy?
23:07Copy.
23:08You don't know.
23:10It is, mate.
23:11Have you got tabs on all your tour party?
23:15I've got one that's, yeah, I can't find at the moment.
23:18He is at least a kilometre off where I think you guys should be
23:23and in the middle of our lease.
23:25Where is he now?
23:25Did you point him back or did I need to come and get him?
23:28No, I pointed him in the direction
23:30and he should be most of the way back there by now.
23:33And he'd found some gold, so we're going to have to talk about that.
23:36Stay up him?
23:38No, once we realised it was a tourist and he was with you,
23:42we'd let him keep it, otherwise, you know, so they're not to ruin his experience,
23:46but you're going to pay us back, brother.
23:49Yeah, no worries with that.
23:50Thanks for doing that.
23:51No, that's bigger than you.
23:52Yeah, I'll sort you out of some colour.
23:54No worries.
23:56All right, cool.
23:59All right, let's go and get some...
24:00Oh, man.
24:03All right, next, eh?
24:06All right, next.
24:10At Swiss Diggings...
24:12Did you hear that?
24:12Ronnie and Donnie's blow-up is reverberating right across the mine site.
24:17Is that Donnie?
24:18No, no, I'm not putting up with that.
24:21No way in the world.
24:23What's up?
24:23Not happening.
24:24What is it?
24:25Ah, they're arguing down there by the sound of it.
24:28They're going, they've got real loud voices going.
24:30Oh, these boys are on it, eh?
24:32So I had to go and try and sort it out.
24:35Oh, man.
24:37Don't eat this.
24:38Really don't.
24:39Dennis doesn't need a full-scale wall on his patch.
24:43If he's to have any chance of hitting his end-of-season target,
24:47he needs everyone to keep playing nicely for a bit longer.
24:53I don't want you here, man.
24:54You want to be a smart-ass?
24:57Mate, take it attack.
24:59What's going on here?
25:01Oi.
25:02What are you arguing about?
25:03I can hear you just way up there.
25:05We end up having an hour.
25:07I end up raising my voice and getting really cranky
25:09and next thing you know, I've got Dennis down.
25:13What's going on, boys?
25:15Well, tell him, Ronnie.
25:16Tell him how you don't like the mining plan that he's got.
25:19I don't mind mining from one end of the lease to the other.
25:24But we need to be following the gold, too, and then come back.
25:29It sort of pissed me off massively that I've got Ron,
25:32a hired help to Donnie, questioning my mining plan.
25:37We might just as well be mining bloody rock at the moment.
25:43Why don't we open a quarry?
25:46Ronnie, you can't do this, man.
25:48And I can't be playing.
25:50Seriously, the whole McMaster's just heard you two going off.
25:53If Nup said I'm going to go home for the rest of the day,
25:59I'll end up saying something I shouldn't say.
26:03Come back with a better attitude when you come back.
26:05Oh, you shut up.
26:13Can you just take pressure there and there?
26:17At 18.7, Richie and Kimberley are putting the finishing touches to their gold room.
26:23This should be the final piece of equipment to be put in place.
26:28So it's getting really exciting here now.
26:30We've got the wash plan up and going, the dry blower up and going,
26:32and Rich and I are just finishing off the shaker table.
26:35So we're starting to, yeah, see it all come together, which is really exciting.
26:39I know it's taken a long time.
26:40And we're starting to get the gold, and that's what we're here for.
26:44At the wash plan, Dan's just about ready for the clean-up from the first major dirt run.
26:51Rightio, guys, I think we give that concentrator a clean out, eh?
26:56450 tonnes of pay dirt has gone through the wash plan.
27:00The ripple trays should have caught the coarse gold and the finer material.
27:05The gold they've gambled their future on is hopefully in the concentrate.
27:09Just turn that one off at the key, Cole.
27:13You know, I want to do a quick pan and see if it gives us a bit of an indication.
27:18I'm just hoping Richie's got that clean-up table sorted.
27:21Otherwise, all my hard work is nearly pointless.
27:25That's his baby. He wanted to take care of that.
27:27I'll take care of everything else.
27:30It's all on you, Richie.
27:32Dan will now flush some water through the concentrator
27:35to wash the gold-bearing dirt into a bucket.
27:38Is that just water coming out yet, bud?
27:40Still a rock?
27:40Still a bit of rock, yeah.
27:41Yep, OK.
27:42In this pan, if I could get, say, 0.2 of a gram, I'd be pretty happy.
27:48There we go.
27:49There's more than 0.2 of a gram in that.
27:5410 to 19?
27:5610 to 19.
27:59At Lee's lease, the French tourist has found his way back to the rest of the group.
28:04Well, we've just got everyone back in.
28:06We've got everyone back, long last.
28:09Time for Lee to lay down the law.
28:12We had someone wander off, which, yeah, got a little bit lost.
28:16Now, what's happened is he's pushed over onto another lease,
28:20which is an issue for me.
28:21We've got to know where we are at all times.
28:25The last thing Lee needs is a border wall with Matt and Damon,
28:29who's sold in the land in the first place.
28:32And that's just what'll happen if he doesn't stop the gold fever wandering in its tracks.
28:38If we start going on other people's leases, one, they're going to get with me and try and close me
28:43down.
28:44We're lucky that we know the guys next door,
28:47because if you wander onto another person's lease, they're generally not happy.
28:51So now we're going to make sure we buddy up with someone.
28:54So, Damien, you're going to go with Josh this time,
28:56so Josh will be with you, because we just can't afford you to get lost again.
29:00Why do I have the sun?
29:02Yes, look at the sun.
29:03I know, the other bloke sent you back, followed the sun,
29:06because you would have come back to us.
29:07But don't anymore, just stay still.
29:09Well, grab your key, let's go.
29:12He obviously hasn't understood when we were explaining the maps.
29:15It could have been a language barrier.
29:17We mustn't have seen the red trees and just kept walking.
29:20Lee charges $800 for his prospecting tours.
29:24He stands to make $8,000 from his three-day workshop if all goes to plan.
29:31He can't afford to upset his neighbours.
29:34How are we doing, guys?
29:35It's never a good call to take when, especially if you're running to us,
29:40and you've got someone on someone else's lease.
29:43If Frenchy can pull it out, I can, I'll tell you that.
29:46Matt and Damien are shrewd opportunists.
29:49They're now targeting the same patch of dirt
29:52where the wayward French prospector found his version of El Dorado.
29:57There's a target there.
29:58Their three excavators are all out of action,
30:01so they're making the most of it by testing new ground.
30:06Oh, there he is.
30:08Look at that beauty.
30:09Probably three-quarters of a gram there.
30:13Oh, there you go.
30:14Yeah, I see a glint.
30:16We have gold.
30:18That's a good bit.
30:20Yeah, it'd be 0.5 or 0.6.
30:22There is gold here,
30:23but without machines to mine the ground on volume...
30:27Oh, there you go.
30:28Tiny little bit.
30:30Probably a 0.1.
30:31Their winning season may take a nosedive.
30:35It's just not...
30:37It's just not enough.
30:43There you go.
30:44There's got to be about...
30:45There's over half a gram in that.
30:47Plus, there's finer gold in there too.
30:50At 1870,
30:52a sample pan of the wash plant's gold concentrate
30:55from the first big dirt load
30:57is proof positive
30:58there's enough gold here to start the clean-up.
31:01Look at all the specs.
31:03I think we're sitting on the gold lawn.
31:09At the campsite,
31:11it's all hands on deck.
31:13The coarse gravels
31:15and larger-sized nuggets are removed.
31:17The finer material
31:18will go to the shaker table.
31:20I've got gold.
31:22You did.
31:22You got your first nugget.
31:24Caden?
31:24Yeah?
31:25That there is worth around about $600.
31:28That's gold.
31:29Look at that one.
31:32No fine gold in Claremont, buddha.
31:34What's in the rest of these buckets, man?
31:37Well, we've got a lot of bloody buckets to process, mate.
31:41The next step is to extract the fine gold
31:43from the concentrate.
31:45And that's where the shaker table comes in.
31:48This shaker table is a game-changer
31:50because it gets all the fine gold
31:52that everyone else is missing.
31:54To compensate for his injury,
31:57Richie has devised a crafty plan
31:59to suck the gold up off the shaker table.
32:04No, what I thought I'd do,
32:05instead of trying to grab the gold off the table,
32:08I've created a wet and dry vacuum,
32:10chucked a hose on it.
32:11So in theory,
32:13we'll just walk around with the hose
32:14and all the little bits of gold
32:15should get sucked in there
32:16and then we'll just clean out the gold at the end.
32:17That's my theory.
32:18Whether it works or not,
32:19I don't know.
32:20We'll find out.
32:22I'll fire up.
32:26Good to go.
32:29First scoop.
32:33So I'm now $1.2 million in the red.
32:35This shaker table has to work.
32:43Now I've got both of them against me.
32:46At Swiss Diggings,
32:48Ronnie's had enough
32:49and has bailed out.
32:51We can't go on like this, Donnie.
32:52You're going to have to cool it down, eh?
32:54I just, in the end,
32:55I just couldn't take it anymore, mate.
32:57I think when he realised
32:58that I was trying to stick to the plan
33:00and it was Ron that was antagonising me,
33:02I think, given Ron a bit of time out,
33:04I think it was a good thing.
33:06That's your one and only chance.
33:07If it happens again,
33:08I'll be making the decision
33:10and I don't think Ronnie's going to like it.
33:12Oh, no, I won't like it either.
33:14Ronnie's been given his marching orders.
33:17Dennis and Donnie are now both working solo.
33:21The duo's 100-ounce season target
33:24is looking like a pipe dream.
33:26I really think we're actually going to fall short
33:28on our target this year.
33:31Donnie's, like, massively sidetracked
33:33with other things going on.
33:35And Donnie still needs to come up with 18 grand
33:38to have any chance of taking ownership
33:41of his new lease, 1880.
33:44To have my own lease has been the end game
33:47since I started out here
33:49and this has just made it a reality
33:52and, you know, without Dennis and his help,
33:54I wouldn't have been able to do this, I don't think.
33:57According to Ron, I'm going too deep into the rock.
34:00But the amount of times that I've found good nugs
34:04sitting down below the clays in the block rock.
34:11Oh, look at that.
34:16I was pretty close to it, so right on the edge.
34:25Come on.
34:28Oh, Ron should have stuck around.
34:30Oh, look at that.
34:31I can see it.
34:36Beautiful.
34:38Have a go at that.
34:39That's got to be a 4-5 grammer.
34:43He should have stuck around a bit longer
34:45and shut his mouth.
34:51Scrawl noise.
34:56Beautiful.
34:57Oh.
34:59Have a go at that.
35:00That'd be a good one.
35:01I reckon that'd be 5 or 6, that one.
35:03Look how long it is.
35:04Back-to-back nuggets.
35:06It's a good omen.
35:08Donnie's finally back on some good gold.
35:11Oh, beautiful.
35:12Big girlies here, man.
35:15Oh!
35:17Oh!
35:22Oh, I can see it.
35:23I can see it.
35:24Oh, have a look at that.
35:27That's got to be an ounce.
35:29Got to be an ounce.
35:31Oh, how good's that?
35:34I started pulling out the wrong wall.
35:36Wham-o.
35:38Wham-o or more.
35:39That's how quickly it can change.
35:42Oh, Ronnie pissed off about an hour ago
35:44and I've made about $6,000 in an hour.
35:46It's pretty good.
35:50Easy.
35:50$6,000 in that bottle.
35:52Easy.
35:53There you go.
35:53Go from zero to hero.
36:01I've got no idea where the gold's even going to come out.
36:04I don't know if it's going to come out of that end.
36:06At 1870, the first scoop of gold concentrate
36:09is trickling down the shaker table.
36:12All right, you've got to look out
36:13for little bits of gold coming down, all right?
36:16So Richard's, yeah, lost a lot of sleep
36:18trying to figure out how to get everything working
36:20with this shaker table.
36:22Obviously, in his head,
36:23he come up with all these designs as well,
36:25which Dan wasn't really, I don't think...
36:28I don't know.
36:29Wasn't positive on if they were going to really work.
36:31OK, in theory, gold's heavier than all this.
36:35All right, so it should stay at the top
36:37and push its way down,
36:39and all the rubbish should come down here.
36:41Oh, here's a bit.
36:42Our first bit of gold.
36:44Woo!
36:44Sorry, everyone's got to tip this off.
36:51So it's just a gold digger.
36:53The shaker table is like a giant gold pan.
36:57The shaky motion and water flow
36:59separates the high concentration of gold
37:02from the lighter waste materials.
37:04Oh, look at those really big ones.
37:06Oh, I see how they float up higher.
37:08It's this one here and this one here.
37:10Oh, look at that.
37:11Think I need to increase the water flow.
37:13That was about 100 bucks worth of gold right there.
37:16That's a couple hundred bucks nugget right there.
37:21Oh, heaps of pieces.
37:22Look at it all.
37:24There's heaps of gold getting caught up in here.
37:27It's really exciting.
37:29Like, literally, there was gold getting caught
37:32in corners of the machine,
37:33and we're going, look, there's gold.
37:34There's gold everywhere.
37:36Like, little flakes of gold and little nuggets.
37:38It was awesome.
37:39I'm just trying to flush it out.
37:40I was just doing this,
37:41and I could just see it coming out.
37:50Swiss diggings.
37:51And it's show-and-tell time for Donnie.
37:54He's hoping to make it up to Dennis
37:56after his very noisy, ugly fallout with Ronnie.
38:00Well, I did all right, mate.
38:01Did you?
38:02There's a little bit more money in there
38:03than the rock quarry, I tell you.
38:04Really?
38:06Yeah, very nice, mate.
38:08Cool, eh?
38:10Mate, that's got to go nearly an hour.
38:11I reckon it's an ounce or over.
38:14Donnie's solo session helps bump their gold tally
38:17up to 80 ounces for the season.
38:20They're closing in fast on Team Scratchy Moo.
38:24Another good run of gold,
38:25and they may just take out the top spot
38:28on the leaderboard.
38:29Good stuff, mate.
38:30Well done.
38:31Loving it.
38:31You're all right, mate.
38:32You're all right.
38:33Not just a rock quarry.
38:34Not just a rock quarry, mate.
38:38He's done an exceptional job.
38:40Hopefully it showed him
38:41that he actually doesn't need
38:42another person helping him.
38:44But, you know, again,
38:45that will come down to him.
38:47Ah, Ronnie will be all right.
38:48He just needs a bit of a bit.
38:49He needs beer time, mate.
38:50Yeah, he needs a break, mate.
38:52Maybe he had too many last night.
38:54Struggling.
38:57So what...
38:58With the Frenchie,
38:59what happened there,
38:59he was in a fair way.
39:01At Scratchy Moo,
39:03Lee has dropped in
39:04to smooth things over
39:05with Matt and Damo.
39:07How much gold did he get?
39:09Yeah, how much did he...
39:10Yeah, that's right.
39:11We need to add a gram into this.
39:12A gram, was it?
39:13Yeah, right.
39:14I'll bet he'll get you that.
39:15All right, we're going to have a look
39:16how much we've got here.
39:17What do you reckon?
39:18So he's not very full.
39:20100.
39:2290 grams.
39:2390.
39:23You're being optimistic.
39:2971.55.
39:31Yeah, it's a bloody horrible week.
39:342.3 ounces is Matt and Damo's
39:37worst weigh-in for the season.
39:39Actually, I make it a little bit drained.
39:41It's just like...
39:42Breakdowns, just...
39:43It's terrible.
39:45It's exactly what we don't need
39:46is a down week like this right now.
39:48I mean...
39:50Yeah.
39:53It's just a total pest.
39:54It just kept coming.
39:55You just get a little bit of a start
39:56and then next thing it happened, so...
39:58The boys have had one of their worst weeks,
40:00like two and a half ounces or something.
40:02Terrible, terrible.
40:03And then the Frenchie walks on
40:05and just picks up their gold.
40:06So, yeah, it was a bit awkward with that as well,
40:10knowing they had such a week.
40:11Two and a half ounces is like a diesel tank.
40:13That barely does anything for us for the week.
40:16Their dismal weigh-in
40:17takes their season tally to 86 ounces.
40:21They're still out in front,
40:22but unless they can get their machines
40:25back up and running,
40:26they may well get overtaken
40:28at the season's end finish line.
40:30It's more like a daily total, really.
40:32It's just the cost of the breakdowns and the fuel.
40:39At last, the 1870 team
40:42has something to shout about.
40:44So, this is our first week.
40:46We've had stuff oil breakdowns.
40:48Kira, looks like you've smashed it out
40:51this week with a dry blower.
40:53Dan, looks like your wife's beat you again
40:55at something else.
40:56Let's just see what we've got.
40:58Howdy, all.
40:59Weight up.
41:01This is something I never get sick of, though.
41:063.2.
41:07That's not bad,
41:08considering we haven't got the table up
41:10and going properly.
41:10That's good.
41:12Now to dry blower.
41:13Kira and Braden.
41:18That looks a bit healthier.
41:20There you go.
41:216.4.
41:22That's like double what you did.
41:24Well done, Kira.
41:26Someone had to do it, you know.
41:28Alright, let's see what the total is.
41:38That's a good sign.
41:40Overload.
41:41You need to get bigger scales, mate.
41:43Let's get some bigger scales.
41:45Back up, just in case.
41:48Alright, here we go.
41:49Richard's dog bowl.
41:50That's my dog bowl.
41:51Richie's drinking bowl.
41:53That Kimbo feeds me with each night.
41:56When he's a good boy.
41:57Zero it out.
41:58Zero it out.
42:029.6 ounces.
42:04Nice.
42:05Good work, guys.
42:06The 9.6 ounce gold haul
42:09has trounced the other teams for the week
42:11and propels Team 1870
42:13past the halfway mark
42:15of their 100 ounce target.
42:18So if the wash plant and dry blower are gone,
42:20we're over the halfway mark.
42:22We've got 55 ounces of gold.
42:24The only thing now
42:25that's going to slow things up
42:26or hold us up
42:27is if this shaker table can't perform.
42:29Clearly this has been our best week, right?
42:33But now we've got the shaker table sorted.
42:35Yep.
42:36We've got to do more than that
42:37each week moving forward
42:38for us to make our target.
42:41All right, let's do it.
42:42That's awesome.
42:42Well done, guys.
42:44Next time.
42:46My main concerns is Dan at the moment.
42:49Richie's mega investment idea
42:50to salvage their season.
42:52All I see is red flags there
42:54for anything from what's happened in the past.
42:56But Kimberley's just not borrowing it.
42:59So multiple times now
43:00I've had to watch over the years
43:01that Richie's given away businesses
43:02or given partnerships away
43:04to try and help other people succeed
43:06and it has always failed.
43:09Oh!
43:11No, because it's just so hard.
43:13Matt and Damer cut a deal with Dennis
43:16to solve their hard rock mining headache.
43:20It doesn't take long
43:21for the days to add up without gold
43:22to start putting pressure on.
43:24We really need this to fire up
43:26because the end of the season
43:28is coming in real fast now.
43:32Never once in my whole life
43:34did I ever say to you
43:35that you could have my f***ing tiger.
43:38And Donnie and Lee
43:39come face to face.
43:41The sooner this gets put to bed,
43:42the better.
43:43We can all get back to doing
43:44what we spoke to doing,
43:45which is bloody mining for gold.
43:46In another epic showdown.
43:49I don't want to battle.
43:50I'm over f***ing battle.
43:51Yeah, I'm good.
43:51Get it off your f***ing.
43:52Yeah, get it off your website.
43:54Get it off your shirt.
43:55Get it off everything.
43:57You're nothing but f***ing thief.
43:59Will their dramas ever end?
44:02Donnie, Donnie, Donnie.
44:04Just be cool.
44:07You're nothing but f***ing.
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