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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.
00:18Oh, look at that.
00:20Dog ate dog. The wars are off.
00:22Never once in my whole life did I ever say to you that you could have my burger.
00:28Oh, three mining teams.
00:31We have a load of money into the mine, so we have to make it work.
00:35Fighting it out on the one patch of land.
00:39This is just some of the stuff Donnie's been walking over.
00:42Guys, I'd be lucky if I don't walk over his big nose.
00:47This time, the three-way race to the season finish line intensifies.
00:53Spice me up.
00:54Holidays.
00:55What the f**k am I doing out here?
00:57Frontrunners Matt and Damon.
01:00Overheating again.
01:02Get plagued by 11th hour breakdowns.
01:05And I can't really risk running it unless it can drop out of this high temp.
01:11Donnie and Ronnie unearth a monster nugget.
01:14Hopefully he's going to come through on his tallies.
01:17But will it be enough to rocket Swiss diggings into the winner's circle and get Donnie that
01:23lease he so desperately desires?
01:25Dennis is not going to let me get away without that half ounce of gold.
01:30I know he won't.
01:31You are the mind manager.
01:32I need to step up a bit.
01:34And Richie makes a shock investment offer to Dan.
01:37I couldn't believe it.
01:38That is literally life-changing.
01:42There you go.
01:43It'll all come down to the final waves.
01:47Just who will come out on top for the season.
01:50Come on!
02:14Claremont, Queensland.
02:17And the Goldfields frontrunners, Matt and Damon, are closing in on their 100 ounce target.
02:24Found some amazing pockets under this gravel.
02:30We're clawing our way to a target and it's getting within reach now.
02:36The duo are just six and a half ounces of gold away from claiming their first Goldfields victory.
02:42They have just three days left to do it in.
02:45It's good that the Lemon Exuvator can keep us rolling for now at least.
02:5120 litres of oil a day can deal with that at the moment.
02:56But just as they hit the home stretch, there's an 11th hour hiccup to deal with.
03:01It has been a tough little period.
03:03Damo's juicy run in the banana patch has started to turn sour.
03:07At the moment we've found some good gold, but it's certainly not all cylinders running.
03:14Matt's desperate to get the water pump on their main excavator repaired.
03:27Only then can they finish digging the Megapen.
03:36The good news is Lee's back to help them try and claim top spot on the gold tally board.
03:44Lee's resolved his legal dispute with Donnie.
03:47We've got a new logo going after the big fight we had with Donnie and the trademarks and blah, blah,
03:52blah, which I'm all absolutely sick of.
03:55So do you want to jump Jaden's into court?
03:57I don't give a...
03:57Mate, lawyer up, Leach.
03:59We'll see who wins this battle.
04:02He now has a new mining logo of his own.
04:06Yeah, Lee turns up a little bit fresh and he's got a new shirt.
04:11A logo inspired by his great love of dogs.
04:15Yeah, so we've got obviously someone with a detector and the two dogs.
04:19So Nugget, who's passed, and Little Nugs, the new one.
04:23Yeah, and then this, seriously, this logo compared to the old one, like a donkey and a bloke with a
04:29gun, nothing to do with detecting.
04:30So I'm pretty happy with the new one.
04:33Yeah, it means a lot to me too, just putting the dogs on there.
04:37Lee's so happy with his logo, he got it tattooed on his chest, only in Clermont.
04:49He's really good.
04:50He's done good work.
05:00At Swiss Diggins, Donnie may have won the logo wall, but his team is losing the mining battle.
05:07Swiss Diggins is 20 ounces short of their 100-ounce target.
05:13Donnie is also half an ounce of gold short of making his life-changing 1880 dream a reality.
05:21Bit of a hole in there.
05:23The boys have a lot of work left to do.
05:27Hopefully he's going to come through on his tallies and he can get me that 50%.
05:32I'm not going to peg it unless he does.
05:34He has to come up with his part of the deal.
05:37Spit the bullet and decided to move up here to where we've got a big rock bar.
05:42Dennis has given Donnie and Ronnie permission to dig wherever they want.
05:47This is their last shot at success for the season.
05:49I asked if I could just jump up, there was a rock trap up further, like a rock bar.
05:55But I just thought it might be able to get me onto some gold before the end of the season.
06:00Donnie's counting on Ronnie to push through the intense summer heat and keep his emotions in check.
06:07Another nasty blow-up between these two now will guarantee failure for sure.
06:12I'm trying to get Ronnie to move a bit quicker.
06:15It's good to see he's waiting until I turn off.
06:18You might as well wait, Ronnie, because I'll make you do it again if you do it.
06:25Right, hey, now you can go in it.
06:28Trouble making.
06:39So right now we are running and we're getting gold.
06:43Do I like how it's done?
06:46Not really.
06:47At 1870, operational setbacks, budget blowouts and dodgy equipment have been a constant source of tension between Dan and Ritchie.
06:59I was employed to be line manager.
07:04I got overruled.
07:06I think that's Ritchie showing who's boss.
07:08Dan's not happy that Ritchie, an IT millionaire from the Gold Coast with zero mining experience, is making all the
07:16decisions now about how to run the mine.
07:20Massive season target over my head and I'm behind.
07:24We're behind.
07:25Now we've just got to try and reach our target.
07:30Richie and Kimberley will need a miracle to have any chance of hitting their 100-ounce season target.
07:37The couple's $1.2 million investment in 1870 is looking shaky.
07:44Good work, you've heard.
07:46If all that money goes down the sink, their glamorous Queensland lifestyles will too.
07:53All right, Dan.
07:54Hey, man, how are you?
07:55You can't just go somewhere and expect everything to work out perfectly if no one's leading the team.
08:01Dan needs to step up a little bit and lead the team a bit better.
08:05Ritchie's called a snap meeting with Dan.
08:07I know it's been a tough time.
08:09I know we've been not bluing but not seeing eye to eye on a lot of things.
08:13I have got quite a few concerns.
08:16I need to step up a bit.
08:18The money flow just doesn't just keep coming.
08:21We've got to make the money.
08:23I was just shocked because I'm literally giving it everything.
08:28I can see it's easy to just sort of temporary fixings and say, I'll come back to it later.
08:32The breakdowns have been the hardest.
08:35You know, for half a year I've been out here by myself.
08:38That was yours.
08:39You would have fixed it properly then and there on the spot.
08:41But I don't know what Ritchie is even thinking right now.
08:45We're seeing the gold coming through.
08:48You know, we're sort of clashing heads a fair bit at the moment and is 100 ounces achievable?
08:58I don't know if he thinks it is or isn't.
09:00I mean, we're busting our arse.
09:03You know, like I'm frustrated.
09:07We've had nothing but issue after issue.
09:10We've had breakdown after breakdown.
09:13We've had machinery set up from day one.
09:15We've been told about everything I've done wrong.
09:20Thinking I'm probably going to get the sack.
09:23Look, this is what I'm thinking.
09:24I want to sort of re-negotiate our agreement here.
09:36A little bit of gold.
09:38We don't find too many small ones like that.
09:41They're usually bigger than that.
09:42At Swiss Diggies, Donny and Ronnie are on the gold.
09:46Only trouble is, it's all small.
09:50Well, we need about 30 half-grammers, mate, to make the half-ounce that I need.
09:54Yeah.
09:55So, keep going.
09:57They have a long way to go and just a few days to do it in.
10:02Donny needs 15 grams of gold to seal that 1880 deal of a lifetime with Dennis.
10:09Hey, half an ounce.
10:10Half an ounce.
10:12Donny, half an ounce.
10:18Oh, yeah, a big bucket.
10:21Right.
10:21Big Quigga.
10:22Move.
10:26Donny's targeting an area at the bottom of an old creek line.
10:31It's hard on the machine, and you do leave a bit of swarf, a bit of metal in the bloody
10:36cart like that.
10:39The way the rock's set up there is, it's like a big natural sluice where all the gold gets caught
10:45up on its way down.
10:47And what you're seeing on top is only a small part of it.
10:50There's a big rock bar underneath as well.
10:55Come around the other side and go in from another angle.
11:04Well, I can't have to see it.
11:06Oh, you won't see it, mate.
11:08It's what the detector's for.
11:10The detector finds it.
11:11Yeah, well, it's on bloody bedrock.
11:14Oh.
11:16It falls down the cracks.
11:18It's under a rock.
11:20It's on the bedrock.
11:23Bit of...
11:24It's more off.
11:27I knew that's what I was chasing.
11:29Oh, you did not.
11:36I apologise that I'm dictating and telling you how to do things, but I just need to step up a
11:43little bit more.
11:44At 1870, Dan's mining future is about to take a surprising twist.
11:50I knew he needed to say something. He needed to get something off his chest.
11:55At the end of the day, I think you're too valuable here.
11:59I think Dan thought I was going to give him the sack.
12:02What I'm prepared to do is I'm prepared to give you some shares in this mine.
12:06What shares are we looking at?
12:08You'd own 50%.
12:1015?
12:1050.
12:11If I give you 50% of the shares...
12:1450.
12:15I'll give you half of everything.
12:16I couldn't believe it.
12:1950% of the company.
12:22That's life-changing. You've changed everything for me.
12:26Richie's offer is life-changing.
12:29There's obviously going to be some stipulations.
12:31But it comes with two major caveats.
12:35You don't start making your commissions until what we've put into this mine is paid back.
12:41That means Richie must first recoup his $1.2 million investment before any shares are split.
12:49The second condition is a time-critical one.
12:53Well, I don't think we're going to reach the 100-ounce target.
12:57Mate, you've got to give me 80 ounces.
12:5980, so it's 15 ounces in under a week.
13:02Yep.
13:02Richie has revised 1870's season target to 80 ounces of gold.
13:08That means Dan has to deliver the biggest weekly gold haul of the season in just three days,
13:14or the 50-50 deal is dead.
13:17Right now, he's working for a wage.
13:23You can only push someone so much for their wage, but if it's making him achieve his lifelong dream
13:30and his family's dream and his family's future, I'll give him that crack.
13:35Look, someone gave me a crack a long time ago, and it paid off.
13:38We've now got everything up and running.
13:41Shake a table, the sluices, the trommels, everything's up.
13:44The dry blow is working.
13:46We've got no excuses.
13:47The stakes could not be any higher for Dan and his family.
13:51If you want...
13:54I want it, and I'll work as hard as I can.
13:57I'm going to go get some gold.
13:59You're bloody better.
14:04Team Scratchy Moo's gold run in the banana patch has run out of steam.
14:10Matt and Damo have decided to refocus their last few days of mining
14:14on cleaning out the mega pit and uncovering whatever gold they can find there.
14:19This is it, yep. Fire up.
14:22The mega pit is where the bulk of their gold has come from.
14:26You ready?
14:27Yeah.
14:34Yeah, so everything's compressing around the heat and the rain,
14:37so getting this machine going is really important,
14:38so we can load the pay out of this void and get it out of here
14:42before it starts to fill up and it's turned to slop.
14:45I'm not wondering if I'm going to get any gold.
14:48It's just how much gold are you going to get out of that cut.
14:50Not much time left in the season,
14:52so we're always going to be working from dusk till dawn
14:55just to get that gold out of the ground so we can reach target.
14:58How's it looking?
14:59No, Luke.
15:00Ready to go.
15:01Slow to face.
15:08It's frustrating and, you know, we just need to, I need to get through a bit more ground.
15:15At Swiss Diggies, the ground is throwing up plenty of false targets, but just no gold.
15:22Getting to that time of year where everyone's starting to get frustrated, me included.
15:27Donnie's big 1880 dream is slipping further and further away by the hour.
15:33And right now, every hour counts.
15:39There's nice.
15:41It's out.
15:49I heard it drop in there.
15:53That's good.
15:55There she is there.
15:57Oh, yeah.
15:57Look at that.
15:58It's a nice bit of McMaster's black gold again.
16:01I reckon it's got to go 10 grams at least.
16:05Happy days, mate.
16:06That is a, that's a good sign again that we've got this still continuing back up this run here.
16:11So, um, quite happy with that.
16:15A $2,000 nugget proves that Dennis's mining plan works.
16:20Donnie and Ronnie's decision to hole jump seems to have backfired.
16:26Yeah, Ron was struggling with that.
16:28Had to put his dust mask on.
16:31He's starting to feel the heat and we haven't been on the gold.
16:34So, it's frustrating all round.
16:37I want to help him out.
16:40Uh, and find the gold.
16:42But, jeez, I'll tell you what, I could smack him in the head.
16:45Ronnie and Donnie are starting to get a bit antsy.
16:48They need to hold it all together and make it to the finish line without a blow-up.
16:55As long as we get half an ounce.
16:57That's all I need, half an ounce.
17:07Hot and dusty.
17:09I'm looking forward to the airboats off.
17:13Having a whinge to the cameraman or hero.
17:17Every time he has a whinge now, I'm just going to get the violin out and just start playing the
17:21violin.
17:31It's one of these toys that just want to smack him in the head.
17:36That's what you sound like every day.
17:49At 18.70, Dan's made the call to run the wash plant through the night.
17:55He's asked Richie to help out.
17:57We're obviously running well behind time.
18:00We're going to have one last night to try and mine because the weather's going to shut us down.
18:03It's going to be way too hot.
18:06Mate, we need to make gold.
18:13Richie's grand plan to motivate his mine manager by offering him a future share of the mine looks like it's
18:20working.
18:21So, I've got the digger done.
18:22Pumps are primed.
18:23We're pretty well ready to go.
18:25Rightio, well, let's fire up and let's get in it.
18:29Okay.
18:29You're up.
18:31Mentally, physically, I'm done.
18:36But I can't give up.
18:37Like, I just can't give up with what Richie's put on the table now.
18:42Yeah, let's do this.
18:47I can't smoke it well.
18:49Yeah.
18:50Kimberly, Kira and Dan and Kira's daughter, Adeline, are on night shift running the shaker table.
18:57What we need.
18:58Love this little sucker.
18:59Yeah.
18:59It's got full food.
19:01Despite some initial reservations, Kimberly's come to terms with Richie's generous business offer to Dan.
19:09Obviously, I have my red flags because every time we've helped someone out in the past with staff members and
19:15so on, it's their purpose.
19:17I know Dan doesn't have the ego.
19:20I don't think he'll take the piss like a lot of our previous staff members.
19:24They just think, you know, you give them an inch, they take a mile.
19:26Yeah.
19:27I mean, I don't see that with Dan.
19:28We'll be honest with you guys and we'll sit there and give you everything we've got.
19:33Yeah.
19:33We want to make it just as good as it can get, you know?
19:36This will be life-changing.
19:38Like, so we'll make it work.
19:40Like, we just, there's no other option.
19:43Richie's 50-50 offer to Dan could be life-changing.
19:46But just what will that future life look like?
19:49So all I worry about is this is going to, this whole idea is going to blow up once, you
19:54know, we get partnership with Dan.
19:56Um, if something goes wrong, I just, I just don't want to see that happening.
20:08Let's do some chomping.
20:15At Scratchy Moon, Matt and Damo are spending their last few days of mining in the Megapit.
20:23Damo is using the newly repaired excavator to remove the overburn and get down to the pay dirt layer.
20:32But the Honda is actually going again now and it just, let's just, let's just knock wood that it gives
20:39us a little good run, you know, a good little run to the finish.
20:43Getting this pay out of here.
20:45We're digging down, we find the main nuggets with the detector, but the pay layer we set aside and take
20:50away with the truck.
20:52Matt and Damo's plan is to remove the gold-bearing ore before the wet season drowns out the Megapit.
20:59To do this, they'll need to truck the dirt out from the Megapit to a tailing stockpile located on higher
21:07ground.
21:09So, you go from extreme heat to massive amounts of rain and quick rain, which fills everything up.
21:17If you've got a cut open and you get 100 mil overnight, you can't dig.
21:21Look at those big chomps.
21:22Boom.
21:23Not like that gravel wall.
21:25We've got to use that machine to get the pay that's already behind us up out of the hole and
21:30up onto the pay pile.
21:31The plan is to get as much dirt out of the pit as they can.
21:35Proper chomps coming off here.
21:39They'll then bring in a mobile wash plan to process the dirt at a later date.
21:44It's a sensible, rain-safe plan.
21:47The old dump truck is working hard to shift the pay dirt.
21:51To its credit, the old truck has dumped ultimately probably a couple of thousand tons up on the pay pile.
22:03It's Murphy's Law.
22:04If something can go wrong, it probably will.
22:08The old dump truck has packed it in.
22:10It's the last thing Matt and Damo need right now.
22:13I see Carter lifting the truck body up so that he can get underneath and look at the motor, so
22:19that's not a good sign.
22:21So we've got a couple of air leaks on the old girl, which is pretty common for this sort of
22:25thing. It just decides to break down regularly.
22:28Airlines are used to control the tipping mechanism and to operate the brakes.
22:34Because the smallest leak will stop a truck, even on the side of the highway.
22:38Matt applies a quick bush fix to the faulty air line.
22:42There we go, that hose is fixed now.
22:45I'll just keep it going. That's all I can do is just keep it going.
22:48All the hoses are together, so it's a matter of seeing how it goes once we get pressure up.
22:54Spice me up holidays.
22:56What the f*** am I doing out here?
23:03Should've kept a go.
23:04But now, there's a new crisis.
23:07Team Scratchy Moo are giving their Claremont rivals every opportunity to pip them at the post.
23:13Yeah, it's working really well.
23:15This was definitely not part of their mining plan.
23:20Here we go. Dumber and dumber.
23:23Next.
23:24It's ordered that many times, it's flattened the batteries.
23:32Let's clean everything up.
23:33Get the gold out.
23:35Shut it down, eh?
23:36Alrighty.
23:38Team 1870 have worked long and hard through the night.
23:43It's crunch time.
23:44Will they reach 80 ounces?
23:46And will Dan secure his future as an owner-shareholder?
23:51The answers will be revealed in the next 24 hours.
23:56I'm pretty knackered.
23:57Like, it's been some long days and long nights.
24:00My fast night was a bit of a killer.
24:02Dan needs to tally up 15 ounces of gold to lock in his 50-50 deal with Richie.
24:09The gold will come from the dry blower and the wash plant.
24:14If I don't reach it...
24:19The deal's off.
24:20Alright, where are we going to put this?
24:22The amount of hours that's gone running this, day and night, day and night.
24:25I'm pretty excited to see what's going to be in this.
24:29This clean-up, it means everything.
24:31I bring the winch down, hook it on the chains and we'll lift her up.
24:34And then it's just a matter of hosing it out and taking it away into the pod.
24:46It's been a long time coming to see a clean-up like this, so obviously I'm a bit excited
24:51about now going through the final stages to get the little nuggets out of this, see what
24:56it's for.
24:57The sluice is designed to trap the gold and other heavy materials in the riffles.
25:04Dan carefully hoses out the concentrate into a large container.
25:09It'll then be taken to the campsite and run through the shaker table to separate the
25:14fine gold from the dirt.
25:16We're going to have to have a shower tonight, eh?
25:20Sometimes it's good being the boss.
25:21I could sit here and watch this for hours.
25:23The gold's coming out of the ground, but at the moment we just don't know how much gold
25:26is actually coming out of the ground, so...
25:29Time will tell.
25:30Hey, Tim, you're doing the next one.
25:32You're doing a good job.
25:34I don't want to, you know, wreck what's going on here.
25:38So now Dan has been offered the 50% of the mine, so I think his mood's majorly changed.
25:44He's really focused on getting extra ounces to meet his target.
25:52I can see she's struggling, eh?
25:54The sluice mats are the last items to be removed from the wash plant.
25:59There's hundreds of kilos of dirt that all needs to be processed before they can do the
26:04final weigh-in of the season.
26:06We're going to be working through the whole night, and most of tomorrow, just in processing
26:12this.
26:14It's a big job.
26:15Hey, down to crunch time.
26:17If it's not here, it's not here.
26:18He's going to bloody work harder.
26:30All right, try it now.
26:32Hold her flat.
26:33It's one thing after another for Team Scratchy Moon.
26:37The season is theirs to lose.
26:42Matt and Damo must keep their machines running if they want to finish first in the Claremont
26:47winner's circle.
26:49Going, well, now we'll have to fix the clutch problem where we release the clutch pressure
26:54for the oil running out of it.
26:56That'll be the next drama.
26:58Damo is determined to have one last swing of his detector.
27:02He's convinced there's more gold to be found in the Megapit.
27:07It's going up onto a pay pile there, and that pay pile's probably already got a couple of
27:11thousand tonne on it.
27:13Murphy's law is at it again.
27:15The alarm from the engine's warning system is flashing.
27:26Welcome to mining.
27:27You're on a great run, and then it starts happening, and then the whole targets drop off.
27:34He leaves some fluid.
27:37He's at the heat.
27:38It's overheating again, and I can't really risk running it unless it can drop out of this
27:43high temp.
27:43I don't know if it's potentially going to cause drama.
27:58The 1870 mine site, and it's all hands on deck.
28:03It's awesome.
28:05Right now, I've got three different ways to ensure that we don't lose any gold.
28:11We've got the gold cube.
28:13We're getting fine gold.
28:14We've got the shaker table, making sure we're getting all the micro gold.
28:18We've got the detectors that we scan and detect.
28:21So these are all the rocks that's come out of the nugget sluice.
28:26So literally, there should be no gold getting past any of the concentrate that we bring up
28:30from the mine.
28:32There's someone here.
28:37Yes.
28:38Okay.
28:39Oh, this one's pretty dirty, but there you go.
28:41It's got heaps of rock on it.
28:42You can see all the gold.
28:44How much is that way?
28:46Well, I reckon there's at least a gram of gold in there.
28:48Richie has bought yet another piece of equipment, a high-capacity gold recovery device that uses
28:55G-Force technology to separate fine gold from the larger volumes of concentrate.
29:01That's another $4,000 added to Richie's total investment.
29:05He's up to $1.204 million now.
29:10Oh, it's awesome.
29:12Clean it up a bit, make it look somewhat respectable.
29:14Dan's leaving nothing to chance.
29:17He's resorted to old-fashioned gold panning to clean up every last speck of gold.
29:24I'm going to reach 80 ounces.
29:25I'm f***ing myself.
29:26I've been offered.
29:27It's like winning a lotto, what I've been offered.
29:30For me to reach this target, I need all this stuff running.
29:34I just want to get the gold out, so I'm just going to pan a bit off myself.
29:38I'm up to my last pan.
29:39They're almost done.
29:41I can pull this off.
29:42My whole life's changed.
29:48He stopped at mid-swing.
29:50It shouldn't have stopped mid-swing.
29:52At Scratchy Moo, Damo and Matt's newly repaired excavator has overheated.
29:58That's not good.
29:59No.
30:01No, it's not settling down, so I'm not prepared to run it, because next thing you know, it'll go...
30:07Yeah.
30:09Damo wants to let the engine cool down before they attempt to drive it out of the mega pit.
30:15If they leave the excavator in the pit, it'll get destroyed by the wet season rains.
30:20So, all right, let's detect this and find a big chunk of gold, so whatever I'm going to pay for
30:24to fix this thing up can be paid for.
30:27This is the right ground, because that's that rainbow-demented slate.
30:30The excavator ran long enough to dig down to the pay layer, the distinctive white gravel.
30:39Just around there.
30:40It might even be in that chunk.
30:41If there's good gold here, it'll be a big, well-deserved win for the boys.
30:46No gold, and they'll miss their season target and leave themselves open to being pipped at the post by one
30:53of their mining rivals.
30:57Oh, that is tiny, isn't it?
31:00Damo's 0.2-gram fine adds $50 to their tally.
31:05We want an answer.
31:07We don't want one this big.
31:08If they were easy to find like that, everyone would find them.
31:11They've got $32,000 to go to hit their target.
31:15All right, we're just above it.
31:23There's two there.
31:26I'm a little bit excited, Lee.
31:27Yes, I'm right now.
31:30So am I.
31:34Yes.
31:35There you go.
31:35Bring it down here.
31:39There it is.
31:40Oh, look at that.
31:41Look at that.
31:43Oh, that's a good chunk.
31:44That's a good chunk.
31:45That's eight and all the grams.
31:46That's a beauty.
31:47The eight-gram fine is a welcome addition to Matt and Damo's gold tally.
31:54Oh, this is awesome.
32:00There it is there.
32:03That's a cracker.
32:04That's a beauty.
32:05That's a cracker too.
32:06Oh, that's bigger than the others.
32:08No way.
32:09Oh, that's nuts.
32:11Oh, that's probably like 12.
32:13Easy, easy over to you.
32:15The monster nugget is just what they needed.
32:18That's beautiful.
32:20Look, it still fits in the jar.
32:23Just.
32:25It's just got so dry now.
32:28The dust is just so bad.
32:31At Swiss Diggings, the heat, the dust and a lack of gold is bringing Donnie and Ronnie to breaking point.
32:39Donnie needs another half an ounce of gold to secure that 1880 lease deal with Dennis.
32:50Oh, Ronnie.
32:51Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie.
32:55Ha ha.
32:58I take that all back, Ron, what I said.
33:01Ha ha ha.
33:04Ha ha ha.
33:07Ha ha ha.
33:07Ha ha ha.
33:09Ganser, look.
33:10Ha ha ha.
33:13Are you serious?
33:14How big?
33:14Ha ha ha.
33:15Hold it.
33:16Ha ha ha.
33:17That's what we're after, man.
33:18That's half an hour.
33:19Ha ha ha.
33:20Ha ha ha.
33:20A little better.
33:21Ha ha ha.
33:25Oh.
33:26That'd be 20 grand.
33:27Oh.
33:28Ha ha ha.
33:29There's target, man.
33:31That is target every day of the week.
33:33We did it in one nug, brother.
33:35Come here, you big lug.
33:37Ha ha ha.
33:39Oh, how good's that?
33:41It's a miracle nugget.
33:43An 11th hour dream maker.
33:46Has Donnie just secured his future at 1880?
33:50All right.
33:50I'll forgive you all your sins.
33:54We won't know until it's on the scales.
33:56Definitely over half an ounce.
34:03Today is officially the last day of the season.
34:06It's been a tough, relentless journey for all three mining teams.
34:11Time to see which teams have made target and who's going to take out the top spot on the
34:17tally board.
34:17That looks like a good chunk for the week.
34:20It's a stack in there.
34:21You've got to get six ounces to hit target.
34:24Team Scratchy Moo needs to see 190 grams or six ounces of gold on the scales to know they've
34:30hit their 100 ounce season target.
34:34All right.
34:35Ready?
34:36No in between.
34:36Come on.
34:37We need six.
34:38Come on.
34:38There you go.
34:39Might be that nugget.
34:40Oh, there's some chunks in there.
34:44302.7 grams.
34:45Woo-hoo!
34:47And we needed like 200 to be on target, so we're well over.
34:51Nine and a half ounce haul.
34:53Blood, sweat and tears.
34:54Nice.
34:55So, 103 and a half ounces for you.
34:58Woo!
34:58You've got to be happy with that.
35:00You've got to be happy with that.
35:01Matt and Damo have come in three ounces over their target.
35:06Scratchy Moo have banked a staggering $659,200 for the season.
35:13That should cover a new excavator or two.
35:16To be able to reach a target is satisfying because it's not an easy game and we've worked
35:24really hard and sacrificed a lot.
35:26Woo!
35:27So that's your target.
35:29So you've made target.
35:30That's the season.
35:31We've made it, we've done it and we're there and next season is just going to be bigger,
35:36better, faster and longer, I hope.
35:38A lot of hard work.
35:39There was a lot of breakdowns.
35:41A lot of fixing.
35:42For these guys to hit their target, like literally to get up and running and to hit this massive
35:48hundred ounce target, they've worked hard for it.
35:51They deserve it.
35:51A little bit.
35:53Yeah, it's a bloody good effort.
35:58We do away, you know?
35:59Mm.
36:00Yeah.
36:01At Swiss Diggings, Dennis is feeling uneasy about his 100 ounce target.
36:06So our season target was 100 ounces.
36:09Yep.
36:11We're about 80 ounces now.
36:13But I reckon we're going to fall short, but we did come in pretty strong.
36:18I think we've done it right.
36:19I set that mark fairly high at the beginning of the year.
36:22I thought it was fairly, fairly unrealistic.
36:25I think we are definitely going to fall a bit short.
36:27I was hoping we'd make the 100 ounces.
36:31See how well we come home.
36:35There's some nice gold there, bro.
36:36Oh, isn't there just?
36:37To reach their season target, the Swiss Diggings team needs 20 ounces.
36:42It's a big ask.
36:45It's a big ask.
36:45There we go.
36:4716.55.
36:49Where does that put us?
36:51That puts us at 96.5.
36:54Oh, man.
36:56We just fell short.
36:58We didn't quite get it.
36:59We didn't quite get it.
37:00But, look, overall, I am just ecstatic that we even got as much as we did.
37:06We're good effort coming home.
37:07Yeah.
37:09Dennis might have fallen three and a half ounces short of target.
37:14But in a surprising twist, thanks to the dramatic rise in the gold price,
37:19he'll bank $617,600 for the season.
37:24We've done well.
37:2596.
37:26My big driving force is making sure you have got enough to get you across the line
37:32so we can go out and peg this lease.
37:34Now, all eyes are on Donnie's gold haul from today.
37:38His future as a mine owner in the Claremont goldfields all comes down to this.
37:44We needed half an ounce to peg the lease.
37:47He needs to see at least 15 grams of gold on the scales
37:51to lock in his ownership of 1880.
37:569.52.
38:00Plus this fella that we pulled out today.
38:0529.13.
38:07Ooh, well done.
38:08That, that was the icing on the card.
38:1229.13, bruh.
38:14Well done.
38:15Ha ha!
38:15We're pegging the lease.
38:17How does that make you feel?
38:19Lawson.
38:201880, we're going pegging.
38:22We're pegging.
38:22All right, let's go.
38:23We're pegging.
38:24We're done.
38:25We are pegging.
38:26We are pegging before we leave.
38:27So we can get that pegged before we go home?
38:28Yep, absolutely.
38:30All right, awesome.
38:35We're going to put some borax in this graphite crisper.
38:38And what they will do is draw any impurities out.
38:41And then we're going to heat it up.
38:42And then pour some bars, basically.
38:45At 1870, Richie wants Dan to melt their gold down before they do their weigh-in.
38:51It's the only way to get an accurate measure on the gold weight.
38:55Spent a lot of money on it.
38:56I want to see it work.
38:57Apparently, it's the bee's knees.
38:59Richie's latest purchase, a $5,000 electric furnace, will heat the nuggets to 1,800 degrees Celsius to remove the
39:09impurities from the gold.
39:11His investment tally now stands at $1.3 million.
39:16Bartlett Jones State.
39:19All right, buddy.
39:21Give her a four.
39:26Holy...
39:27We started melting those gold bars down.
39:29I didn't know what to expect.
39:30They look like, you see in the movies, like little gold bars.
39:33It's like, yeah, I was pretty excited.
39:37How beautiful is that?
39:39Dan needs 15 ounces of gold to become a 50% shareholder in the 1870 mine.
39:47Anything less, and his future will be up in the air.
39:52All right, what do you reckon?
39:54What's your guess?
39:5420.
39:5620?
39:57Holy!
39:58I think about 15.
39:5915, 16.
40:00I reckon about 17.
40:02I reckon I'm pretty good right now.
40:0560.
40:0660!
40:08Man, it feels promising, but if it ain't there, the journey was awesome.
40:14When it comes to business, you've got to stick to your word.
40:17You've got to own yourself.
40:19All right, so if I told Dan it's 15 ounces that I'll make, I'm not going to let him get
40:24away with 14, right?
40:26Otherwise, he's going to lose respect for me straight away.
40:30Weight up.
40:31I ain't weighing it, man.
40:33I want to weigh it.
40:35It's close.
40:36So I don't want to look at the scales.
40:38I'm too nervous.
40:40I've got two...
40:41I'm not looking.
40:42I'm not looking.
40:42So the first one...
40:4610.3 ounces.
40:48That's pretty...
40:49That's what you've averaged every week the last couple of weeks.
40:52I'm feeling a little bit more nervous now.
40:55A bit nauseous there, mate.
40:56So I need another five ounces, basically.
41:01Dan needs the second bar to weigh at least 4.6 ounces to kickstart his journey as a shareholder
41:07of $1,870.
41:13Hey, business partner.
41:158.6.
41:16Oh!
41:18Oh, God.
41:20So that means, in total...
41:25That's 18.9 ounces.
41:29Oh, wow.
41:30Hard work plays off.
41:33Well done.
41:35Don't hurt your hand.
41:36No, I won't.
41:36That even hurts.
41:38Dan has delivered 18.9 ounces of gold, notching up the biggest weekly gold haul of the season.
41:46Richie and Kimber have banked $537,600.
41:52They've recouped over 40% of their $1.3 million investment.
41:58Claremont's newest partnership looks set to fire up the gold fields next season.
42:03Cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers.
42:06We may have lost this year's gold battle, but we're still going to win the war.
42:10So next season, no one's even going to come close.
42:32It's a momentous day for Donnie, and one he will never forget.
42:37He's about to stake his claim in the Claremont gold fields.
42:42Righto.
42:43I think that's about right there.
42:46That's the cool thing now.
42:47I'm just looking forward to getting those pegs in and making this a reality.
42:55Righto.
42:56That's our peg.
42:57Let's double check that again.
42:59Righto, let's go.
43:00Let's go get another one.
43:02Dennis has done a lot for me.
43:16It might be the end of the season, but this is just the start of something new for Donnie.
43:22And it's all thanks to Dennis, the one person who believed in him when no one else would.
43:28You know, Donnie can, you know, really get something going in life, you know what I mean?
43:32And have something that's tangible for him and his family.
43:36Whoa.
43:37Number four.
43:39Ha ha.
43:40Just need the cap, mate.
43:42Be able to put something aside for my loved ones, my kids.
43:47Yeah, that's pretty cool.
43:50Cheers to 1880 gold.
43:521880 gold, brother.
43:53We will kick ass.
43:54We will kick ass.
43:59Come on!
44:01Ha ha ha.
44:05Awesome.
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