- 1 week ago
Outback Crystal Hunters - Season 2 - Episode 02: SAFETY THONGS
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TVTranscript
00:12¡Suscríbete al canal!
00:30We're trying to find out what they were actually searching for and how they were searching for it.
00:34That way, if we find something similar, we can start digging.
00:37Have a look at this. They would have had a candle hanging here and it's actually burnt and scored this
00:42timber here.
00:43There's a bit of a few rocks come down too, but look.
00:47You've got to be really careful in there.
00:49The widow makers, when they fall on your head, I don't think one of these is going to stop one
00:53of them.
00:54You've got to be careful not to touch the walls and the ceiling because, you know, it's an old chaff.
00:58So, things move around over a period of time.
01:02Oh, wow. Look at that.
01:03This is a shaft.
01:30This is a shaft.
01:34¿Cuáles son los niveles de aquí?
01:36Vamos a ver si es un glow stick, ¿eh?
01:38Sí, sí, sí.
01:39¿Vamos a ver cómo profundidad es?
01:42All right.
01:43Sí.
01:44Aquí vamos.
01:47Oh, es un largo camino.
01:48Oh, es un poco.
01:50¿Vamos a 20, 30 metros?
01:52Sí, sí, sí.
01:53Hay un tipo de minerales en este área.
01:56También puede tener tungsten, topaz, considerate, que es el tin.
02:00Pero lo que estamos realmente after es un poco de fluoride.
02:03Esto es realmente fluoride que encontramos en este lugar.
02:10Fluoride, composed de calcio y fluorine,
02:13es usado en la antigüedad para calvazos y crockery.
02:16Hoy, es un componente vital en la combustión de combustible y metal refinería.
02:22Esto es solo un grado de grado.
02:25Lo que estamos afteres es la forma de cubos.
02:28La forma de cubos es cubiertos por los colectores
02:31para su tamaño de su forma.
02:34Unos, flat, edges, square,
02:36que es worth around $200, $300 a kilo.
03:09a dig and actually find minerals and all that sort of stuff so he sold sold his house left
03:14his job and he's been on the road for the last few years and yeah he's making a good time
03:18of it
03:20the vast cattle station neil manages and lives on with his partner monica
03:24and children felicity and luke nine next month isn't it nine this month this month
03:30endures a semi-arid climate with heavy summer rainfall
03:36it's weathered hills are rich in minerals and riddled with remnant mines dating back over
03:42a century i've been doing it pretty much all my life um hunting crystals back in the day when i
03:50was young dad used to take us around all these different places searching for crystals he's
03:55getting better than i am now i think i'm getting older and i'm a bit more fit this is the
04:01biggest
04:01one i've ever gotten in the family we've got two neils i'm neil jr and my father's neil senior
04:07he says that he ran out of names after three kids that i don't believe him
04:16our only income at the moment is actually finding crystals selling them and paying for the bills that
04:21way it is it is a big pressure this week we've got about two and a half grand worth of
04:27bills it's just
04:27in insurance and regos alone so um we we need to find some crystals to sell
04:34this is an old mine that we found a few months back it's showing a lot of promise and a
04:39lot of
04:39a lot of material lying around on top of it
04:45oh still a long way to go still a long way so when we started pumping it you see where
04:50that brown mark
04:51is that's actually where the water level actually was so we've pumped out 10 meters out of this shaft
04:56already and we still got a fair bit to go back in the what 1930s i think it is they'll
05:01dig in this
05:02shaft out and um obviously they've come across a lot of fluorite that's not what they are i think
05:07they were after tungsten or tin so um they've left this sort of stuff here just laying in the overburden
05:13which is all green fluorite so it could be that this stuff would have been back down there in cubic
05:20form
05:21i'm thinking about just roping it down by hand i am a little bit nervous um just because there's a
05:27little lot of loose rock on top but i'm worried about coming down on me
05:32you've got to assess the situation before you go into them or down the shafts being that um it can
05:37be
05:37pretty dangerous sometimes but i've been doing it pretty much all my life these ropes are all right
05:43all right i'm sorry i'll have one actually around me as a safety that uh dad's gonna have and i'll
05:50have one more extra row backs actually hanging down just in case anything happens all right here we go
05:56i'm gonna get down probably about to where the water level is just see if there's anything there
06:01let's see how we go actually i might do it without these safety thongs on
06:11okay all right yep going down
06:17little rocks coming yeah all right all right hold up there all right there is a bit of a cavity
06:25down
06:25down to this corner over here okay but i need more water to drain out because it's just at the
06:31water level i'm not seeing any fluoride though
06:38oh watch out for rocks yeah just seen one ah well needs to be waking up the other thing's falling
06:45asleep i'm gonna wake somebody up you'll rattle on the head
06:55just caught that in time
07:03oh
07:05oh
07:07oh
07:11oh
07:13oh
07:13oh
07:20oh
07:22oh
07:24oh
07:24oh
07:30We'll keep heading east here, pick up on a bit of a track and see where we end up.
07:33Nice work. Lead the way, oh fearless leader.
07:37I reckon this is it here.
07:40Eh?
07:41We're in the World River Valley here.
07:43Jaron's brought me up here with the promise of a good sapphire.
07:46Looks a bit more scrubby, doesn't it?
07:48I haven't done any sapphire hunting.
07:49I've always wanted to come up and have a go at it.
07:51This river is pretty famous and well known,
07:53and over the last five, six years, people started to spend a lot of time up here.
07:58The word's got out on the east coast of Tasmania how beautiful our sapphires are.
08:03Got to get stuck in, go a little bit further than everyone else does
08:05and hopefully we find some fresh ground.
08:08The map's given us a general guide, but there's no real track to follow in here.
08:13So this is a bit of freestyle now, so hopefully we don't get ourselves lost.
08:18Yeah, and I think we...
08:19You know that well-worn track that we were looking at before there?
08:23Yep.
08:23That wasn't the one.
08:27I reckon we'll just blast on.
08:29No, we're going that way.
08:31We just came from that way.
08:32We just came from over there.
08:33Oh.
08:41That's where we were working last time in here.
08:42Oh, we're only just above the river.
08:44What?
08:45No, no, no, no.
08:46Well, if you listen now.
08:47Yeah, you can hear it.
08:48Just around this ridge and down.
08:51We're getting close to where we want to go in the river now, so we're going to slowly get down
08:54in the hill, into the thickest scrub, get to the river and start walking upriver from there.
08:59Through here, mate.
08:59Just watch yourself, though.
09:06It's not the greatest.
09:18I think it's getting a bit thick in through here.
09:20I think we're going off to Bort Mission.
09:21We'll just get lost in this.
09:23We were trying to cut a bit of walking off into here, but we've hit bush a little bit too
09:28thick now, and we're just going to have to backtrack and cut a path back into the river.
09:33This looks like the spot.
09:38All right, mate.
09:39We made it.
09:40Nice work.
10:03All right, mate.
10:10$500,000 worth of sapphires out of here.
10:16Sapphires and rubies are the two gem variants of the mineral corundum.
10:21Sapphires get their colour from traces of elements such as iron and titanium.
10:26We're going to go off downstream a bit further and find a bit of virgin ground to work.
10:31There's no point me working someone else's gravels and find nothing.
10:34Throughout history, it was believed sapphires warded off evil and could even prove infidelity.
10:43Today, they're highly prized as jewellery and can be worth up to $10,000 a carat.
10:54Dave.
10:55Whoa.
10:58Whoa.
11:04You all right, mate?
11:05I will be.
11:10We didn't go quite as well financially as what we'd hoped last week.
11:13So, so far, we've hit $1,200 of our $80,000 target.
11:16We've got a long way to go, so we're hoping the World River provides for us this week.
11:20There's no footprints anymore, no signs of anyone else's heaven.
11:25So, we're getting close to a nice untouched patch of the river, I think, now.
11:29Oh, here we go.
11:31Check this out.
11:31Ah, for f***ing sake.
11:35How much further do we need to get up here, mate?
11:41So, we just stumbled up around the corner here and found some more oluvial working.
11:44Someone's been up in this part of the river.
11:49Well, I'll tell you what, mate.
11:50This is getting f***ed.
11:53Maybe it's all been done here.
12:12Well, welcome to our humble bush camp.
12:15We don't really camp in style.
12:17We just sleep in a little dome tent with our swags in there.
12:22There's a lot of flies and ants and moths and scorpions and centipedes, so...
12:28Gives a false sense of security in a little tent.
12:33This is our main kitchen, dining room, lounge room, guest room, all in one.
12:40So, this is our little portable shower tent.
12:43So, we fill this with hot water.
12:45There's the shower rose that goes on.
12:47That 20 litres is enough for three good showers.
12:52These are called IBCs, intermediate bulk containers.
12:56They're just empty crates that we're hopefully going to fill with crystals.
13:06The Pilbara region is an ancient sun-beaten land, stretching over 500,000 square kilometres in the north of Western
13:15Australia.
13:17The minerals mine from the region, including clear quartz, are responsible for over $80 billion a year of the state's
13:26wealth.
13:31This is sort of something that we've been working on recently, what looks to be a little bit of a
13:35pocket zone in the wall.
13:37So, you can see in this sort of white clay zone, there's a plate of quartz there, got a termination
13:42of a crystal here, and then down in the floor here as well.
13:45And before we do any breaking or digging above it, we want to make sure we extract everything that's there.
13:52This lease here has clear quartz crystals on it.
13:55These generally tend to go to mineral collectors and people that use stones for metaphysical purposes.
14:05Clear quartz is composed of silicon and oxygen, and free of the trace elements that colour other variations of quartz
14:13crystals.
14:15Its clarity is highly valued by the wellness community, with the belief it amplifies energy.
14:22Today, due to its stability and hardness, it is vital in the manufacturing of electronics, watches and glass.
14:30My main business now is mining large tonnages of what's generally referred to as semi-precious stone.
14:39I'm very happy to have my nephew Kyle working with me.
14:42He learns so quickly, he's really capable, and on top of that, he just loves the rocks as well, same
14:49as me.
14:50We have all our own mines.
14:52We mine it, truck it home, and then process it, sell online to the end consumer, and we also export
14:58overseas to people who make beads, jewellery, carvings, and pretty much everything in between.
15:07There's compulsory expenditure requirements laid down by the mines department on all mining tenements.
15:14This year it's $40,000.
15:16I'd really like to get a minimum of $60,000 back.
15:19I've got other mining commitments, so I've only allocated two weeks to get this hopefully $60,000 here.
15:26Do we hang onto the ground, or, you know, is there not enough here to warrant doing so, and if
15:31that's the case, yeah, we'll let the ground go.
15:34So, yeah, it's kind of make or break.
15:37Yeah, so there is quite a lot more crystal in here than I first thought.
15:43Hey, Glenn.
15:44What?
15:45Come have a look at this.
15:46I'm sort of just exposing a big cluster here.
15:49Oh, wow.
15:51Bit of a ripper.
15:52Beautiful size.
15:53I think that's a pretty impressive piece there.
15:56If it comes out in one go.
15:57There may be more.
15:58Yeah, attached to it on the inside, so, yeah, I'll just...
16:02Just be careful.
16:03Yeah.
16:06We've just got to do it so carefully.
16:08One little chink off the fragile point, and the value is just rapidly diminishing.
16:14It's still saleable, but there goes like $900.
16:23I think this might be a bit loose.
16:25Is there a bit of mirtland in there?
16:27Yeah, I just had my screwdriver in here before, and it moved.
16:30Yeah, right.
16:34Yeah, it's...
16:36Damn it.
16:37It's broken in half, straight through the middle here.
16:47Rock's coming down.
16:49Oh, it hit me in the helmet.
16:50I heard that.
16:51So I'm going to hop out, all right?
16:59Oh, Gary, I had a rock come down.
17:03Lucky I wasn't looking up.
17:04It just went smack straight in the middle of me helmet.
17:07Lucky I had that helmet on, eh?
17:08Yeah, that's what I was there for.
17:12Neil Wilkinson and his father are on the hunt for high-quality cubic fluorite
17:16in a dangerous 90-year-old tin mine flooded by recent rains.
17:21This side where the rope was, there actually is a bit of a cavity there,
17:25but I couldn't see anything.
17:27Water needs to be taken out of there.
17:28It's still a long way to go.
17:29I pulled that pump up, and you've still got another two metres.
17:34We're going to leave the generator going all night, I'd say.
17:36Hopefully, my time is running out till.
17:38The water's all gone.
17:40We've got bills due this week,
17:42so it is very disappointing that we didn't see anything,
17:44but then again, we've got a little bit more water to come out,
17:47so hopefully we can get something then.
17:50It's really important that we find something this week
17:52because those bills are quite a lot, and we need the money.
17:58Worst-case scenario, if we can't get this money up,
18:01we're going to have to probably sell up and actually get another job
18:04because I've got a family to feed,
18:05and if we don't find crystals, we'll get hungry.
18:09We need some bottles of crystals.
18:11We need a couple of blocks of it.
18:20What's the verdict?
18:21How are we lower?
18:22Oh, it's definitely dropped a fair bit.
18:24The water's dropped about three metres.
18:27We might be able to see a bit more cavities
18:28and hopefully find some more fluorite.
18:30So what we've got here is a UV torch.
18:33Fluorite actually fluoresces,
18:34so when we actually check with the torch,
18:37it actually comes up fluorescent.
18:39That's how fluorescence got its name from fluorite.
18:42Once I go down this shaft, if I use this UV light,
18:45we should be able to see some fluorite in the walls.
18:48All right, here we go.
18:55Righto, stop there for a sec.
18:57Gotcha.
18:58Hopefully we'll find some fluorite.
19:00Any luck, it'll be cubic fluorite.
19:01That's where the money is,
19:03and we need the money right now, so...
19:07Hang on.
19:09Oh, wow, that looks awesome.
19:12All of that there is all fluorite.
19:16There definitely is fluorescence down here.
19:19There is fluorescence?
19:20Oh, yeah.
19:22Tells me some good news for change.
19:24We need it.
19:27Can you get any off the wall, bring it up, show us?
19:29Yeah, I might try to put a bit in my pocket.
19:32Don't put too much in, I've got to pull you out.
19:36All right, I think that's enough.
19:37I might come up.
19:39Yeah, righto.
19:40Okay, go.
19:42You got me?
19:43Yeah, I got you.
19:44We're not coming.
19:45No.
19:50I can't, I can't.
19:51I've got muddy hands.
19:52I can't pull that rope, eh?
19:55That's not good.
19:57Yeah, we're in a bit of a dick, man.
20:01All right, I want you to pull it up when I say all right.
20:05No, yeah, I got it.
20:07Go, go, go, go, go.
20:08Go up.
20:16I'm going to take a break, I think, for a second.
20:18Yeah, righto, I got you.
20:24Easily 10 metres below me, don't drop me.
20:32I've convinced you to come across the other side of the state
20:35in search of these sapphires.
20:37I've talked it up, I've almost guaranteed it.
20:39But now it's more and more likely that this place has been worked out
20:43and we won't find any sapphires.
20:45So last week we only made about $1,200 towards our 80k target,
20:49so the pressure's on a little bit.
20:53In dense forest, Jaren and Hugh are struggling to locate
20:57an unworked section of the tiny Weld River.
21:00They can sift with sapphires.
21:01We've come to the conclusion we're not going to find an empty, clean patch of this river.
21:07Oh, it's a hole.
21:08And that's where we're going to go.
21:11We're in someone's old workings here now.
21:13Quite an old hole.
21:15This one in particular's got really great signs.
21:17We've got black spinel coming out the side of the untouched gravel.
21:20It's got the same or similar density to a sapphire,
21:23so when you're on the black spinel, it means you're pretty close to the sapphires.
21:27Right, I suppose I'll just need a crash course on sieving gemstones now, mate.
21:32Let's get you your first sieve.
21:47So once you get your full sieve, all you want to do is rotate it about a quarter of a
21:51full
21:51rotation every time, then go again, shake it to the centre.
21:56The whole idea is to get all the heavies in the middle.
21:59It is, yeah.
22:00I reckon I can do that.
22:03And when we flip these, all the heavies and all the gemstones should be pretty central together.
22:09Oh, look at that.
22:10And there we go.
22:11See, we've got a few nice black spinels.
22:15I reckon I can do that.
22:16Fill some screens and we'll fly into it.
22:17All right, mate.
22:18Put some dirt through.
22:24So this will be my first flip.
22:30I see blue.
22:32Do you really?
22:33I see blue.
22:34Beautiful, mate.
22:35Absolutely beautiful.
22:37It's only small.
22:38We've got a little light blue sapphire there.
22:40And we've got a beautiful blue sapphire just there.
22:43Here we go.
22:50Oh, it's like glass.
22:54It's only a little fella, but that is glass clear.
22:56That's beautiful.
22:58Ah, beautiful, mate.
22:59You've done well.
23:00Hopefully more to come.
23:02We're getting a little bit frustrated.
23:03We've been walking for a long way today.
23:05So to find one in the second sieve of the day is a really, really good sign.
23:14Look at that.
23:17You can't even joke about that.
23:19See that little fella?
23:22So I've just pulled the shovel up.
23:23Got a beautiful sky blue sapphire just on the end of the shovel.
23:27Starting to get the size where we're talking about serious money here.
23:31This thing's about a carrot big.
23:32When they start popping out on the end of the shovel like that, you know you're in a good spot.
23:38That's happened like twice before in me life.
23:54Bit of tin crystal and that's about it.
23:57Things have slowed down a little bit today.
23:59Things have just dried up.
24:01We don't know what to do yet.
24:05I'm not seeing any blues.
24:08We're finding lots of little ones, but maybe that's all it's got to give us.
24:13Nothing.
24:23Damn.
24:23It's going to come out in pieces.
24:27Yeah, a bit disappointing, all that work and, you know, it just comes out in a few pieces.
24:32That's annoying.
24:33In an ideal world, that was one piece.
24:36Values increase exponentially when there's a bunch of them all connected together.
24:43But these things are millions of years old and I think I'd be a bit worse for wear if I
24:48was that old as well.
24:52That's a beauty.
24:54Yeah, that's an absolute ripper actually.
24:58Oh, that's lovely.
25:00Yep.
25:01Beautiful, perfect point.
25:03Little rainbows inside.
25:06Yeah, so this is roughly how it would have gone together.
25:09Yeah, that would have been a very aesthetic.
25:11Yeah, glass two big feature crystals, but good that you'd have them positioned back together, but...
25:17Yeah, a little too late.
25:21Glen and nephew Kyle have less than two weeks left to work their mine.
25:26They'll need to change tactics fast to find the tons of quartz needed to turn a profit.
25:33Unfortunately, the pocket's getting to a point now where it's just too slow and too hard for me to work
25:38it by hand.
25:38And what's still showing in the floor is just too tough, you know, with hand tools.
25:43So, I mean, that's why we've got the excavator here to do the hard work.
25:48It's as hard as goats needs.
25:52We're trying to take the wood vomit so we can access it a bit better and hopefully get down deeper.
25:57Yeah, you can see the machine's struggling with it at the moment.
26:06Got a copy, Kyle?
26:07Yeah, go ahead.
26:09Nothing's moving on the top.
26:10So that lump is just dragging me down the hill, not to mention the wear and tear on the teeth
26:14and the bucket.
26:16I think it's about time we think about switching over to the rock breaker to try and get through this.
26:22So it's a hydraulic breaker.
26:24It's basically a sort of percussion hammer.
26:25And inside, it's got a piston that operates and hits against this pin here, which then obviously busts into the
26:32rock and breaks it up.
26:34It's good to have the brawn here to do these tough jobs.
26:44All right, let's get into it.
26:53That's how you know it's a solid rock when you can feel it running through the ground.
26:57As we do that too, I've got to be, you know, keeping an eye on, you know, whether any crystals
27:01are falling out.
27:02You just don't know.
27:03Sometimes that can be in the last place to expect.
27:08Holy s***.
27:11Whoa, whoa, whoa.
27:12Hold up.
27:12Hold up, Glenn.
27:14What?
27:16This whole thing is absolutely littered with the crystals.
27:32Nothing I can see.
27:34Yeah.
27:38I, um, I might get my pack on and go back down to that bedrock and put my head in
27:43the water for a while, haven't you, it's not?
27:44Divide and conquer, you reckon?
27:46If I'm somewhere else, at least we're covering some ground, eh?
27:52Bring back two big blows.
27:54That's it, mate.
27:58On the Weld River, Jaron and Hugh's sapphire expedition has yielded dismal results.
28:05Hugh will need to brave the frigid waters and target individual gems on the riverbed using a hand technique known
28:12as sniping.
28:15So the whole idea is to fan the gravels away by hand, but it's to quite literally just pick off
28:20any heavy stone.
28:21Dredging and mechanical means of prospecting is illegal in Tasmania, so this has been a nice little secondary option for
28:27people.
28:28So there's a few little gutters and cracks and crevices amongst these big rocks here that any of the heavier
28:33stones could fall into.
28:36So we might give it a bit of a go just here.
28:38Woo!
28:41Well, the temperature of the water's been single figures, but it's going to be cold.
28:58Having a bit of a trouble with the visibility.
29:00Sorting up water flow here.
29:03I'll shift on into some more current.
29:15It's looking a bit sad at the moment.
29:17It's quite possible that someone's already out of spade in here and taken what was half-assed.
29:37There we go.
29:39That's what we're after.
29:42I don't want to let it go now.
29:58Oh, it's slipping.
30:04Oh, keep going.
30:08Oh, yes.
30:10You're out.
30:10I made it.
30:12Oh, I tell you, it's hard on my hands.
30:14My hands are hurting that much.
30:16Yeah, my hands aren't the best either.
30:20There's a lot of fluoride down there, but it's not the cubic form that we're after.
30:26Neil and his father's mission to extract high-quality cubic fluoride from the bottom of a flooded
30:31mine is unravelling fast.
30:36We're going to have to wash these and see what sort of grade they are, because it was hard
30:40yards, a bit worrying at times.
30:42Let's see what we've got.
30:47Definitely fluoride here by the colour.
30:49You can see the colour quite clearly there, but it's low-grade.
30:54It will be worth something, being it's a really nice colour.
30:57They do use this sort of stuff for carving and that.
31:00With the torch on it, it almost looks like kryptonite, eh?
31:03It might be our kryptonite.
31:05Yes.
31:06What do you reckon, Dad?
31:07Is it worth going back down there?
31:09There's a lot in the mulloch heap here, and it's all very similar sort of stuff.
31:13What I think we should be doing is we'll collect up as much as we can in this mulloch heap.
31:19If we get bulk, we might be able to get some decent money for it.
31:30So what we're going to do is we're going to reverse that buggy up.
31:33We've got the piles of fluoride, we're going to just pack it into the back of that buggy
31:36as much as we can.
31:46Oh, look at the colour come up in there.
31:50Look at that.
31:51Oh, it's come up beautiful.
31:53I reckon there'll be a few good pieces in here.
31:57So I'm taking these photos for a fellow down in Melbourne.
32:01His name's Tom Capitani.
32:03He actually owns Crystal World down in Melbourne, so Tom can actually sell and buy in bulk.
32:10We've got about two and a half grand worth of bills coming out this week.
32:15Yeah, we've got 160 kilos here.
32:17And if we get $20 a kilo, that's $3,200.
32:21That's what we're after.
32:25G'day, Neil.
32:26How are you doing?
32:26Did you get my photos, Tom?
32:28I did, thank you.
32:29Yeah, look, it's interesting stuff.
32:30It's nice to see some Australian fluoride for once.
32:33So, yeah, what are you asking for?
32:35We're after about $20 a kilo.
32:37We've got about 160 kilos here.
32:41The bigger problem with it is that it's sort of a bit of a mixed grade of stuff.
32:48Realistically, for me, it's about $10 a kilo, probably max I'd pay for the lot.
32:52$10 a kilo, eh?
32:54Yeah.
32:55That's half of what we want.
32:56That's pretty low.
32:59What if we pick out some of the higher grade sort of stuff?
33:03We'll take out about 10 kilos and we'll give you 150 kilos of the lower sort of grade.
33:11Yeah, I could do that for you.
33:13150 kilos and done.
33:14All right, cheers for that, Tom.
33:16Bye, bud.
33:18Well, that's $1,500.
33:20That was a really good call, keeping hold of that, because, you know, I reckon we could
33:24sell that at the side of the road.
33:25I reckon we'd get about $500.
33:27That's too green.
33:28That's better than poking an eye with a sharp stick, isn't it?
33:30Good job.
33:31Head down, keep going.
33:33Yeah, let's get into it.
33:35I'm happy.
33:37Absolutely grateful that Dad gave us a hand today.
33:39That's what family's all about, isn't it?
33:41Helping each other.
33:42There's plenty of crystals around the place in North Queensland.
33:45We're pretty confident we're going to be finding some good stuff coming up.
33:48And so we've just got to work hard.
33:50We'll make it.
34:15It's going up here this time.
34:16There you go.
34:18How's that?
34:19That's a nice stone.
34:20I'm happy with that.
34:23That's fair and bloody testing.
34:27How are you, brother?
34:28Yeah, not too bad, mate.
34:31I've got a stone for you.
34:33Ah, beautiful, mate.
34:35A little cutie.
34:37Done well.
34:39A bit more success in this spot, mate.
34:40I've found a few nice little fellas.
34:42Nice work.
34:43We'll get you in this hole and we'll finish her right off.
34:45Absolutely.
34:46I don't mind getting on the screens.
34:50Jaren and Hugh are desperate for more gem-grade sapphires
34:53after a poor start to their season.
35:02Ho-ho!
35:03Hey, Hugh!
35:04Hey!
35:04Come and check him out, mate.
35:06Oh, look at that.
35:08What a little pearler.
35:10That's about a four or five carat stone, that one there.
35:13Oh, now I'm excited.
35:15Oh!
35:16Oh, no way.
35:17Have a look here.
35:18This is what I was telling you about, mate.
35:19These are the pink sapphires.
35:21Pink.
35:22What a beauty.
35:23That is super nice.
35:24Just found two beautiful stones at once.
35:26One's not a cunner, but a beautiful pink sapphire
35:28that the World River typically holds.
35:30This beautiful clear sky blue
35:32is going to be a beautiful cut stone once it's finished.
35:36Onto it now.
35:38This is the spot, old boy.
35:47Ho-ho-ho-ho!
35:49Oh, mate.
35:55Look at this thing, mate.
35:57Be careful with it.
35:59Oh, look at that.
36:02Look at the blue.
36:07This is a beautiful, great big sapphire.
36:09This is probably the largest one I've ever found.
36:11But that could be real, real money, that one there, mate.
36:14Look at the blue.
36:15I tell you what, mate, what an absolute pearler of a day.
36:18That's, that's something special, that is.
36:26I've got a great friend, uh, not too far from here.
36:29He facets a lot of sapphires.
36:31So we've got a larger stone here, looking like it's about seven, eight carats.
36:34So we're going to see what he thinks of it,
36:35and maybe he can, uh, cut a beautiful stone out of it for us.
36:40Javier.
36:40Oh, hello.
36:41How are you?
36:41Yeah, good, thanks, mate.
36:42How are you doing?
36:43Good.
36:43I hear you have something for me as well.
36:45This one in particular.
36:45What do you think of this one here?
36:47Let me see.
36:48Oh, wow.
36:49I can see already.
36:50It's a very clear gemstone.
36:54Argentinian-born Javier Avashineda specialises in gem cutting for bespoke jewellery designs.
37:03You did really, really well in this one.
37:05I'm so happy.
37:06Nice.
37:07Yes.
37:07So, yes, give me a couple of days, and I'll let you know how I go.
37:11Ah, perfect.
37:12We'll leave it in your capable hands, mate.
37:26How are we here?
37:27Hey, guys, how are you?
37:28Good to see you again, mate.
37:29Good to see you too.
37:29How are we?
37:30How you been?
37:30All right?
37:31Yeah, not too bad.
37:32A few sleepless nights, but, uh, lay it on us.
37:35How'd you go?
37:36Here we are.
37:37I finished with 3.5 carats.
37:39Oh, beautiful, mate.
37:42Absolutely beautiful.
37:43Look at that.
37:44There's a lot of facet on it, 160 facets.
37:49Well, I never doubted you, mate.
37:50You've done an absolutely beautiful job on that one.
37:52In terms of value, what do you think this thing would be worth?
37:56Well, stone like this size and how it's rare, a total of $10,500.
38:02Oh, jeez.
38:03Oh, hello.
38:04That's what we want to hear.
38:06Thank you very much, mate.
38:06Thank you.
38:07Appreciate your time.
38:07You're doing well.
38:08See you next time.
38:08See you soon.
38:09See ya.
38:10Calling in to see Javier today.
38:12Just capped off an amazing week.
38:14Mate.
38:14That is an absolute cracker.
38:16Look at that.
38:19But.
38:19That's not all, is it?
38:20What about all those other rough ones?
38:22We've got $10,500 in that one, mate.
38:24It's looking like we've got about a $25,000 payday for the week.
38:27Oh, nice work.
38:31I tell you what, that's kicked the total in the balls for a bit, hasn't it?
38:36It's a massive chunk towards our $80,000 target.
38:38It's took a hell of a bite out of it and it's took the pressure off a lot.
38:41Get on the road, eh?
38:42Sounds good, mate.
38:43Done well.
38:55What have you seen?
38:57Yeah, this whole side's absolutely littered with crystal.
39:01You can see here, it's absolutely full of them.
39:05Oh, incredible.
39:07And it's even attached to this side as well.
39:09Holy ****.
39:12That's amazing.
39:13Oh, that's fantastic, Kyle.
39:14That makes it all worthwhile.
39:16Yeah, and that coating is just, yeah, it's super unusual.
39:19That is absolutely gorgeous.
39:21See that?
39:22It's a beautiful red iron oxide coating.
39:26On a clear quartz mining expedition already costing $40,000,
39:32Glenn and nephew Kyle have unearthed a massive pocket of the crystals,
39:36displaying a myriad of surface colourisation.
39:39The degrees of mineralisation is obviously a bit variable through the rock.
39:44So the ones on this side, they're sort of a deep burgundy colour.
39:48So it's still an iron oxide coating, but not as heavy as the black ones.
39:54If we pop this in a bit of light acid, all the crystals would be water clear.
39:59But I think there's a lot of collectors out there that would love them the way they are,
40:03completely natural with this black iron coating on them.
40:07I reckon we would gently just flip that over onto its back.
40:11Hand collect anything that falls out, and then we can deal with the big pieces later.
40:15Yeah.
40:25Oh, look at that.
40:26It's absolutely full underneath.
40:29Absolutely thousands of them.
40:31These are just an example of some of the smaller pieces
40:34that actually broke off that large boulder.
40:37We've done well to obviously find it,
40:39but I think our biggest task is going to be,
40:41how do we extract these pockets and preserve them intact?
40:45We've got some slings.
40:47They're better than chains.
40:48Chains can damage crystals,
40:50whereas a fabric sling is much more gentle on the rocks.
41:22I guess that's where it's staying.
41:25Yeah, it wasn't the most graceful,
41:27but it landed okay,
41:29and it's exactly what we needed.
41:38Well, Carl, now we've got all this stuff down the hill,
41:41how about having a guess on value, eh?
41:44Oh, God.
41:46Yeah, I don't know.
41:47I'm sort of looking at what we've got here on the table.
41:49We've got nice clusters and, you know, the pocket pieces
41:51and all these single points in the bag
41:54and, you know, the rest of the clusters,
41:55you know, and $100 a kilo.
41:57You know, I think we've definitely got over the, you know,
42:00200 kilos worth of material here.
42:02I'm kind of guessing maybe around 15,000.
42:05Ooh.
42:06Maybe for these bigger ones,
42:08maybe for the three, something around 5,000.
42:15Hmm.
42:16I kind of tend to disagree.
42:18You know, I think...
42:19I think there's actually a lot more weight than you imagine,
42:24but on top of that, things like these clusters,
42:27you know, as an example,
42:29there's probably only, like, half a kilo.
42:31It's the most gorgeous thing
42:33that could be worth, like, 500...
42:35Yeah.
42:36..bucks, you know,
42:37so you're talking 1,000 a kilo in that instance.
42:39So, like, there's got to be 30 grand for sure.
42:44Whatever.
42:45Yeah.
42:46If I flew in at an international buyer to stand here
42:49and say, would you like this for 30 grand,
42:51I'm pretty sure they'd say, yeah, we'll take the lot.
42:52Yeah, it's a perfect look.
42:54Would you put that in your cabinet?
42:55Yeah, I definitely would have been eyeing off the whole time.
42:57We'll be fighting over that one.
42:59I'm going to keep that one.
43:00All right, fair enough.
43:05Yeah, I'm stoked.
43:06For the first week, that's, yeah,
43:07absolute crack of a start.
43:09$40,000 is what we have to spend here as an obligation,
43:13so to sort of be getting close to that already on our first week,
43:16it's, yeah, it's made me really hopeful
43:18that we can go home and potentially make a profit here.
43:21There's going to be many, many hours of wrapping
43:24and packing the specimens that we've found so far,
43:27getting them ready for transportation back to Perth.
43:29We've got a lot ahead of us.
43:31The job's not over, but that's all part of the game.
43:34Yeah, can't wait for the coming week,
43:36what we might turn up.
43:41We'll be right back.
43:44We'll be right back.
44:07Gracias por ver el video.
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