- 7 hours ago
Outback Crystal Hunters - Season 2 - Episode 08: From The Pinnacle To The Pit
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00:08Hold on it.
00:16That looks really good.
00:18Looks like there's a bit of a cavity behind that boulder there.
00:22What I'd like you to do is just rock break out this little ledge.
00:34No, no, stop, stop.
00:45Wow, holy.
00:48That is amazing.
01:15Huge big plate of amethyst up here.
01:17I wasn't expecting it to be quite that big.
01:19But yeah, this is absolutely incredible.
01:22This is what we need.
01:24Wow.
01:26Have a look at this.
01:27Feel something good?
01:28Come up here.
01:30Oh, wait.
01:32Check it out.
01:33That's unreal.
01:34Is that a whole big cluster?
01:35Yeah.
01:36It's huge.
01:39The ancient Pilbara, searing under brutal 45-degree summer temperatures.
01:47Patrick Gunderson and his team have just days left to mine before the extreme heat shuts down all work.
01:56Now comes the challenge of how to get it out.
01:58Yeah.
01:59How are you going to get it out?
02:00I was just thinking before, probably going to have to get forward to rock break, some of this out, build
02:04a bit of a platform here.
02:06Yeah.
02:06And then, yeah, we'll rock break left and right of it.
02:09Be hard getting it out in one piece as well.
02:11Well, all we can do is try.
02:13Need a win.
02:14Need a win, a big win.
02:19Amethyst is a purple variant of quartz, its striking hue caused by traces of irradiated iron.
02:26For centuries, it was seen as one of the five cardinal gemstones considered precious above all else.
02:34Today, amethyst is valued as specimen pieces and for use in jewellery.
02:39Good luck, Paul.
02:41We'll know you don't.
02:41Don't break it.
02:45Really struggling to find anything sort of consistent here.
02:49Like, we get little pockets and then it sort of stops, goes to nothing.
02:53Last season at this very mine, Patrick and the team found the world's largest amethyst cluster,
03:00a 21-ton behemoth that potentially exhausted the mine of the purple crystal.
03:09We're into our last week here and I'm reflecting on this massive target that I've set for myself
03:15and sort of realising that maybe I was a bit over-ambitious with it.
03:19I'm not sure if we'll reach it.
03:21Pat's set a target really high this year just because we really want to buy a new property to expand
03:26our business.
03:26We're sort of running out of space that the house we're in now.
03:29It is getting so much harder to get into this ground.
03:32We're not finding as many crystals as previous years.
03:34Because the ideal scenario now is either we open up a really big pocket zone
03:39that just produces a lot of high-quality pieces
03:42or we somehow miraculously open up another cave system.
03:46So everyone's going to give it their best shot.
03:52We've decided that the only way we're going to get this cluster out
03:55is by building a bit of a fence below it
03:58and then we're going to rock break either side of it
04:00and just hope that we can get it to, in a controlled fashion, fall on this bench.
04:05We can't get it out by hand just because it's locked in solid quartz.
04:09But with that comes the risk that this whole thing could crumble apart at any second.
04:16Yeah, pretty nervous here.
04:21A cluster of this size could be worth sort of over ten grand easily in one piece.
04:27If it all falls apart, then it's pretty much worthless.
04:40Well, that's actually a nice piece down there, Pat.
04:43I'll run down and grab it.
04:55We're trying to get this big amethyst plate out
04:57but you've also got to keep your eyes peeled
04:59because this beauty accidentally got knocked out and rolled down
05:02so we're collecting these two and that's a beautiful plate.
05:07So we're going to spend the next little bit of time here
05:09just working really slowly around it
05:12trying to expose it so we can get it out.
05:14What?!
05:14Oh, Simon!
05:15No, no, no, no, no, no!
05:18Ah!
05:19Ah!
05:38What has that happened?
05:41She's mad.
05:41She was rough up in here.
05:46That's a bit of an issue.
05:47What's the attic like?
05:48Ah, .
05:51Oh, that's not good, mate.
05:55Ah, what we've got is a tree standing at the entrance there.
05:59The wind's blown it over and tore a big root ball up.
06:02So now we've got a pile of dirt at the front,
06:04so it's built a dam and made a lake in the entrance.
06:11Hey, Hugh, you better come check this out, mate.
06:14Oh, man, this ain't good.
06:16This is chock-a-block full of water.
06:18What?
06:19The genie's in it and everything.
06:22A day just went from ordinary to absolute house.
06:29Beneath the primal forests of West Tasmania,
06:32heavy rainfall has flooded the Platte,
06:35a world-renowned crystal mine.
06:45That is not ideal.
06:48We've stashed the generator just inside the attic
06:50and we weren't really expecting this type of weather
06:53over the last few weeks and, yeah,
06:56our little barra's full of water and flooded out the generator,
06:58so we could put it right from the start.
07:02Should have put it in the shed, eh?
07:04We'll learn our lesson.
07:06We might get lucky.
07:15I didn't expect that, mate.
07:17I didn't expect it to go.
07:20Now the big test.
07:23The engine will run, but the generator makes power.
07:29Yeah, we're going to plug the power into it now
07:31and if we get a load from it...
07:33Oh, are you serious?
07:36That was very, very lucky, yeah.
07:39How is that possible?
07:40It was half full of water.
07:42How does that work?
07:44But it's loaded up, it's making power.
07:47Lead the way.
07:48Lead the way.
07:53So this area in particular is an area of the mine
07:56that made the whole place famous worldwide.
07:58It's an area we like to call Bear's Pocket.
08:01An elf-filler named Bear Parker
08:03found a beautiful, big, lustrous pyromorphite
08:05and croquite pocket here.
08:06Probably the best the world's ever seen.
08:08So we're hoping there's a little bit left here.
08:10I reckon just above us here.
08:12You can see all the green sparkles up there.
08:14That's what we're after.
08:19These are the type of multi-species specimens
08:21that we need for the shop to sell to the collectors.
08:24So this is what the people are after,
08:25something different, something unique.
08:30Croquite and pyromorphite are both lead-based minerals,
08:33with croquite consisting of chromate
08:35and pyromorphite containing chlorophosphate.
08:40Finding a specimen with both crystals is extremely rare.
08:47So what do you reckon?
08:48We're going to need some timbers up there
08:49to sort of build a bit of a working platform?
08:51Yeah, yeah, so we'll get a bit of tallowood there
08:53and put a couple of stulls in
08:56and a couple of planks on it.
09:05I reckon that'll do it, mate.
09:07That's plenty.
09:08That's given us plenty.
09:09If we can't make something up out of that,
09:11we've got problems.
09:18Yep, good to come up now, Hugh.
09:20Straight up that ladder.
09:21This is up that bucket there
09:22if you've got a spare hand, mate.
09:25Righto.
09:25Send him up.
09:31Ooh, look at that.
09:33Righto.
09:34A few wedges, Hugh.
09:35Can I get a thick wedge, please?
09:37Yep.
09:40So the wedges drive it in tight
09:42so it'll wedge in really tight.
09:45That one there I've just put in
09:46as it will fill a gap.
09:47Now I'll get some skinny ones onto it
09:49and we'll really put some pressure on it.
09:56Oh, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.
09:58Right there, Hugh.
10:00That all just exposed cracks everywhere.
10:02Yep, all that.
10:06You can find us.
10:25So what do you reckon, Dad?
10:27We've got the wet season coming up
10:29and we won't be able to get much digging
10:31while it's wet.
10:33This week is pretty much our last week
10:35of actually trying to get some rocks.
10:38I'd really like to get a lease for the next season.
10:41A lease would be, what, around two and a half grand?
10:43Yeah, about that, yeah.
10:44So what do you think we do to actually
10:46come up with that sort of money?
10:48Well, we're in the right spot here for getting Topaz
10:51so we've done alright getting Topaz here before.
10:53The Topaz Mountain there.
10:55Yeah.
10:55Let's go for it.
10:56Righto.
10:57Might be able to buy a new pair of thongs.
10:58Thanks.
11:04So I want to get a lease because at the moment
11:06we're just digging with hand tools
11:08up at that crystal mountain.
11:09If we get a lease, that allows us to get
11:10actually machinery up there
11:12and we can actually dig that mountain a lot easier
11:13and hopefully get a lot more crystals.
11:16Our only income at the moment
11:18is actually finding crystals,
11:20selling them and paying for the bills that way.
11:22It is a big pressure
11:24because I've got a family to feed
11:25and if we don't find crystals, we go hungry.
11:39All right, filter still here.
11:41That's where we found that Topaz before.
11:44Yeah, give another bash.
11:45There's some big rocks here.
11:51Needing a source of fluorine to form, Topaz crystallizes under intense heat and pressure within the earth's crust.
11:59From ancient Rome to the modern day, the crystal is prized for its hardness and clarity, making it one of
12:06the world's most popular gemstones for jewelry.
12:10This here, this hole here, is where we found the big Topaz from the last time we were here.
12:15So what the plan is, we're going to actually dig in this vicinity to actually see if there's any more.
12:18There might be another pocket close by it.
12:21You can just go through that just to test sieve, just see if we've got anything coming up.
12:27If we find another one in this next sieve, it's a good sign for us
12:32because then we know we're definitely on to them.
12:37If we don't, we might have to try a different direction maybe.
12:47Nothing decent, Neil.
12:48Oh, okay.
12:50I'll see what you come up with that just to make sure.
12:52All right.
13:01Not looking real promising, Neil.
13:03No, nothing in it?
13:04Nothing like last time.
13:06Last time we were finding stuff pretty much every sieve.
13:08We were getting good stuff, but this time, it's very, very scarce.
13:18You're going to get in the clay, aren't you?
13:20Find the clay.
13:23Maybe I need to go down deeper.
13:25I reckon so.
13:34So that's looking better soil.
13:35That's what we're after.
13:37The clay stuff?
13:38Yeah, but what worries me is there's absolutely no quartz in it.
13:41It's the right sort of clay, but it's just there's nothing in it.
13:54Got two separate ones.
13:56Paul just went to rock break above it,
13:58and unfortunately, half the cluster has fallen off.
14:01More than half.
14:03Well, more than half.
14:05What a shame.
14:06Really disappointing.
14:07Look, there was really nothing holding it.
14:09It's got no base rock to it anyway.
14:12Yeah, a real shame.
14:14But, you know, we've still got a few pieces that we can recover.
14:18That's the nature of nature.
14:23What we might do, Paul, is rock break this top of this lip off.
14:29Like, go back about a metre.
14:31All right.
14:31I'll do me best, mister.
14:33Before we start rock breaking behind this ledge, I'm going to try and recover what I can from this.
14:37We're just working in a really awkward spot here, so I'm going to peel away the top of it.
14:58I've managed to save one piece.
15:00That's a nice piece, though.
15:05Patrick's hopes for a valuable amethyst cluster are in pieces.
15:09For any chance of success to reach season target, the team must now face the pinnacle, an almost impenetrable dolomite
15:19monolith.
15:28We're about to start rock breaking around the pinnacle.
15:31The pinnacle's been an incredible source of pocket zones for the last few years, but it's getting progressively harder and
15:39harder to locate new pockets.
15:42So we're really hoping that this rock breaker can open up a new zone.
15:50As Patrick attempts to expose crystals inside the pinnacle, Kirstie and the team are working a softer clay zone, hunting
15:58for individual specimens.
16:01So when working these clay zones, what you really want to do is sort of work wider, especially when there's
16:07a bigger crystal in the centre.
16:09So I'm just using a hammer and a screwdriver just to work through that clay.
16:14It's a little bit slow going, but at least we're not going to damage the crystal in the process.
16:31Pat!
16:32Yeah?
16:34Oi!
16:36Holy!
16:36Big deep deep.
16:38Yeah?
16:39Oh!
16:40Oh!
16:40Anthony!
16:41Oh!
16:42That's nice!
16:43Oh my God!
16:45Oh!
16:46I think that's my best point.
16:47Oh!
16:48Oh wow!
16:50Oh!
16:52That's just amazing!
16:53Look at that!
16:54Oh wow!
16:59This is pretty amazing!
17:01This is what we're after!
17:02Nice decent size and amazing colour.
17:05Perfect condition!
17:07Looks like they're in just good stuff so I'm relieved to see they're finding something.
17:16it's breaking apart
17:20i wasn't expecting this to happen but it looks like that hard jollamite pinnacle is actually
17:24starting to break apart i can see big cracks through it so um this might actually work we
17:30might get into some um some good zones here nice work paul there's a big opening down
17:49here you can't see any crystals yet but um it's a big cavity let the treasure hunt begin
18:02you see that's only soft play up under that there
18:06we've got a 10 meter exposed hanging wall here and anything can fall off it and as we started
18:10putting the stalls in it started to sort of break around it so we've just had to reassess look i
18:16might just keep chipping away out there and bury it in the wall probably just going to take longer
18:20than what we planned deep underground jaron and hugh are attempting to construct a platform
18:26to access a rare croquite and pyromorphite deposit four meters above them so that's a lot nicer ground
18:35isn't it that's looking much better now we've hit some hard hanging wall we've got through the
18:40the weathered clays and we've hit some nice solid ground and our stalls will be able to be supported
18:45in that stay tight and keep us on our platform now we've got a good solid uh solid piece of
18:50hanging wall there now so good call
18:56that is beautiful lovely job mate pass him up and i'll pass him back down after a pre-fit
19:10no pre-fit required can you pass me the boards up please
19:19they're a bit wet how's you feel mate
19:29yep we're on it
19:31give us a point you will it mate beautiful
19:41so we're just uh putting the final touches on our platform up there above us at the moment
19:46uh hugh's just going to screw the planks in now we're going to run a bit of ventilation in there
19:51you can soon get yourself caught in a bit of bad air especially in these little pockets up above
19:56where there's no actual flow so we sort of have to create that artificially with these ventilation
20:06pipes
20:07so it's not the easiest spot to work but you know it all starts somewhere it starts smaller
20:12than you open it up
20:30just inspecting my hughes dropping to the floor on us and i'm just coming across little five to ten mil
20:35slender crow kites with tiny little two to three mil pyromorphites in there it's a long way to go
20:40before it's a specimen but it's a good sign that he's heading in the right direction
20:56oh
20:57they're all up through here we've got the green pyromorphite and if the voids open up a little
21:01bit you'll get your crow kite noodles laying on it and that's what we're after if we break any of
21:05this stuff it's worth nothing so now we're going to undermine it slightly and then it's just gently
21:09gently go forward ever so slowly and hopefully get some specimens out right on mate all good are we
21:16yeah give us another two minutes of vent and then come up
21:32what the f*** man this is bad see this big crack i don't even want to f*** with that
21:47here's the fine topaz and neil's really struggling at the moment you know stressing a bit too by looking
21:53up well it's really hard to believe that we're not coming across anything when last time we were here
22:00we found really big topaz here and a lot of it but we're not finding anything
22:06but we've got to keep going because um we don't really have a choice to stop this is the hard
22:13times you know um it's hard to keep motivated because when you're not finding nothing it's
22:17it's really overwhelming sometimes in the final days of their season the wilkinsons have returned
22:25to topaz mountain desperate to find another two and a half thousand dollars worth of the crystal
22:31to buy a mining lease and set up next season might have to go the other way i think get
22:37over this
22:38way so what i'm concerned about i want to actually go this way into this wall here um but these
22:44big
22:44rocks up here these are going to be a worry because if i start digging underneath them they're going to
22:48start coming down i reckon if we drop them in the hole and then i'll get a sledgehammer and break
22:52them up so i can get them out of the hole the old tom used to come up here crowbar
23:00like we're doing
23:01here the old tom has done it like this so why can't we although they did die earlier too didn't
23:07they
23:10it is a big thing when we don't find nothing eh it sort of gets daunting that you need to
23:15pay the bills
23:15isn't it so yeah we've been here for two days digging this big hole here if we don't find anything
23:21today
23:22we're gonna probably um have to sort something else out to get the money for that lease next season
23:32oh whoa whoa that's not good i'm gonna have to move that rock eh oh it doesn't look like it's
23:39going
23:40anywhere eh i think it's all right i reckon what we'll do is we'll just get this rock out here
23:45and then we'll might get that out of the way just so it's a bit safer okay all right
24:04there's crystals on the floor so there should be crystals they've fallen from the ceiling down yeah
24:09right down the bottom yeah that goes down about as far as i can see uh looks like it's about
24:14two
24:14meters from the entrance here so that's a big cavity now it's just time to start finding some
24:20crystals it's going to be epic i think after finally breaking into the dolomite pinnacle patrick and
24:27luke have discovered a new crystal bearing cavity that could bring their season home i can feel stuff
24:34down here i was just trying to reach it there's a few loose pieces a little something coming out now
24:43oh wow
24:46just pulled out this beautiful little smoky quartz cluster a lot of these ones that come out of here
24:52don't have a lot of dirt on them because they've been actually hanging upside down on the ceiling of the
24:55cavity so they're almost completely clean this pinnacle's been such a source of incredible
25:02specimens and hopefully this is the sign of what's to come oh i can feel something a bit bigger here
25:09really yeah oh yeah this is gonna be good i think
25:17whoa yes that's what it's about yeah look at that that's amazing pieces like this is really what we're
25:26hoping to find here just the quality and formation of this piece just makes it really unique that's amazing this
25:33is a world-class
25:35museum grade specimen absolutely nice one
25:41a nice little cluster oh that's a beauty mate yeah
25:51we're done really well i honestly can't reach any further in there but yeah stoked to have some
25:57really nice high quality clusters definitely get the truck down here loaded up rightio give them a clean
26:04and see what we got see what we got we found some incredible pieces the smoky cave has just been
26:13amazing um some absolutely stunning clusters have come out of it so let's pack up time yeah let's see
26:19what we got yeah we've done pretty well today yeah we're starting another row here somewhere oh yeah
26:33so right now we're just grading the crystals into piles or sections
26:36of points and sections of clusters just to get a better visual of what we have
26:45i've got um two clusters here that have a secondary coating of white calcite the only way to get them
26:52clean is to give them a bit of a soak what i'm using is a super diluted solution of water
27:03with a tiny
27:03bit of hydrochloric acid in it which is essentially pool acid and what that'll do is it'll dissolve away
27:09the calcite but it won't touch the quartz so yeah we'll uh see what's hiding underneath this crusty coating
27:17first one you can already see it fizzing away there
27:25so we'll give this about an hour or so hopefully that will come off and
27:28left behind will be just absolutely beautiful smoky quartz
27:41oh it hasn't moved not while i've been in there jack pecking away nothing's come off
27:45see this big crack i don't even want to with that yeah well don't we're not with it yeah zero
27:51intention
27:51of doing anything with that apart from going past it it's just starting to fault through here and um
27:57it's going to dry over time and like with a bit of vibes and things like that it's going to
28:01free up one
28:01day just uh it could be a hundred years time could be tomorrow
28:07dangerous cracks in the wall are forcing jaron and hugh to reassess their plan for mining rare croquite
28:14and pyromorphite to stock their fledgling mineral store jaron's a little bit concerned
28:20about some of the cracks in the hanging wall there our intentions are not to bugger around with the
28:25hanging wall we're just going to advance along it and expose the structure that we need to
28:30and it's just a matter of keeping an eye on things if you see a wedge starting to bend or
28:34bow then
28:35there's pressure on it you just stop get out
28:47just so you're aware man this whole thing vibes when you touch that okay
28:52if it's just along a big fold here as hugh taps into the hanging wall just down below
28:56i can feel the vibrations in this rock so i'm just going to keep an eye on it as
29:00hugh sort of works in there and make sure it isn't doing any moving for now
29:17that there that's what i want
29:21what's that
29:25oh chrome seracite
29:29that is
29:32okay we're having a bit of a moment here look at those things we've got a beautiful yellow chrome
29:40seracite here that is the stuff that is we were not expecting that
29:46chrome seracite is the local term for the yellow crystal form of lead carbonate
29:51a specimen displaying seracite croquite and pyromorphite is incredibly rare
29:58i think it's the only place on earth where this actually happens
30:01all three in one we're pretty excited about that we were not expecting chrome seracite to come out as
30:06well they have all these minerals together it's just a just a witch's cauldron of goodness
30:18so we're going to come around behind this lump here now see if we can get it all out in
30:22one go
30:25oh mate mate mate mate mate you should see what's in the floor man yeah
30:32we've actually just encountered a little spot that has the beautiful green
30:37pyromorphite with croquite so we might be able to get a few nice specimens here
30:43oh yeah that's a beauty mate beautiful mate absolutely beautiful
30:51look at that check him out mate that's what we're after carrots and broccoli
30:57oh the contrast of the uh beautiful green and the bright red orange it doesn't get seen anywhere
31:03else it's so unique to the plat this is why we got the place this is why we came here
31:08this is exactly
31:09why we came here
31:09oh she's still coming mate still coming oh wow yeah that's uh that's a good one size isn't
31:20necessarily what we're after here it's aesthetics and perfection and that's what the mineral collectors
31:25are after too so it may only be two to four centimeters big but as long as we attain that
31:29perfection that's what people are after really good way to finish the week it'll be good to get in town
31:34and prep all these up and get them all safe ready for sale
31:38got him mate beautiful
31:47look at that yeah this one's cleaning up really nice exceptional quality we didn't find many like
31:55this on this dig but um a few really nice ones so yeah stoked to to have these in the
32:01final week of
32:02their season patrick and his team have discovered a massive haul of amethyst and smoky quartz the
32:09crystals are the team's last chance to hit their 750 000 target look at those
32:15shoes wow yeah wow check that out the color yeah i couldn't resist cleaning up a few favorites just
32:22to see how they'd clean up wow they're stunning i've also been soaking these other big clusters you
32:27know the ones that were covered in that white calcite yeah yeah yeah this is them without all that white
32:32coating oh mate look at that look at that incredible yeah that's a statement piece for sure yeah the
32:40quality and then i've got this other amethyst one which is i think gonna turn out really good
32:48oh wow look at that color in that that's incredible so pretty yeah well done stoked
32:55no i've done well yeah done really well actually in terms of value what are you thinking yeah well
33:04i reckon
33:08i reckon we've got like 250 grand here no way really yeah i'm really really really happy um you
33:17know it's a little bit short of the target i set for myself this year but i think that was
33:21a bit
33:21ambitious you know we didn't find as much as previous years but i'm so sure there's you know
33:26incredible amount of crystals still hidden down there that will probably always remain there and i'm just
33:30so grateful for those that do come to light you know i feel like it's a gift from the earth
33:35to be
33:35able to pass on to people a real precious yeah bloody oath mate well done
33:43thanks great effort
33:48let's go have a beer
33:58that's the last try of them nice i think what we focus on now mate is uh rinsing up these
34:03ready prep sort of specimens uh we'll get them stabilized and we'll put them into boxes
34:10at the end of their season jaron and hu must carefully prepare the fragile crystal specimens
34:16for sale in their new mineral shop so what we're doing is we're stabilizing the the matrix of the
34:21specimen a lot of these specimens when they dry out they'll just go to dust so we've got to hold
34:26it
34:26together essentially with glue it stays completely transparent you wouldn't even know and the
34:31specimen will last for generations
34:36it's quite a risky but necessary procedure we're risking breaking them every time we handle them
34:40so we need to get them strong and sturdy for our sale
34:50yeah the dream's starting to really come together now we've got our shop up and running we've got our
34:54workshop in process and uh yeah we've just got to put it all together now and hope for the best
35:01how you going with it mate yeah not too bad mate it's starting to come together in here
35:05ah good job pour all these in we'll um have a bit of a look at some of these some
35:09of these little
35:09easter eggs here good to see what we've uh actually got with thousands invested in their new shop
35:16jaron and hu now need to value their haul using a digital microscope
35:21so this little fella on there he keeps sparkling at me oh look at that oh that's beautiful perfection
35:29in a picture look at that nice little terminated crystals green little forest behind it that's
35:36what we're here for what about that big uh three species one where's that one here i'm not sure how
35:41we're going to go with this one oh look at that though mate there's so much going on in this
35:52rock i think i think we're on a winner there that is beautiful absolutely stunning the time we supply
36:01some photos with the specimens for all the buyers they can go away with a with their mineral and a
36:05picture that's exactly right we'll be targeting the targeting the micromounters with these sort of
36:10specimens mate but i think they're going to be pretty happy so what do you reckon we got here value
36:14wise
36:14buddy well between that and what's drawing at the moment it's a little bit tricky to say but i think
36:23we're looking at about three and a half thousand dollars for the week mate oh nice i'm happy with
36:27that three and a half grand there's nothing to sneeze at no mate we didn't reach our season target
36:31but i don't think we've done too bad have we no i'm pretty happy with that mate i mean we
36:35might not
36:35have got as much value in minerals but we've got this place organized we've got a workshop we've got
36:39a shop front that we can deal and wheel and talk to people so i think that's been the biggest
36:43achievement out of everything now we've had a good year mate and i think there's another good one ahead of
36:47us
36:47oh absolutely we'll fly into it good year top effort
37:01you're right
37:07that's um lucky eh that was scary i didn't think that rock would actually move but obviously a bit of
37:15vibration and it actually come down it's a huge rock it would have definitely crushed my legs definitely
37:22all right well we've got to keep going after all that i'm gonna have to clean it out make sure
37:28we're
37:29safer this time because that was too close close for comfort got to come up with something we've got to
37:35keep digging at season end neil has been forced to take dangerous shortcuts attempting to extract
37:45enough topaz to buy a mine lease to survive the year ahead it's looking a lot better huh yeah it's
37:51looking a lot better we're actually down in that orangey sort of clay stuff so that's looking really
37:56good i like that it might be a nice um soft spot here i can dig so it's gotta be
38:04our day today we put
38:06too much everything to come up with nothing hey dad look at that that's that's smoky courts that's what
38:15we're after that's a nice smoky courts hey so we're on the right area here yeah i'm starting to get
38:22excited here oh yeah you don't mind grabbing me a sieve i'll get you a bit of dirt fill me
38:27up a bit
38:28of a hole there which is bloody awesome i can see little bits of smoky course here it's it's looking
38:34really good about time we might be coming on to something oh what do you got we're on them yes
38:45that's what we've been working for we need topaz bloody brilliant look at that hey another one
38:50it's definitely a pocket then hey if we're getting topaz like that it's definitely a good pocket yeah
38:54we're in a pocket i just put that thing there it popped out of the wall check that out oh
39:06look at
39:07that it's not too clear but geez look at the blue in there oh that's blue as there's gotta be
39:11more in
39:11there oh yes you're kidding look at that that is blue that is big that's awesome oh payday payday we're
39:22onto them i'll tell you what i'm sticking that splat jammer for all that time and we come across
39:28this stuff makes it all worthwhile yeah at the end of the day yeah look at that yes that's awesome
39:41yeah
39:44beauty
39:48well that was a great day let's give these a wash and actually see what we come up with
39:53oh look at them every time i just can't believe it
39:58that's just a quick wash some water in there
40:05look at that man that come out of that pocket
40:09when you're selling them you have to have those three c's yeah it's the the carrots color and the
40:14clarity normally we go from you know a dollar to four dollars a carrot depends on if you have those
40:19three c's
40:20see this one here it's got the size it's got the clarity in it i just don't see the color
40:25in this
40:26i would say more the two dollars per carat what do you say we weigh i'm gonna actually see what
40:30we come
40:32up with
40:33look at that 370 carats 740 dollars just for that one rock these ones here we'll put on the scale
40:41dollar dollar carat i mean just look at that that's sixteen hundred and eighty four carats
40:48sixteen hundred dollars just right there at least and then you got this one here which we said 740
40:52bucks so i mean that's incredible damn we got all the small stuff here it's sort of a mixed bag
40:59you
40:59can get the fastable grade topaz as well as the non-fastable you know the stuff that's not that clear
41:04that's why i think there's a mixed bag which is about a dollar per carat
41:12two thousand four hundred carats
41:14two thousand four hundred dollars so we're looking at two and a half grand there about two and a bit
41:19there i mean just think about it we need at least two and a half grand for that at least
41:22for next
41:23season yeah five hundred dollars for our season target this year we're still a bit behind so if we
41:28sell this as a bulk lot we might be able to get about four green all right i'll get this
41:32fella on the
41:32phone to see what we come up with let's see how we go let's do it
41:38hey mate how you going good i've been waiting for your call yeah i'll show you what i got here
41:45mate
41:47have a look at this
41:54yeah mate look at that how blue they are they are incredible pieces and i've also got a heap of
41:59little ones here that that are fastable grade as well i mean we've got about five thousand five
42:06hundred carats here oh that's a fair good haul we're hoping for about five and a half green
42:16oh mate two grand uh way way way too low yeah mate two grand's way too low i mean we
42:21worked pretty
42:22hard for this and there's a lot of nice blue stuff look the best i'll be able to do is
42:26about four grand
42:26hey i'm looking at you know making some money out of this as well mate what would you take four
42:34and a
42:37half
42:38i can settle for four and a half grand but i want first dibs on the next lot that comes
42:45through
42:45mate i'm actually happy with that i will definitely give you next dip on the stuff that we get in
42:50the
42:50future that sounds like a deal all right i'll send through the money as soon as possible and uh
42:55a little one you too mate bye yes we did we reached our target yes that's what we wanted we've
43:02got our
43:02loose yes hey honey come out bring the kids guess what we just did we just made four and a
43:13half grand
43:13for all that well done baby that is awesome oh thanks lukey cheers eyes at all yes cheers that's real
43:23pretty isn't it nice and pretty hang what do you reckon look at that one don't break them they're
43:29going to be sold they're sold already i can't wait to get into it next year and get that lease
43:34bigger and better bigger and better
43:56so
44:01you
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