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Gold Wars Downunder - Season 1 - Episode 02: Pressure mounts with nine weeks left, and Donnie seeks work at Swiss Diggings.
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00:06There's a secret war going on in the outback town of Claremont.
00:14The gold here is so good and the value of gold now is so high.
00:19Look at that.
00:20Dog ate dog.
00:21The wars are off.
00:23You've ripped me off since day nine.
00:24It's meant to be a partnership.
00:25You are bleached.
00:27Righto, well good on you.
00:28Good on you.
00:30That's what's up.
00:30Three mining teams.
00:32We have a foot of money into the mine so we have to make it work.
00:36On the one patch of land.
00:38This is just some of the stuff Donnie's been walking over.
00:42Guys, you'd be lucky if I don't walk over his big nose.
00:45Fighting it out to see who can uncover the biggest nuggets.
00:50Can you get down here please?
00:52It's an emergency.
00:53And the most gold.
00:57Awesome, that's a work of art.
00:58But there's a lot of it to be found here.
01:01My hand's shaking.
01:03Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of high-grade gold reserves.
01:07The price of gold is just making them doing really silly things.
01:12Hang on.
01:13Whoa.
01:14The teams have ten weeks to hit their season targets.
01:19Oh my God.
01:21What am I doing?
01:22Aussies risking it all to strike it rich.
01:27Perry, get your f*** off.
01:48Yeah, I'm a bit lost at the moment.
01:50I'm bloody...
01:51I knew the writing was on the wall, but I didn't expect it to happen as quick as it did.
01:56And just to get the email the way I did.
01:59Donnie has just been fired from 1870 by email.
02:04If the gold's not coming through, what do you want me to do?
02:06It's a business to be run.
02:08What do you expect?
02:09If the gold's not coming in, how are we going to keep...
02:11Yeah, that's fine.
02:12What about the gutless way it was done, though?
02:14Why didn't you come down and talk to me, Dan?
02:17Donnie's heading to nearby Swiss Diggings to see if he can secure some work off Dennis.
02:22I'm hoping Dennis will take me on as a contractor.
02:26He may not.
02:27I might get turfed out on my arse.
02:29And that'll be the end of it for me.
02:31This last hole here, it hasn't been real good to me at all, actually.
02:37Dennis runs a one-man scrape-and-detect operation.
02:42But he's in a spot of trouble.
02:44He's lost his lucrative riverbed gold run.
02:48And he's a long way short of his $500,000 season target.
02:53At the end of the day, all us miners and the other miners, we're all rowing the same boat here.
02:58We, you know, we've all got to get, hit our targets in order to get what we want out of
03:03it.
03:04There's nine weeks of the season left to go.
03:07And the pressure is on.
03:09I don't imagine Dennis is going to welcome me with open arms, I can tell you now.
03:13Like, I don't know how we're going to get along.
03:15I don't know whether we'll probably clash a bit.
03:19But we're both pretty headstrong.
03:23Before Dennis bought Swiss diggings, he used to be an investor in 1870
03:28and bankrolled Donnie and Lee's mining operations.
03:32Their dealings back then were volatile at best.
03:37There's no grey area with Dennis.
03:39It's either black or white.
03:40It's either this or that.
03:49Base camp, 1870.
03:51We need it to vibrate a hell of a lot more because we need this dirt to come over to
03:56Riffles.
03:58Dan's just got rid of Donnie and is now desperate to get the mine's new dry blower up and running.
04:06So far, he's only managed to bank $81,000 worth of gold for the season.
04:12The dry blower is meant to change all that.
04:16There's issues, you know, and for every issue, it takes time to fix it.
04:21I don't know how it's going to go.
04:23But help is on its way.
04:26Nine and a half hours to drive up here.
04:30The mine's owners, Richie and Kimberley, are on their way in from the Gold Coast.
04:36I will teach you to buy a gold mine in a little of nowhere.
04:41It is like you're driving.
04:45Richie's expecting the dry blower to be fully operational by the time he gets to 1870.
04:53Richie ringing me up.
04:54How's it going?
04:54How's it going?
04:55Are we at production?
04:56Are we ready for production?
04:58The answer's no.
04:59Oh, speak of the devil.
05:02The cashed-up Gold Coasters have arrived, and Richie's all smiles.
05:07But for how long?
05:12Kim rocks up as if she's going out for dinner at the Gold Coaster, some fancy-ass restaurant.
05:18These are wearing the correct attire.
05:19From Madrid's.
05:20Gold Coast city folk.
05:22It's all got to change.
05:24I wasn't expecting when we bought the gold mine that I would be getting dragged out here.
05:29Are we close?
05:30Close.
05:32But, yeah, like, it's been pretty chaotic.
05:35When I arrived up here, I was under the understanding that a lot more progress had happened.
05:40We're weeks behind where I thought we were at.
05:43So will we have it up and going today, you reckon?
05:46If I can get a hand, I will, yeah.
05:48No, so I might just show Kimberley around first so she can see her new digs.
05:52Too easy.
05:53Claremont Hilton.
05:59Copy, Swiss.
06:00Copy, Swiss.
06:02Yeah, Dennis here.
06:03Who's this?
06:05Oh, it's Donnie, mate.
06:07Just wondering if I could come in and see you.
06:10Yeah, right.
06:10No worries.
06:11We'll come up.
06:13Donnie and Dennis have had their fair share of conflict in the past,
06:17but they've always managed to stay on good talking terms.
06:21I thought to myself, what's he doing here?
06:23Why does he want to come over here?
06:25How are you, mate?
06:27Yeah, not so good.
06:28I got the DCM on 1870 the other day.
06:33Do not come Monday.
06:35What's going on over there?
06:36I have no idea.
06:39No idea.
06:40Didn't come and talk to me face to face.
06:42Just one minute I'm working, next minute I'm getting an email on my phone.
06:49I thought I'd come and see you.
06:51I was hoping you might have something available for me.
06:54At the moment, I've got nothing, mate.
06:59So as far as Donnie coming over here, I don't think it's a real good idea.
07:04We're strong characters.
07:05Both of us are strong characters, and we're going to butt heads.
07:07He's not exactly the smoothest operator when it comes to machinery.
07:10He's not the cleanest operator around.
07:13He hasn't got the most agility either.
07:15There's a lot to weigh up.
07:20Yep, this is your new digs.
07:23Richie and Kimberley have breezed into 1870
07:26to try and help Dan speed things up
07:29and to get some much-needed cash flow into the business.
07:33Let me show you your kitchen.
07:34What the hell?
07:38Joking, aren't you?
07:38No, this is the kitchen.
07:40I don't know what I envisioned when I knew I was coming out here.
07:44I guess no matter what, it's a bit of a shock.
07:46That's quite awesome.
07:47Obviously, the wild animals, some of the living quarters out here.
07:50That doesn't even work.
07:51It does work.
07:52Look at that water pressure.
07:53That's not really my lifestyle and what I envisioned.
07:57You're joking.
07:57It's original.
07:58Hey, you want to see your fridge?
08:00I'm really paranoid about the snakes, the spiders.
08:03You hear things in the night creeping around.
08:05Don't know what it is.
08:07Comes equipped with the spice rack.
08:08That's a pantry, is it?
08:09That's a pantry.
08:10Oh, my God.
08:11Yeah.
08:12I don't know.
08:13Here's your fridge.
08:15That's disgusting.
08:22Yeah, I...
08:24You know.
08:26At Swiss Diggings, Donnie's hoping Dennis will throw him a lifeline.
08:31His livelihood depends on it.
08:34What, um...
08:37What deal?
08:39Um...
08:4050-50.
08:43Whoa.
08:44Yeah.
08:45Whoa.
08:46And you're running my machine.
08:48It's 50-50.
08:51So, Dennis, he's one of these guys where you never know what he's thinking.
08:55He's sort of got them eyes that just sort of, you know, look straight through you.
09:00Donnie comes with a lot of knowledge.
09:03But he is a difficult character.
09:06Hmm.
09:07I don't think we'll be doing 50-50.
09:10Well, what are you saying?
09:13At the moment, I'm totally undecided about which way I'll go.
09:27Scratchy Moo, it's a good size lease.
09:29It takes him 150 hectares, which is probably 350-odd acres.
09:33And that's sort of quite a large area.
09:38At Scratchy Moo, business partners Damo and Matt are making good progress
09:43as they zero in on their 100-ounce season target.
09:49So far, they've pulled out more than a kilo of gold valued at around $220,000.
09:56And they've barely scratched the surface of their 150-hectare lease.
10:02I think there's at least 100 kilos under Scratchy Moo.
10:05It's probably $15 to $20 million worth of gold there.
10:09$20 million.
10:11Little wonder Lee, Donnie's ex-business partner at 1870, is sniffing around.
10:17I've come here to talk to Matt and Damo about pegging some land.
10:21And just to see the operations,
10:23and even to see these guys coming from being a prospector,
10:26coming in running mines, it's pretty good going.
10:29It's a big step to go from just a prospector to buying a mine,
10:33then to buying equipment.
10:34You spend a lot of money.
10:35You spend a lot of money, a lot of money quickly,
10:37and you're going to lose a lot of money quickly.
10:40Matt and Damo own the mineral exploration rights
10:43for 9,500 hectares of gold-rich ground.
10:48Lee is looking to peg a 60-hectare parcel of land right next door to 1870.
10:54It'll cost him between $50,000 and $100,000.
10:59If Damo's estimates are correct,
11:02Lee could expect a return of 50 times that amount,
11:05a 50-bagger, if they can strike a deal.
11:10We're all getting close now.
11:12Pretty sure I just thought it'd come up in the car.
11:14Looked like a pretty decent one.
11:19Not massive, but look, I'm saying four grand.
11:23Could look like a good two or three, Grandma.
11:26Bingo!
11:28Yeah.
11:29That's the one we want.
11:30That's a nice one.
11:32Yeah, I'd say probably a solid two.
11:35That's what you want.
11:38Lee's offered to help Damo as a goodwill gesture.
11:42On the flip side, the work will help Lee
11:45to get to know the land better.
11:48What is 60 hectares here really worth?
11:52It sounds like that's a bit more of a clunk in the bottle.
11:59Down the road at 1870,
12:02owner Richie is giving his wife, Kimberley,
12:04a tour of the camp's facilities.
12:07That's actually disgusting.
12:08Look at the cans exploding.
12:11I'm going to stay down the road at the hotel, motel.
12:15I don't care where I stay.
12:15I'm not staying here.
12:17This will be their home for the next few months.
12:20Here's your shower.
12:21Jump in, jump up.
12:23Yeah, lovely.
12:24What's that?
12:25That's rotten.
12:27Where's the bathroom in here?
12:28Oh.
12:29No, the bathroom's outside.
12:31I was a bit of a shock
12:32that this was going to be my new home in here.
12:35It's a bit run down and, yeah,
12:37I wanted to run through the hills.
12:38The nearest hotel's over at Arrowways.
12:40I don't mind.
12:40I'll drive.
12:41I like driving.
12:42I think Kimberley's going to adapt really fine out here.
12:44I've seen her do some amazing things,
12:46so she's not afraid to give him a go.
12:49Richie and Kimberley have been married for 14 years.
12:53All right.
12:53Go this way.
12:54They've made a good life for themselves on the Gold Coast.
12:58Is she a toilet?
12:59Living rough has never been on Kimberley's bucket list.
13:03Yeah, I'll be using that.
13:05Maybe she's brought the wrong type of clothes,
13:07but she loves her fashion,
13:08so she'll make it work.
13:11Oh, they're pretty and pink.
13:13How pretty, aren't they?
13:14They're mine.
13:16All right.
13:16Have fun.
13:18But Richie's no fool.
13:20He knows how to keep Kimberley sweet.
13:25Your castle on wheels.
13:27A five-star caravan.
13:29Richie had it delivered a few days ago.
13:32The gold mining outfits aren't really me.
13:34They're not blinging enough.
13:36They're just a bit boring, a bit dirty.
13:38I just don't get dirty.
13:40Kimberley.
13:41What's wrong with that?
13:43It may not be the Gold Coast,
13:45but it's better than the shed.
13:47First time you allowed me to buy you boots.
13:55At Swiss Diggings,
13:57Dennis is keeping his cards close to his chest.
14:00I'll tell you what,
14:02I've got a bit of a predicament down there,
14:03and I wouldn't mind getting your take on it.
14:07He knows he needs help,
14:09to get back onto the gold.
14:12But he can sense Donnie's desperation
14:14and thinks he can drive a hard bargain.
14:17I'm sort of playing it a bit cool
14:20because I'm sort of thinking to myself,
14:23I reckon I can use you, my friend.
14:26Yeah, no, I'll definitely come and have a look, mate.
14:28Very interesting.
14:29Yeah, I'm happy to help you out.
14:32All right, mate,
14:33well, let's go down and have a look in the cutter.
14:34All right, yeah, cool.
14:36Having Donnie here,
14:37if we go down that path,
14:39it has merit,
14:40but it always has a downside.
14:43Donnie mines differently to the way that I mine.
14:45Is he going to want to try to convert me
14:47to the way that he mines?
14:49Can I convert him to the way that I mine?
14:51I don't really know until we try.
14:54Yeah, Donnie, so I'm working down here, mate.
14:56You'll see how I'm tracking up this line.
14:58Yeah, I can see that.
15:00Yeah, she's, uh...
15:01Yeah, you've opened a bit of ground up here.
15:03It's been quite rewarding.
15:05But I've just sort of come to a bit of a stop, so...
15:10Currently, at the moment, where I'm going,
15:12I've literally hit this wall
15:14and the ground's coming up at me.
15:17I've been getting gold all the way through here.
15:18It's all been reasonably OK.
15:20Yeah.
15:21But then I've now got to a point
15:23where I've come up to an enormous amount of bedrock
15:27and the ground's coming up at me.
15:29Dennis has uncovered an old riverbed,
15:31which has so far delivered 300 grams of alluvial gold,
15:36valued at around $50,000.
15:39But that gold trail has suddenly disappeared.
15:42If you've been getting good gold just behind you,
15:46then I would say she's turning into this bend here.
15:49There might be a spur coming down through there.
15:51Yeah.
15:52And I think you'll find she probably wraps around it.
15:54It's make-or-break time for Donnie.
15:58Some good advice now might be enough
16:00to land him a new mining contract.
16:03Fail, and he could be out of Claremont for good.
16:07So I'd move down and try and find that drop-off ledge
16:10or where it deepens down into there,
16:12into the bend here,
16:14and I'd go forward to the left.
16:17What are you doing for the next couple of hours?
16:19Want to hang around?
16:20We'll open her up.
16:22Yeah, sure.
16:23See what's there.
16:24Yeah, cool.
16:25Yeah, I was just lucky that I turned up at Dennis's
16:28on a day where he was having problems,
16:30and I'm hoping that he'll see the worth in what I gave him.
16:34All right, mate.
16:34Yeah, no worries.
16:35You'll be fine up, mate.
16:35All right, cheers.
16:36All right.
16:36Duty.
16:37Let's do it.
16:45First of all, what we've got to do is
16:48he's got to put me on the goal here.
16:53Oh, look.
16:54Look at them, baby.
16:55Well, you're going to walk through that, are you?
16:58Yeah, I'm going to walk through with my leggings.
17:01At Scratchy Moo, Lee's getting kitted out with snake pads
17:05for a trek into the bush.
17:07The boys are off to recce the area Lee wants to sublease.
17:11There's not that much that can kill you out there that you need.
17:13I'm not worried about getting killed by anything.
17:15I'm just walking through the bushes.
17:16He's got to worry about his mate, mate Donnie,
17:19the snake coming through the bush and grabbing him on the leg.
17:24Black snakes, brown snakes, taipans.
17:28They're all out there and they're all deadly.
17:33Do you want me to give you a piggyback already, Lee?
17:35We've got Trillabite on so we don't get lost, all right?
17:38Let's get a look at this, pegging a lease off these blokes.
17:41They've got some ground up here that's available.
17:43I'm not trying to do a deal with them.
17:45Price of gold in a couple of years, it's going to keep going,
17:47so it's a good investment.
17:50For nearly 50 years,
17:52this remote stretch of bushland
17:54has been off-limits to commercial mining.
17:57It borders the gold-rich grounds of 1870.
18:01We're trying to find our way back to the corner peg with 1870
18:05so we can show Lee in that corner
18:08and then discuss the ground that's on the other side
18:11that's available for pegging.
18:13The most exciting part is where it is.
18:15Backing on the back of 1870,
18:17you're coming back off this big gold hill.
18:20The bottom end of 1870 was super, super rich.
18:23The 1870 peg sits over the hill here.
18:26Land's hard to get.
18:27Like, it's really hard to get up here.
18:30You dick around too long, the boys will sell it to someone else.
18:32But then it's not going to wait.
18:33Money's money.
18:34The challenge for Lee is finding the cash.
18:37To have a realistic chance of closing the deal,
18:40he's going to need $100,000.
18:44He's waiting on money to come through from the sale of his family home.
18:49I'm just waiting on a call back from the lawyer.
18:51So hopefully we'll get this call today.
18:53It's freezed up my cash, so it's a big call.
18:56Hopefully it comes through today.
18:58And, yeah, I can start pressing some buttons and moving on.
19:00So does that look familiar?
19:01I understand this one.
19:03I know exactly what I am here.
19:05Lee standing right on the border of 1870.
19:08A bittersweet moment
19:10because he used to own the lease
19:12until his partnership with Donnie blew up in flames.
19:16So you've got the 1870 in there.
19:18Yep.
19:19So you've got us in there.
19:20Yep.
19:20And then that gives you the opportunity
19:23to have that piece in there.
19:27That's your option.
19:34So just going to make sure there's no leads
19:36or anything dragging along.
19:39At 1870,
19:40owner Richie's helping Dan get the dryblower prepped
19:43and ready to move to the processing site.
19:46The challenge is going to be getting it from camp down to site.
19:50Oh, we're probably looking,
19:51we're going to take this about 800 metres, I reckon.
19:54And there's one part which is a bit hairy, I think.
19:57It's going into a bit of a gully and up the other side.
20:00The biggest priority that we have now is generating an income.
20:03The quickest way for us to generate an income
20:05is to get the dryblower going.
20:08In many areas like Claremore,
20:10where water is in short supply,
20:12dryblowers are vital to help separate heavy gold particles
20:16from dry soil.
20:18But you need to be able to get them to site.
20:21We asked for a normal Australian tow hitch
20:23and unfortunately they just provide us with this type of hitch.
20:28It's got the wrong tow hitch on it
20:30and I've got to basically push it with a front-end loader.
20:36Perfect.
20:38Dan will need to use the loader
20:40to push the dryblower along a rough-as-guts bush track.
20:44So it sells a little bit.
20:46I've spent over, I'd say, maybe $50,000, $60,000 on this.
20:50The roads aren't going to be good
20:51so I'm worried that it won't get there in one piece.
20:55So let's see what happens.
20:57But at least they've got Kimberley for moral support.
21:00The boys are having a little bit of a hard time at the moment.
21:03I think it was built wrong.
21:04So they've got a little bit of work to do, I think.
21:08So now we're going to take it fairly easy.
21:10Just let us know what the tail end of this is doing.
21:13I'll try keeping on the front.
21:15No problems.
21:17All right, this is going to be bloody scary.
21:20This ain't going to be fun.
21:34Man, Donnie, we've had our issues in the past.
21:38Hopefully we're old enough to move past all that.
21:41He can be a bit of Dennis,
21:44but at least he's always been an honest.
21:49There's definitely a sedimentary layer
21:51that's running through there,
21:53so I'm hoping we find that rock drop off.
21:56Donnie comes with lots of red flags,
21:58but hard-nosed Dennis has a soft spot for him.
22:02Yeah, Donnie, this is ground, man.
22:03She's looking really, really ironstone.
22:06It's a little dark.
22:07A little dark red.
22:08Yeah.
22:10And he also knows he needs him
22:12to have any hope of rediscovering
22:14the gold seam of Swiss diggings.
22:17He's just not going to tell Donnie that.
22:19That first scrapester is brought wash straight out.
22:22Yeah, I was actually going to say
22:24I wouldn't take too much off the top there.
22:25I reckon you're going to be straight into gravel.
22:28Well, I think we'll give that one a detective.
22:30Yeah, I mean, gravels, gravels look good all the time.
22:35Finding the gravel with the gold in it, that's the trick.
22:39Just a drop off.
22:42Just where I'm coming off the edge.
22:45Donnie's confident his extensive knowledge of the area
22:48will help him to help Dennis get back to the gold.
22:52His future depends on it.
22:56I do know.
22:57And I'm hoping that he'll take that on board
22:59because Dennis is...
23:01He's more of a hobbyist miner.
23:05A bit different in the way I do it.
23:08A bit of battle, I think, mate.
23:10You reckon?
23:11I am on my best behaviour at the moment.
23:14You know, I'm not an idiot.
23:16I know that I'm not going to win any friends
23:18by coming in and, you know, telling him.
23:23No go.
23:24There you go.
23:25Not yet.
23:30Are we close or are we not close?
23:33At Scratchy Moo,
23:34Lee has reached an in-principle agreement
23:37to sublease 60 hectares of potentially gold-rich land
23:41from Matt and Damo.
23:43I'm confident enough to want to do a deal.
23:46And sometimes there's always doubt in everything you do.
23:50At times you've just got to take the opportunity when it's there
23:52and this is an opportunity and I'm not going to miss it.
23:54Let's just cut to the chase.
23:55You're waiting on...
23:57I'll call from the lawyer.
23:59Which will make money on Friday.
24:01All right.
24:02Matt and Damo are all too aware of Lee's reputation
24:05as a slippery customer.
24:08They want to be sure that if they do a deal,
24:10he'll be good for the money.
24:12And then we're going to have a separate discussion
24:16about how you want to pay for it, if you want to do it.
24:19Yeah.
24:20Man, he must leave some sort of trail of destruction behind him.
24:23But so far he's been smart enough
24:25not to do that with myself and the moon.
24:30I've got time pressure to get this done
24:32so I don't get gazumped on it.
24:33If I can't get the cash together fast enough,
24:36I could lose it.
24:40That looks good, mate.
24:43Team 1870 are on tenterhooks.
24:46The $50,000 drive-lower,
24:49which could make or break their season,
24:51is finally on the move.
24:55Go up next to it.
24:56I want to see it.
24:57No, I want to see this.
24:58I want to see this.
24:59Stop.
25:01Go up a little bit higher.
25:04Yeah, that height looks good, mate.
25:06I've got no idea what a dry blower is.
25:08I know it's going to be dirty and dusty and that's not really my thing.
25:12The dry blower is designed to process pay dirt in volume.
25:16That's if they can get it to the processing side without damaging it.
25:25I'm actually thinking instead of reversing, I might have to try and push it, guys.
25:30Mate, I don't think he's going to be able to do it this way.
25:34Good luck, buddy.
25:39Lift the bucket up.
25:42You're a good 8 to 10 inches off the ground at the front, so you're OK.
25:45Lift, lift, lift.
25:47Slow down, slow down.
25:49I think that's the perfect height, what you're doing things at now.
25:53Yeah, but as soon as I hit a bump, it's all going to change.
25:57I just can't see the actual hitch.
26:04I'm just absolutely stressed and I can't see everything that I'm doing.
26:09Trying to get this to go around the corner and it's just pissing me off.
26:15Raise it a bit.
26:16That's perfect.
26:18No matter what I do, that hitch is always going to be dragging a bit.
26:22It's on perfect, mate.
26:23The road's going all over the place, plus up and down.
26:26Now, we're either going to rip the front of the conveyor off or chip the bloody thing.
26:39You've got bottom.
26:41It's looking to me like my run has gone.
26:44With Dennis still no closer to finding his lost gold run,
26:49Donnie has just a few hours to pull a rabbit out of his hat.
26:53So, the pressure for me is to try and have a wind,
26:57you know, try and show Dennis that I can put him on it.
27:01Gold hunting's all about risk and reward,
27:04and Donnie's about as risky as they come.
27:07Yeah.
27:09Yeah.
27:13The drop-off could be over in there too.
27:15Do you want to give that a scratch off quickly and just have a go over there
27:17and just have a quick detect there and just see if we can't pick something up?
27:22Somewhere there's going to be deep ground.
27:23Like, it's got to go down to something.
27:26Yeah, right, yeah.
27:27I don't jump holes.
27:28I don't like that jumping hole business.
27:30I systematically just keep moving the dirt in front of me,
27:34moving the dirt in front of me,
27:35moving the dirt in front of me.
27:36Let's give it a go.
27:38All right, we'll give it a go, eh?
27:40Dennis is not thrilled about Donnie's radical idea.
27:45Trouble is, he doesn't have a better one.
27:50They've agreed to move the excavator out of the main workings
27:54and on to virgin ground.
27:57Do or die, you know, you don't have a go, you'll never, never know.
28:01So sometimes it's just a flip of the coin.
28:04I don't know, I'm a bit a bit sceptical in all of this.
28:08I'm not sure what he wants me to do to go over the creek here.
28:12I've seen it happen so many times where you'll hear nothing
28:17and then you take that little bit of top off
28:20and then bang, there's the targets.
28:23It's hard to believe to comprehend what he's exactly saying as well.
28:27It's not easy to believe too, but you get a picture.
28:39Sounds a bit better.
28:43At Scratchy Moo, it's also a case of hit and miss for Matt and Damo.
28:49Scoop.
28:50There it is there.
28:51You ripper.
28:53Have a look at that beauty.
28:54Eh?
28:55On the gold.
28:57Matt's on the gold.
28:59$300 notes, all right?
29:02But Damo isn't.
29:03What's that?
29:05Very disappointing.
29:06Very disappointing.
29:07This is ridiculous.
29:09Just swarf-vesting it now.
29:11We're going to have to, like, call on the powers.
29:14Yeah, come on, gold gods.
29:16One way or the other, we've got a target to get today.
29:18This is, uh...
29:21..a bit light on.
29:23What's the trick here?
29:27Damo and Matt need at least one ounce per machine per day
29:31if they want to hit their 100-ounce, $500,000 season target.
29:36Well, when the cut's not firing...
29:38Cut's not firing.
29:40That's it.
29:42Let's all come up and have a chat with Matt.
29:44See how Matt's going over here.
29:47And, uh, hopefully he's pulling some big gold.
29:52Hello.
29:53There you go.
29:53I think I need to climb on your shoulders and climb out of here.
29:55That's good old.
29:56What's going on here?
29:57Are they getting a couple of grammars?
29:59How big are they?
29:59A couple of good ones, yeah.
30:01There's a couple of good bits in there.
30:04We just need to see a bit more gold come out.
30:06Well, how much do you want?
30:08I'd like to see a kilo come out.
30:09That'll be exciting.
30:10Here's the gold post for me and Scratchy are a kilo a day.
30:14Very interesting.
30:15Now I'm getting wet, like a duck.
30:17Yeah, well, you get that.
30:18It's raining here.
30:19We're in the hole picking out gold and it's raining.
30:21If it's too wet, you'll have to hop in.
30:23Yeah, I could slip and, um...
30:25Hurt yourself.
30:25Land on your pick.
30:27Yeah.
30:34I mean, it's an unknown.
30:36Until you dig it, it could be a drop-off over on that side, but we're not finding it, so
30:42I thought we'll give it a scratch over this side.
30:46At Swiss Diggies, Donnie has convinced Dennis to open a new cut on the other side of the
30:52old creek line.
30:54It's risky, just the way Donnie likes it.
30:59Donnie's turned around and said to me, go to the other side of the creek line and then
31:02open up the pit over there, which is completely against what I normally do, because I don't
31:07like to be a Messi in any way, shape or form.
31:10Any bigger gold that we're going to find will be on the drop-off side, pretty much, so...
31:18We're egging old, mate, that muff?
31:20Probably bring it up a bit higher, mate.
31:23Bring it up a bit higher?
31:37Oh, we can only try, mate.
31:44Bit of EMI.
31:47Daylight is fading fast, as are Donnie's hopes of locking in a new contract with Dennis.
31:54It's probably nice.
31:58Bit of metal, I think, mate.
32:00Yeah.
32:01Oh, I caught it on that roll.
32:03Yeah, I just threw it there.
32:04He convinced me that that's the way to go, but it's just completely against what I would
32:10do.
32:20Nothing worse than a bit of rain.
32:22Stuff's everything.
32:23I'm going to be absolutely in a bog in a minute.
32:27Scratchy Moo has been hit by an isolated rain shower.
32:31The rain, it just turns stuff to mush and you can't detect.
32:36It's just an absolute pain in the arse.
32:39But the challenging conditions aren't stopping Damo.
32:42So, of course, right when the bottom comes alive, the rain starts and all my help disappears
32:48back into the car, into the warm heater zone.
32:51He's up in the warm.
32:52He's taken off, bailed, left the boss to it.
32:55Lee McGrath.
32:56Once you get five or ten mil, you've just got to sit it out, generally.
33:01You've just got to wait.
33:02Damo's mad.
33:05When you're on the goal, it's very hard to walk away, no matter what the conditions are.
33:11Where are you exactly?
33:13To tell you the truth, what I hope might have been a five-grammer, I think it's going to
33:18be a nice nugget.
33:19It is a very nice nugget, but it's not a five-grammer.
33:21It's pretty solid, so it's probably very close to two, which is excellent.
33:27A $350 nugget is nothing to sneeze at, unless you leave.
33:32I am a little bit surprised by the smallness of the gold.
33:36I would have thought they would have got some bigger ones by now, but it takes a bit of
33:40time to really work the ground, get down and chase the bottom.
33:44Lee's tone has shifted from eager investor to low-ball spin master.
33:49The more he talks the mine down, the better the deal he's hoping to get.
33:54Unless you're getting a lot of little gold per cut, then your numbers don't stack up.
33:59He wants to get his buying price lower, closer to the $50,000 mark.
34:05He likes to stay in paperwork zone a bit more than he does in work zone.
34:15Right now, it's pretty sketchy.
34:19It's about to go over some gullyways, which could rip the conveyor off.
34:23At $18.70, Richie's costly dry blower has reached the halfway mark.
34:30They've got another 400 metres to go, and the terrain is getting tougher.
34:36Hey, I'm Dan, just lower it a little bit.
34:38Their entire season comes down to this.
34:42That's perfect.
34:43Can they get the dry blower to side without damaging it?
34:47Lift it an inch.
34:48That's perfect, mate.
34:50You're about to come across a little bit of a gully, so expect it to drop to the left.
34:56Lift it a little bit, mate.
34:57Lift.
34:58Yep, that's it.
34:59That's it.
35:00We've got two gullies up here.
35:02I thought it was just the one, but hopefully it's not too bad.
35:05It's very dodgy tracks, and it's dangerous, and it's an expensive piece of machinery.
35:11Heaps of ruts on the road.
35:12Try and get around them.
35:14Yeah, those ruts are pretty bad, man.
35:17You should be right going over that bump.
35:19Oh, look.
35:20Hang on.
35:21Lower it.
35:21Lower it a little bit.
35:22Lower.
35:23Lower.
35:24Perfect.
35:25Look, these forks are going to drag no matter what, so we're just going to have to cop that.
35:30We can always get more forks, but we can't get another bloody dry blower.
35:33Well, he's doing really well, but we're coming up to the dodgy area that we're both afraid of.
35:40I mean, I think he's going to be himself.
35:45Yeah, I'm just saying a bit.
35:49He's been a bit of a little, mate.
35:51At Swiss Diggings, Donnie's reputation is on the line.
35:55It's make or break time for the down-on-his-luck gold miner.
36:00You look at that flat area, and you've got to know that underneath, there is change.
36:07See up in here?
36:09Yep.
36:10But then you've got gravels all down through here, so there's definitely a downward trend
36:14there, mate.
36:15Like a downward dog.
36:28That one's sounding all right, doesn't it?
36:29Just that bit of ground off the top.
36:31See?
36:32We'll go to dig.
36:42Oh, that's all right.
36:44Come on!
36:49Oh!
36:53You never get tired of them Maxis, mate.
36:55How good's that?
36:57Come on!
37:03Oh, look at that.
37:05That's the schist.
37:07Big targets are always hard to find, bro.
37:10Oh!
37:14I don't know.
37:20That's got to be an ounce or more.
37:25Come on, baby!
37:27Come on!
37:31Donnie might just have saved his and Dennis' bacon just when it looked like it was game
37:38over.
37:48At Scratchy Moo, it's tally-up time.
37:51There's been some rain.
37:53Yes, rain, hail and shine.
37:55Well, we're not going to be ten ounces like we were the other week.
37:57You remember when you sat in the car and it started raining, Lee?
38:00You know, you're holding us up a bit there too, mate.
38:03Lee's never going to harden up.
38:05Lee's always going to have his angle of having someone else do the dirty work.
38:10I'm a potential purchaser.
38:12Doesn't mean I have to get wet, does it?
38:13You've got the sack before you even started.
38:16It might make...
38:17It wasn't a job interview.
38:18I don't know.
38:19It's a lease interview.
38:21Yeah.
38:21It's like, is he allowed to be our neighbour?
38:24Yes.
38:24Oh, come on.
38:25Is he going to be a worker?
38:26Is he a worker?
38:28Lee is trying his best to get his buy-in price as low as possible.
38:35Under an 18.
38:36Yeah.
38:37What's that?
38:38We're just under four ounces, so about half.
38:41Yeah, it's a bit wet.
38:43It's thrown some doubt like a couple of weeks and it's not a lot of gold.
38:47It's not enough gold.
38:49And if that's the numbers, the numbers, that's not good enough.
38:52Either that bit of gold in my tray there, that'll be good.
38:55You're doing a big sell.
38:57It's a pretty slack week.
38:58It might seem like a lot of gold to some, but for us and where we need to be, it's
39:03a bit
39:04deflating.
39:05No, I like 10 ounces, though.
39:0610 ounces is way better than 118 grand.
39:09You shouldn't have been sitting in the car, though.
39:11You should have been helping.
39:12Yeah, I know.
39:39Donnie's high-risk call has paid off.
39:43Dennis couldn't be happier.
39:45All right, mate, I'll let you do the honors.
39:46I know.
39:5231.16.
39:58How good's that?
40:00There's a $5,000 nugget there right there, bro.
40:04$5,000 a day.
40:06It's officially the biggest nugget of the season.
40:09Even cleaned up, even if it loses a bit of weight, it's still...
40:12It's still a $5,000 nugget every day of the week.
40:15I get five grand for that on auction any day of the week.
40:18So you get that junk in your hand.
40:20I mean, that is what you die for every day.
40:22That's what you go down there for.
40:26Cheers.
40:26Cheers, brother.
40:27How good is that?
40:28Give the baby a bit of a bath.
40:31Oh, look at that.
40:33I definitely wouldn't have got this this afternoon without you.
40:36Honestly, I do think we'll put you on as a contractor, right?
40:40Yeah, he knew full well the position I was in that, you know, if he'd have said no, I was
40:46up creek.
40:47So, and based on that, I think we'll do 60-40.
40:5160-40?
40:52Yeah.
40:53Not 50-50?
40:54No, we'll go 60.
40:55You're tight.
40:57You couldn't ask for better.
40:58And I was so happy with it.
41:00And that gave me a reason to make the offer to him.
41:03Donnie's one-ounce gold find puts Swiss diggings back on the board with 27.5 ounces of gold for the
41:11season.
41:11Cheers, mate.
41:12Cheers.
41:17Look at that.
41:18You can't even fit any more on the scales.
41:21Team Scratchy Moo banked $19,000 worth of gold for the week.
41:26I would like to think that it would continue, but you've got to go with your ups and downs.
41:30But it's at a critical time where we've got a lot of bills, a lot of outgoings.
41:34And so I haven't really enjoyed the fact that that week hasn't paid up for me.
41:39At least the teams at Scratchy Moo and Swiss Diggings have some new gold to count.
41:45If you make it through this gully, I'll buy you a beer.
41:48I think I need a bourbon or a rum or something a bit stronger after today.
41:52At 1870, Dan and Richie just want to get their prized bit of machinery into position without putting a major
42:00dent in it.
42:02Hey, Dan.
42:04To your left, we've got a big pothole, so try and stay right.
42:07Yeah, righty-o.
42:09It's taking a long time to get there.
42:11I think it'll be night time before we get there.
42:13Delicate operation.
42:15I just want to go a little bit faster, you know.
42:17It's going a bit slow for me.
42:20I think we're going to have to slow down even further.
42:24Go more to the left.
42:25You've got to hit the embankment.
42:27Yeah, I'm trying.
42:29Whoa, whoa, whoa.
42:31The pull.
42:32Hang on.
42:33Whoa.
42:37Hang on, mate.
42:38Hang on.
42:38Whoa, whoa.
42:41Mate, your world's snapped.
42:50My heart just sunk.
42:57I just heard a massive putt, and I'm thinking, I know how delicate those conveyors are, and I'm thinking, game's
43:04over.
43:05Buddy, we're stuck now.
43:09Next time.
43:11See the holes here?
43:12One there, one there, one there, one there.
43:14So they're not shy.
43:16Matt and Damo go undercover to try and catch a gold thief.
43:21Here's a couple of shots of the poachers.
43:23Oh, full number play.
43:24Full number play.
43:26You've had a procession.
43:27You're not falling in gold.
43:29Richie gets outfoxed by Dennis.
43:31You've got to spot the balls, so we don't have a choice.
43:34What do you sort of think the price was?
43:37I think you're more like half an ounce.
43:45And ex-business partners, Lee and Donnie, come face-to-face in an epic showdown.
43:52You never paid one check.
43:56I'm the only one that contributed money into that.
43:59Leach.
43:59You are.
44:00Leach.
44:01Righto.
44:01Well, good on you.
44:02Leach McGrath.
44:02Good on you.
44:03Good on you.
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