Opal Hunters S04 E01
Travel to Australia, and watch this real life documentary, of people mining the Opal gemstone.
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See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
Transcript
00:00On Outback Opal Hunters...
00:03Jeez!
00:05The Bushmen lose their way deep underground.
00:08We're just straight off course a little bit.
00:10It's as well we're not out to sea.
00:12Chasing priceless black opal.
00:14Ah ha ha Liz!
00:16Newcomers the Poms.
00:18Carl, look at that.
00:19That's beautiful.
00:20Hunter prize opal.
00:22It's the excitement of finding treasure.
00:24To kick start their mining careers.
00:26I think I've stuffed it up.
00:27Yes!
00:28And after their find of a lifetime.
00:30Yes!
00:31The Tunnel Rats.
00:32They can't peg that.
00:33This is already pegged.
00:34Must tackle a rival team.
00:36Boy, he sees peg in my claim.
00:38What?
00:39He sees peg in my claim.
00:58We're still a long way away from reaching our target.
01:06We've only got two months until we're pushed out.
01:09So this is our last shot.
01:10That's pretty much our time, Carl.
01:13Who's that?
01:14Who's that?
01:15Who's that up there?
01:18On the opal fields of South Australia.
01:21There's trouble brewing for family team.
01:23The Tunnel Rats.
01:26We've got someone walking on our claim, looking around.
01:29Possibly wanting to peg some dirt which is close to us.
01:34I don't really want to talk to him, to be honest.
01:36Because it's only going to be chaos.
01:38Oh, look at that.
01:40I've never seen opal like this in my life.
01:42After 22 years struggling to make ends meet.
01:45They have just hit the best opal of their lives.
01:48Worth over $100,000.
01:51Yes!
01:52Yes!
01:53That was just an amazing experience.
01:54It's like a once in a lifetime sort of thing.
01:56You just don't expect that will ever happen to you.
01:58And there could be much more.
02:00I just feel like life has changed.
02:03It's just made things a lot easier for us.
02:06But their whole way of life is now under threat.
02:09And time is fast running out for this opal mining family.
02:13We're going to be getting shot down immediately.
02:15I can't afford to share.
02:17I can't get out of here.
02:19In just two months time,
02:21all the mines in the town of Minterby are to be closed.
02:25And the area returned to its Indigenous owners.
02:28The Tunnel Rats will lose both their mine
02:31and their mining camp home.
02:34I've invested over $500,000.
02:37We've all got to get out of here.
02:39So if I've got no money to get out,
02:41well, I don't know where I'm going to go
02:43and how I can afford to shift.
02:45We've come up with a target of $200,000.
02:48We just need that money to be able to relocate and set us up.
02:51We've got to get it. We have to get it.
02:53It's a must. There's no ifs, buts or maybes.
02:56Opal is the only way out.
02:58But news of their big find has spread.
03:01And rivals are closing in,
03:03scouting the ground next to their claim.
03:06We need to go knock them other pegs in.
03:08I've got some pegs ready and we're going to go stick them in.
03:12Miners are only allowed to own one claim at a time,
03:15marked by four corner pegs.
03:18Dad Rodney's covers the entrance to their mine
03:21and Baden's the area where they made their recent big find.
03:26The ground between them could be rich in opal.
03:29The danger now is that the rivals might peg it first.
03:33We've got to put the leachie pegs in the ground now.
03:36Yeah, we've got to do it now. Yeah.
03:38Yeah, we've got to go get them.
03:40As long as they haven't done it already.
03:46I'm just going to go on the other side.
03:57Is that our peg? No, that's their peg.
03:59The rivals have got their red pegs in first,
04:02but it looks like they're inside Baden's claim.
04:05This is already pegged here. They can't peg that.
04:08When they're pegging, they're just not pegging any ground.
04:11They're pegging my claim.
04:13See my peg here? Yes, sir.
04:15See his peg there? Yes. He can't do it.
04:17Have a look at me peg.
04:19It's here, comes through there.
04:21Why has he got a peg there?
04:23Why is his peg in my claim?
04:25Why the f*** is his peg in my claim?
04:40Hey, it stinks in there.
04:43Right, is that you, is it?
04:45Be some serious trouble if that smell was me, Les.
04:48In outback New South Wales,
04:5070 kilometres from the nearest town,
04:53Bushman, Rod and Les are on the hunt.
04:58I reckon a snake's got in here or something,
05:00got up under something and died.
05:02In the fierce heat, the stench of a dead animal
05:05has saturated the Bushman's camp,
05:07making living inside unbearable.
05:11Man is not real happy about the smell.
05:13Yeah, it's all right, nothing happens.
05:17Oh, yeah, it's gotten worse in here since this morning.
05:20She'd have bloody hit me with a pick handle
05:22if I'd gone to work and left that smell there.
05:25Oh, bloody stink coming out of here.
05:27Jesus.
05:30What this is, this is our air conditioner for summer.
05:33All this side of the claim I've worked,
05:35it's all mowned out,
05:37so the air conditioner sucks the cold air up from underground
05:40and blows it in here.
05:42Something's gotten down one of the old shafts and died
05:45and the smell's bloody horrible,
05:47so I'm going to have to climb down this old mine here
05:51and see what it is.
05:56Halfway into the season,
05:58the Bushmen are fighting hard to reach their target.
06:02Things are a bit grim, you know.
06:04We do need to find some money desperately.
06:06I worry a bit about Les.
06:08I know he hasn't had enough diesel to run his journey,
06:11so he's had no electricity for a week or two.
06:14The hope is that we find enough money.
06:16I need another vehicle,
06:18and as soon as I get enough money, I'm going to get one.
06:20I hope to find enough colour
06:22to be able to go and visit our kids and our grandkids.
06:26Rod and Les are hunting the most prized of all opals,
06:30black opal.
06:32The best stones can sell for $43,000 a gram,
06:35500 times as much as gold.
06:38If we don't find it, well, we've got to tighten the belt a bit more.
06:42But until the source of the smell at camp is found and removed,
06:46Rod and Les won't be mining anything.
06:50I'm not real happy about going underground here
06:53because this is really dangerous ground, this little field.
06:57I haven't been down there for years,
06:59so I don't know what it's going to be like,
07:02but I know it's not going to be good.
07:04What's it look like down there?
07:06Bloody awful?
07:09Oh, I don't want to do this.
07:12The ground here is very unstable.
07:15It's very wet.
07:16Jesus.
07:18The walls start to dry out,
07:20and as they dry out, they shrink,
07:22and as they shrink, they develop these big cracks.
07:25And all this is just the walls that are caved in.
07:28If you're walking past and one of these big rocks come down,
07:32it's definitely going to ruin your day.
07:35Found anything yet?
07:37I can't smell too much, but I don't think it's down this end.
07:41Knowing what some mines go like,
07:43pieces falling out the walls and stuff like that,
07:45or the roof falling in,
07:47you do worry and try and keep a check on him.
07:53It's a real dangerous mine, this.
07:55We don't work it any more for that reason.
07:57The smell's starting to get a bit worse,
07:59so we might be getting a bit closer.
08:02HE SNIFFS
08:04BLEEP
08:06It's a kangaroo.
08:08Oh.
08:10BLEEP
08:11Come down here and land straight on one of the steel posts we've got.
08:15Drop the bag down?
08:17Yeah, mate, drop it down.
08:19Here she comes.
08:23I just wanted to get in, get it, and get out.
08:25I didn't want to hang around down there too long.
08:28For the smell or for the danger of the mine.
08:33Oh, bleep.
08:41Oh, right-o.
08:45Right-o.
08:46Well, we've got the kangaroo situation under control.
08:49That smell is gone, and now we want to do a bit of digging.
08:52We go back and do what we were supposed to start this morning.
08:56Three kilometres from camp, at their latest mine, Bondi,
09:00they've had a tip-off that valuable opal was found
09:03in three exploration holes drilled here years earlier.
09:07Go on, Nige.
09:09The story is that when it was drilled 20 years ago,
09:12really nice colour come out of this grouping.
09:15They've already dug out one, but two more remain.
09:19So I'll get a compass bearing on where that is.
09:24Taking a bearing from one of their ventilation shafts
09:27to the location of the holes
09:29should give them the direction to dig underground.
09:32When I go underground, I stand straight underneath this hole.
09:36When I get the same reading underground as what I've got here,
09:40that's where we need to go.
09:44Same through there, Les.
09:46Hole, hole.
09:49Yeah.
09:50It'd be pretty close.
09:52We reckon that the exploratory holes that we're looking for
09:55are a couple of metres that way.
10:05I'll just have to move in a second,
10:07but it's looking all right in that section there, mate.
10:10Rod must use all his 40 years' experience
10:13to make the two-ton machine delicately slice the earth
10:17at a rate of just 30 centimetres an hour.
10:21With black opal worth up to $43,000 a gram and scattered randomly,
10:26they can't afford to miss a single piece.
10:29You can get an opal the size of your thumbnail
10:32and it'll be worth $30,000.
10:34Anything in that piece? Hold it.
10:36Here we go. You ready?
10:42It didn't continue.
10:46After several hours digging,
10:48Rod rechecks his compass bearings.
10:53Oh, f***!
10:56We're just straight off course a little bit.
10:58Well, we're not out to sea.
11:00It'd be definitely up a bloody battle.
11:02Oh, f***!
11:10There's got to be loads of scraps that's left around on piles.
11:14Yeah, things unseen.
11:15Stuff that people have missed.
11:16Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
11:17Yeah.
11:19In Opleton, Queensland,
11:21British couple Carl Grice and Mary Macmillan
11:24are taking their very first steps as prospectors
11:27hunting surface opal
11:29in almost 8 million square kilometres of Australian outback.
11:34There's got to be something left at the top, isn't there?
11:38Former schoolteacher Carl has quit his job to chase the opal dream.
11:43Is there a complete lifestyle change
11:45and the excitement of finding treasure?
11:48Mary is a skilled jeweller.
11:50I create custom opal jewellery.
11:52When I came to Australia a few years ago,
11:54I discovered Australian opal and just fell in love with it,
11:57absolutely fell in love with it.
11:58But they're both new to opal hunting.
12:00Their plan is to make a living
12:02turning any stones they find into high-end jewellery.
12:05I started having a go at cutting opal about a year and a half ago
12:09and found that actually I was OK at it.
12:13They've gambled all their savings
12:15kitting out a second-hand camper van as their mobile base,
12:19enabling them to cut and set opals wherever they find them.
12:23We've spent all our savings setting up the van
12:26and it's a lot more than what we anticipated.
12:29We borrowed money to buy it.
12:31This is every penny I have and money I don't have
12:33and now I'm driving it down the road.
12:35Their destination is the opal mecca of Whitecliffs, New South Wales,
12:40to hunt legendary opal pineapples,
12:43worth up to half a million dollars apiece.
12:46It's just a little mining community.
12:48Everyone's very friendly and willing to help
12:50and that's why we thought,
12:51let's come back here and get a lease and do some digging.
12:54But they've never mined a day in their lives.
12:57We've read a little but we are complete rookies.
13:00With their debt growing daily,
13:02Carl and Mary need to find opal as quickly as they can.
13:06Our target this season is...
13:08$100,000.
13:09Yeah.
13:10That would be good.
13:19So how much do you think we need to find?
13:21I think to get us started in Whitecliffs
13:23we're going to need at least $3,000.
13:25Between $3,000 and $5,000,
13:26we're going to have to find at least one really good piece.
13:31The first stop on their journey is Opalton, Queensland,
13:35home of boulder opal, worth up to $20,000 a gram.
13:40Boulder opal's probably my favourite type of Australian opal
13:43because I just feel it's a bit more fascinating,
13:46it's a bit more interesting.
13:48In the 1880s, hundreds of opal mines covered this land
13:52until a dip in prices sent many miners bankrupt.
13:56Now, with prices soaring again,
13:58Carl and Mary could be on the way to a fortune.
14:01If we can find a few pieces, we can coin to stones
14:04and Mary can set a piece and we could sell that.
14:07But these remote opal fields stretch almost 1,000 square kilometres
14:12and temperatures can hit a deadly 46 degrees Celsius.
14:17In 2018, 13 people died of heat exhaustion in the outback.
14:24We're taking a chance and this is another little part of that.
14:30Look at all these boulders on the side of the road.
14:32Can you see?
14:33They're ironstone as well, aren't they?
14:34Yeah.
14:35In Queensland, with a $50 fossicking permit,
14:38anyone can hunt for opal on the surface of publicly designated land.
14:43I reckon this is ironstone, Mary.
14:45They're looking for boulder opal found inside ironstone rocks.
14:50We're in the right place. Yeah.
14:52And the ground is scattered with ironstone
14:54that could hold opal that's been missed.
14:57So it's slightly darker than all the other bits around, isn't it?
15:00Yeah, that's the sandstone.
15:02You can see the difference.
15:04So we're managing to get our eye in, spotting the ironstone pretty quickly.
15:09It stands out from the sandstone quite significantly.
15:13The tricky part now is to try and spot a boulder
15:17that's got potential colour in it from one that hasn't.
15:20Oh, look.
15:22What is it?
15:24That's quite cute, isn't it?
15:26It's just like milky blue, isn't it?
15:30But all they're finding is common opal with little or no colour,
15:35known as potch.
15:37Yeah, so that's the colour come through.
15:39That's really, really potch.
15:41It's feeling a little bit like a needle in a haystack.
15:44We're teased with the right signs.
15:46We get close with a little bit of potch,
15:48but nothing that we can really usefully do anything with
15:53presents itself at the moment.
15:56It's pretty hard going with the flies and the heat and digging.
16:00Do you think we should try somewhere else?
16:02Maybe we should try and find something a bit more remote,
16:05a bit more of an older dump.
16:07Let's go for it.
16:16I can't peg that.
16:18My climb goes from there and comes all the way through there.
16:22At the Tunnel Rats grasshopper mine,
16:24rival miners have pegged an unclaimed area
16:26right next to their most productive bit of land.
16:30This is already pegged.
16:31No, it's not.
16:32What do you mean?
16:34It's not pegged.
16:35Baden's convinced the rival's pegs are metres inside his own claim,
16:39but Dad Rodney isn't so sure.
16:42So the way I pegged it, how I wanted to peg it,
16:45was I had my peg coming straight through yours.
16:48Yeah, that's what it should have been.
16:50And that's how it is.
16:52No, it's not.
16:53Because your peg goes through on an angle like that.
17:01Baden has mistakenly set his pegs at an angle
17:05and the rivals have legally pegged the land right next to him.
17:09If the rich opal seam that has netted the Tunnel Rats $100,000
17:14continues into the rival's claim,
17:16Baden, Rodney and Lees will have just lost access to it.
17:21We're talking big money here.
17:22And this corner, it just gives you off to the point where you just...
17:28I can't even explain.
17:31I can't even explain.
17:33I just can't.
17:37No-one's going to take our riches off us.
17:39Not Dad and I.
17:41No.
17:42Work too hard.
17:44See my peg here?
17:45Yes, son.
17:46See his peg there?
17:47Yeah.
17:48He can't do it.
17:49Oh, yes, he can.
17:50For Baden, after working this claim for 17 years with little reward,
17:55it's the last straw.
17:57Come over here.
17:58No.
17:59Let's walk over here.
18:00No, I don't want to go over there.
18:01I'm looking at my f***ing peg.
18:03You've got to look where the other peg is, OK?
18:06The only reason I probably even haven't done it
18:09is because it needs to come over more.
18:12That's what it is.
18:14Yeah.
18:16I've made a mistake.
18:17That was my first original spot where I put my peg,
18:20and then I had an angle.
18:22Breathe.
18:23Breathe, honey.
18:24Breathe.
18:25Just breathe.
18:26That's what I was scared about yesterday.
18:28Scared all this s*** was going to happen.
18:31Just breathe, honey.
18:32Deep breaths.
18:33Look.
18:35I'm still working on your claim, son.
18:37So don't panic.
18:38That's why I wanted to peg my f***ing look at him.
18:41I had a f***ing peg!
18:44Hey.
18:45That's f***ing why!
18:48F*** me dead.
18:51How many times did I say,
18:52f***, please look at my f***ing claim?
18:55How many f***ing times, Dad?
18:58I said, please, f***, look at me claim!
19:02Son.
19:03You know it.
19:05It's all right.
19:06I'm still working in your ground.
19:08All I want to do is,
19:10we'll sell the opal we got,
19:11and I'm done here in Minibee.
19:13I'm done.
19:14I'm done.
19:16Son.
19:17All this ground,
19:18all this ground through here
19:20is the ground that is producing opal, OK?
19:24Our drive's coming this way.
19:27Here.
19:28Underneath.
19:29So we're nowhere near anybody else's ground.
19:34And they've just missed the run by 20 or 30 metres.
19:39It's all right, son.
19:40It's all right, mate.
19:41So we're just going to continue mining.
19:43I know I'm in my ground,
19:45so nothing's stopping me.
19:48When you think that somebody's coming in to steal,
19:52you know, your dreams,
19:55yeah, it gets emotional.
20:02Well, if it's silence in there,
20:04if we come back and go through there,
20:06we should still hit the edge of it.
20:08Deep in Bondi,
20:10their last remaining untapped mine,
20:12the Bushmen have lost their way.
20:15I would have thought it was on this direction.
20:17We keep saying we're looking for nine inches.
20:19What we mean by that is one of them,
20:22which is a nine-inch exploratory hole.
20:25They're hunting a group of long-lost exploratory holes
20:29rumoured to hold good opal.
20:31That's what we're looking for.
20:32The three over there that drilled up colour 20 years ago.
20:36But Rod and Les have been digging in the wrong direction.
20:39Bring this right forward and lay it forward.
20:42We were sort of going in that way
20:44because we were following a nice seam
20:46and we actually had to swing around about 45 degrees.
20:53Having struggled to find any good opal for months
20:56and running out of fuel and food,
20:58the Bushmen need their luck to change.
21:01We can sure do with a payday at the moment,
21:03the way things are going,
21:05so we're really hoping that this will be it.
21:09We don't hit it soon.
21:11It's a mortgage due
21:14and just gabbing to try and get diesel to go back underground
21:18and keep on doing what we're doing.
21:23Shift your bloody machine out the road.
21:25Oh, that sounds a bit excited.
21:26It is f***ing excited.
21:28You got the little heart of flooding out.
21:30It better be good, I'm telling you.
21:33Whoa!
21:34There she is. Look at that.
21:39Not bad, bloody black.
21:41We're finding opal.
21:43It's not big money, but it's real good trace.
21:47If you're not finding gem opal, this is the next best thing to it
21:50because it's a really good sign that you're leading up to something.
21:55For once, Les, for once, the stories appear to be right.
21:59It was in the truth section, not the fiction section.
22:02We might suck this out so I can get in here properly, mate,
22:05because it is continuing there.
22:07I might be able to undercut it with the digger.
22:09To chase the opal, they first need to clear out the mined earth.
22:14A powerful diesel-fuelled vacuum called a blower
22:17sucks up the excavated rock at a rate of four tonnes an hour,
22:21depositing it above ground.
22:28Guess what, Les?
22:30It's not sucking.
22:31Something's gone wrong.
22:33I'll go up and have a look.
22:40The belts are off!
22:42The belts have come off the pulley
22:44that powers the blower's 20-year-old vacuum pump.
22:48What else can go bloody wrong?
22:51We were sucking out and all of a sudden the blower stopped working.
22:55It had spat all the drive belts off.
22:59We're just getting so close to those nine-inch exploratory holes
23:03and we're starting to get really nice pots with good colour
23:06and it's just that frustration of not being able to get down there, you know.
23:10It's cracked there.
23:12The pulley has broken here, it's cracked through here
23:15and it's not staying on the shaft.
23:17We're just going to weld the bloody thing up and be done with it.
23:20I know you don't want to do it, but...
23:22Yeah, I know, because...
23:23I know, you don't tell me why,
23:25don't tell me what's going to happen, Les, I don't want to know.
23:28All I want to know is, if you weld it there,
23:31it's not going to kill either of us, is it?
23:33We won't be happy.
23:34OK, so what are we worrying about?
23:36Let's just bloody do it.
23:39Rod wanted to do the dodgy because I'm not into that dodgy stuff much.
23:43I'd seen her fix it properly.
23:47You shouldn't do it, but, you know,
23:50I didn't have much choice and I want to keep digging.
23:53Yeah, we need some money.
23:55Righto, we're ready to rail.
23:59Well done, mate.
24:04Bloody good to be back at work, get a bit of digging done.
24:11You reckon you can pass this to Jack MLS?
24:14Yeah, righto.
24:15There's a bit of bloody purpley-blue stuff here in the wall.
24:19I've got a seam coming down there,
24:21I've got another seam coming down there,
24:23and then I've got a horizontal coming down here.
24:25And where it all meets, that's generally where you find colour.
24:29You'd better get the lid off the colour tin,
24:31we're going to need it, I think.
24:33I'm getting that feeling.
24:34You got the feeling?
24:35I've got the bloody feeling, mate.
24:37Well, you've got your hand on it.
24:42Oh, bloody beautiful.
24:44I can see that from here.
24:46Yeah, so it's got to be good.
24:50This is just getting better and better.
24:54MUSIC
24:57Well, we've got a four-wheel drive,
24:59so let's do a bit of off-road,
25:01see if we can find some old-timers there at the inn.
25:04In outback Queensland, novice miners Carl and Mary
25:07are hoping to find valuable boulder opal
25:10by sifting through the waste dirt
25:12from 100-year-old abandoned mines.
25:15We've been told that having a scratch around
25:18on some of the old-timer dumps can turn up some material.
25:21Those boys used to throw our valuable stuff away.
25:23Well, it wasn't valuable to them, but it is to us.
25:25Yeah, absolutely.
25:26But they've never mined before
25:28and have so far found nothing.
25:30We've realised just how much hard work it's going to be.
25:33We scratched around, we got hot, we got sweaty,
25:35we got covered in flies and dusty
25:37and really didn't turn anything up.
25:39It's a really big expectation to just turn it up
25:41to a place you've never been before,
25:43do something you've never done before.
25:45They're now gambling what little they have left
25:48on hiring a four-by-four
25:50to help them go even deeper into the harsh outback.
25:54Oh, this looks like it could be it.
25:56Right here.
25:58The further they go,
26:00the greater chance they have of discovering old mine sites
26:03that haven't been thoroughly picked over.
26:06These are really old dumps.
26:08They're probably 60, 70 years old.
26:11So the good stuff's probably been taken from the top,
26:13but there might be some treasure hiding underneath,
26:15so we're going to dig down
26:17and see if we can find a bit more colour.
26:23We're going a little bit further down,
26:25and I'm just washing off
26:27to help get some of the dirt off
26:29so we can see if there's any colour
26:31inside of any of these bits of iron.
26:37Hang on a minute, Carl.
26:39Look at that.
26:41Wow, that's real colour.
26:43That's beautiful.
26:45Wow, look at that.
26:47There's loads of little veins in there as well.
26:50That could face on the top there.
26:52It goes all the way through.
26:54Yeah, we come down on the face of that.
26:56That's a stone.
26:58If the opal in this stone runs right through it,
27:01it will create a full opal face,
27:03which could be worth around $500.
27:06You got another bit?
27:08Yeah, hang on.
27:10They all in that last shovelful?
27:12Yeah, yeah. It all just came together.
27:15Oh, that colour is stunning.
27:17That's my favourite. There's the green.
27:19I'm not sure how deep it goes.
27:21I can't believe that just came out of there.
27:23Look at the brightness.
27:25That is so vibrant.
27:27That's fantastic.
27:29We've got a stone to cut.
27:33We've just found some
27:35really, really amazing colour.
27:37Some really bright
27:39blue-green.
27:41It might have a nice face on it.
27:43So these are potential jewellery opals.
27:45So these are the first cuttable stones
27:47we've seen since we arrived in Opalton yesterday.
27:49So this is exciting.
27:51But if I can cut those to their best,
27:53I think we've got enough stones here to cut.
27:55Do you reckon? Yeah, I do.
27:57If we can find a buyer for those,
27:59we'll definitely have enough to get set up in Whitecliffe.
28:01Yeah.
28:03Back at their mobile base,
28:05the Poms will need Carl's newly learnt skills
28:07at cutting stones.
28:09I'll probably be a little bit cautious,
28:11not wanting to do the wrong thing.
28:13And Mary's skills at making jewellery
28:15to turn these rough stones
28:17worth hundreds into finished pieces
28:19worth thousands.
28:21There's a lot of sunspots
28:23in the face, so if those sunspots
28:25clear out, there's some beautiful colour
28:27underneath, but it's very thin.
28:33Hope we don't lose the colour.
28:37Oh.
28:41I think I've stuffed it up.
28:51She knows. She knows exactly.
28:53Lady. Yeah.
28:55In Minterby, rival
28:57miners have pegged a claim right
28:59next to the Tunnel Rats' rich opal
29:01mine, putting them on high
29:03alert.
29:05Just put the dog on the leash
29:07at the front there for security measures.
29:09They bark at everything
29:11and anything, so
29:13anyone snooping around, they'll let us know for sure.
29:15You done, buddy?
29:17Yeah, it looks like it wants to.
29:19Yeah, it wants
29:21to.
29:23Timber!
29:25In just two months, they face eviction from their
29:27camp and mining claims.
29:29And now, with rival miners
29:31closing in, it's a race
29:33to find opal.
29:35Every day I feel that we're running
29:37out of time and I'm trying to
29:39look for ways to cut corners
29:41to get the dirt out faster.
29:43Dad's going to be homeless.
29:45I'm going to be homeless. We need money
29:47to be able to buy
29:49another place.
29:57It's trying. There's a fleck of
29:59red, but that's all. Up here
30:01we've got pox and colour.
30:03And here we've got green.
30:05We'll come in over the top
30:07and we'll drop it down.
30:09You don't want to get the jackhammer too close, usually you'll
30:11smash up all your opal.
30:13Righto, give us a hand.
30:15Right?
30:17Yeah, there's green up there.
30:19Look at that!
30:21Yeah!
30:23That's pay dirt, mate.
30:25That's pay dirt.
30:27Green, blues, reds.
30:35Oh!
30:37Look at those pieces.
30:41You know, it just seems like
30:43it just keeps on getting better.
30:45Now chuck in the drum and let's get it all.
30:47Yeah, let's get it all.
30:49Baden, look at that.
30:55I can't see any there.
30:57I got it off with my hand.
30:59Look at that!
31:01Yes!
31:03That's what I'm talking about.
31:05Yes!
31:11I'm really shaking.
31:13Yes!
31:19Yeah!
31:21We need another bucket.
31:23I'll use the bobcat.
31:25I think I'm bragging here.
31:27I think I might just have to start dumping in the bobcat.
31:29It's the find they desperately need
31:31to get what they're meant to be
31:33and keep their opal dream alive.
31:35The green just held off and held off
31:37and all of a sudden it's like,
31:39hey, it's time to pay out.
31:41Come find me.
31:43Mate, it's come at a good time for us, I'll tell you.
31:53Hope we don't lose the colour.
31:55Oh!
32:01I think I've stuffed it up.
32:03At the start of his dream journey
32:05to become an opal miner,
32:07British ex-schoolteacher Carl
32:09has made his first rookie mistake.
32:11I just got overexcited
32:13trying to get the sunspots out
32:15so I could see the colour
32:17and I've taken both out.
32:19The colour and the sunspots have gone
32:21and we're just down to bare ironstone.
32:23With its high moisture content,
32:25opal is relatively soft
32:27compared to other gems
32:29and is easily damaged by an inexperienced cutter.
32:33We only had two stones that looked like they were promising
32:35so we've got one left.
32:37That one has to work if we're going to make any money.
32:41I'm just letting the stone roll around,
32:43taking off some more of the ironstone
32:45and letting the shape appear.
32:47Jeweller Mary is already crafting
32:49$1,000 worth of gold
32:51into a ring for the stone.
32:55Because gold is quite expensive to buy
32:57I usually just buy it
32:59for each commission that I do
33:01but I've got a little piece left over.
33:03We're just trying to make
33:05the opal fit.
33:09Mary, do you want to bring your
33:11gold out darling and see if this fits?
33:13Yeah.
33:15That's going to be a beautiful ring, isn't it?
33:17Yeah, well done.
33:21Opals are quite soft
33:23as a gemstone.
33:25They're quite fragile.
33:27If there's any slight weakness in the opal at all
33:29it can crack and break
33:31so this is quite nerve-wracking.
33:37So I think that's
33:39almost there.
33:41It goes in there nicely but it just sort of
33:43catches slightly.
33:45Oh!
33:47What?
33:49You're kidding me.
33:51I need to have a little bit of gold still on the outside
33:53of the back plate and it needs to be
33:55like this
33:57on both sides.
33:59That's a lot.
34:05Usually you start with the opal
34:07and you cut the metal to the size of the opal
34:09but because gold is hideously expensive
34:11we've had to trim the opal to the size
34:13of the metal which is just
34:15heartbreaking.
34:20Yeah, I'll do.
34:22Stop!
34:24So now we've recut the stone
34:26and I've filed the
34:28ring so now
34:30hopefully when I put it on there
34:32it should stand up on its own.
34:34And I've got a couple of pieces of solder here
34:36that will
34:38hopefully join the ring band
34:40to the setting.
34:44So now I've just got to heat it
34:46all to the same temperature.
34:49And then I'll pickle that. That'll pickle for
34:51probably about 40 minutes.
34:53The ring is pickled in a solution
34:55of acid and water to remove
34:57residues from the solder.
34:59And finally, the
35:01opal is placed in its setting.
35:03It's like the perfect size which is
35:05why it's taken so long.
35:07Because setting opals is
35:09quite dodgy because they're
35:11so fragile.
35:13When it just survives the whole process
35:15it's really nice to see it.
35:17Carl and Mary have turned a
35:19$500 stone and
35:21$1,000 of gold into a
35:23piece they hope is worth over
35:25$6,000.
35:27The ring is 14 carat gold.
35:29$6,000 even sounds cheap but we need the money.
35:31And Carl
35:33has polished five more lower
35:35quality stones.
35:37The stones, we'd like $1,000 but I'll probably ask for
35:39$1,500.
35:41In their first ever opal deal,
35:43Carl and Mary are meeting with experienced
35:45opal buyer Eric Madsen
35:47who travels to Queensland opal fields
35:49looking for stock.
35:51Yeah, good to see you again Eric.
35:53I'm an opal dealer from Sydney
35:55and they mentioned to me that they have
35:57some nice pieces they'd like to
35:59show to me and maybe want to sell.
36:01So I managed to find a few
36:03pieces which I've
36:05cut and polished.
36:07That's those there.
36:09Yeah, that's
36:11a bit of matrix.
36:13It's not worth a real
36:15big amount of money.
36:17I've also made a ring with
36:19a really nice opal.
36:23Ah, that's beautiful.
36:25Solid 14 carat gold.
36:27That's our price.
36:29Yeah, that's a clean face.
36:31It's got all the colours.
36:35You like to sell the whole lot.
36:37That's one parcel lot.
36:39Ideally.
36:41We'd like $1,500 for the stones
36:43and the ring's got to be worth at least $6,000.
36:45$6,000, yeah.
36:47$7,500.
36:49You know $7,500 for the lot
36:51I think is a bit high for me.
36:53I'm interested in it.
36:57I can give you
36:59$6,500 for the lot.
37:03What do you think about that?
37:07What do you reckon?
37:09Much less than what we wanted.
37:11Yeah, I think
37:13we need it really, don't we?
37:15Okay, $6,500.
37:17You're done.
37:19Bear Opal is
37:21boulder opal, cut and polished
37:23with one set in a gold ring.
37:25Worth $6,500
37:27it's just the kickstart the Brits need
37:29to begin their new life
37:31as opal miners.
37:33This place has been really good for us.
37:35It's been a fantastic experience
37:37and we're looking forward to moving on towards Whitecliffs now.
37:41We've made enough money to help us
37:43set up our own mine.
37:45At least get some power tools and some light
37:47for when we're tunnelling.
37:49We're looking forward to learning a bit more
37:51about opal, a bit more about mining,
37:53a bit more about ourselves and having the adventure.
37:55Oh, Les,
37:57couple of bob, mate.
37:59Yeah?
38:01Where's the other half?
38:03Up here.
38:05After years of finding just enough to survive,
38:07the Bushman's opal drought
38:09appears to be over.
38:11I reckon, Les, that this is going to be
38:13a payday.
38:15I know the big beam cupboard's nearly empty.
38:17Yeah.
38:19Oh, man, it's going to be a payday.
38:21It's going to be a payday.
38:23Oh, man,
38:25it's everywhere.
38:27I'm scared to dig it out, Les.
38:29It's been that long.
38:31Nah, it's too big for that.
38:35Oh,
38:37man.
38:39Digging colour out of the wall.
38:41There's no better feeling.
38:43For Rod and Les, opal fever
38:45has struck again.
38:47When you've got the opal bug bad,
38:49it's the joy you get looking into it.
38:51When you're passionate about the colours,
38:53do something to your soul.
38:55It's just so pretty.
38:57I love looking at opal.
38:59Oh, Les.
39:01I'd say that'll go in the colour jar, mate.
39:05Yeah, this is a real good piece.
39:07That is a hard work,
39:09all your break downs, all the
39:11bloody stuff you have to go
39:13through to find this, you know,
39:15and here it is.
39:17Oh, man.
39:19I can feel it.
39:21I reckon you're dreaming black and white,
39:23but I know I dream in colour.
39:25Oh, ho, ho, ho.
39:27She keeps going.
39:29This here
39:31is as good as it gets
39:33for blue-green.
39:35You know, that could be three green stone.
39:37Getting into some good money now.
39:39Look at that twinkle in that.
39:41It's going to be a good payday when we cash it in.
39:43Have something different to eat
39:45than bloody beans and kangaroo.
39:47Beautiful stuff.
39:49I reckon we've picked up 20 grand.
39:53The Bushmen have unearthed high-quality
39:55black opal, mainly
39:57medium-value blue-green,
39:59on an intense black base.
40:01They have almost 400
40:03grams, with an estimated value
40:05of $20,000,
40:07taking their season
40:09total to over $30,000.
40:11How good's that?
40:13Real good.
40:15Don't get too excited there, Les.
40:17You nearly smiled, mate. You nearly smiled there.
40:21I'm feeling pretty bloody
40:23good about all these bits
40:25of colour coming my way.
40:27Yeah, I do smile to myself.
40:29And
40:31I think it's really
40:33good.
40:35We hit 20 grand there this afternoon,
40:37which is fantastic. It's a lot of money,
40:39but I reckon there's bigger things to come,
40:41you know. If this is the edge of it,
40:43you'd imagine what the good stuff would be like.
40:45Bloody river.
40:47This is only the edge.
40:49I'm thinking we're going to hit it in this
40:51claim. This might be the claim.
40:53Get us all we want.
41:07Good morning, Robert.
41:09Good morning, fellow local miners.
41:11At the Tunnel Rats' Minterby
41:13camp, fellow miner and international
41:15opal dealer Robert Harnstra
41:17has arrived to value their recent
41:19find. How you going, mate? Good, man.
41:21Robert goes to the region
41:23and keeps an eye on the prices, because he also
41:25mines himself.
41:27So, yeah, I trust
41:29his judgement for sure.
41:31Valuing opal is subject to a number
41:33of variables, including colour,
41:35size, brightness
41:37and shape.
41:39Alrighty, so the two categories
41:41I've separated into
41:43is your top grade, which is
41:45all your solid cutters here
41:47with a very bright bar along the
41:49top of it, and you're using the potch
41:51as your base. And this
41:53is a larger stone in the lesser grade.
41:55This one's more of a jelly, and you can
41:57see the comparison difference
41:59where you've got a really dense pattern
42:01and very bright to a jelly
42:03which is very grey in the
42:05lower grade. And you've got a lot of
42:07smaller stones. Their opal
42:09is a mixture of lighter and
42:11darker meant to be crystal.
42:13It's in the rough, and there
42:15is 800 grams of it.
42:17So how much have we got here, Rob?
42:19Well, for the four parcels
42:21obviously the top two are the best.
42:23The second two, very nice colour, but
42:25smaller pieces. I've come to a total
42:27general estimate of
42:33$37,500.
42:35Yes!
42:37So yeah, I wish you the best there.
42:39That's awesome. I'm excited!
42:41Finally!
42:43High five!
42:45I think that mine
42:47has a lot more to give.
42:49Every time you have a look, you just
42:51seem to find something.
42:53The opal just seems to keep coming.
42:55There's one pocket after the next pocket.
42:57It just makes me so happy
42:59that I haven't wasted my life.
43:01That's something
43:03that we've been waiting for
43:05for a long, long, long time.
43:07To see it and experience
43:09opal keep on coming out,
43:11and all of a sudden it's red, it's greens, it's oranges,
43:13and all of a sudden it gets darker,
43:15and it's just beautiful.
43:17I'm just hoping when it actually
43:19does make proper thick stuff
43:21that it's going to be all black opal, mate.
43:23That
43:25will really be life-changing.
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