Travel to Australia, and watch this real life documentary, of people mining the Opal gemstone.
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
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TVTranscript
00:00On Outback Opal Hunters, the young guns battle a severe storm in a race to save
00:08their season.
00:16Digging out my floor would be a massive job so I think I've got to get a drill
00:20rig and see what's down there. The McFarlands hunt for opal in the floor
00:24as they struggle to put a roof over their
00:29heads. This stuff just brings down dust and dirt. I can certainly say my
00:35confidence is not growing. If you won't cut it, it's too late, it's gone. A new team hits
00:40the opal fields. I'm pissed off already. I want to get on top of the bills, I want to
00:45be able to provide for the kids. Big debts force the Cheels to take big risks.
00:59This is one of the old entrances to our mines, so this goes directly under where we are now and look at that, we've got water pissing down the shaft. It's all starting to sink in.
01:29We've got to stop all this water flowing out. We've got no time at all, we've got to just keep moving this dirt into place and just stop the mine from flooding. If this floods, we're in serious trouble.
01:41I can't even touch the bottom there. If the mine gets flooded, I mean really, we're not
01:46really gonna be able to mine it, you know, end up with all the electrics and stuff. It's too
01:48dangerous to work down there with electricity obviously.
01:53We're starting to flood.
01:55In remote White Cliffs, New South Wales, a sudden summer storm is causing havoc for the young guns.
02:04As outback temperatures rise, humidity can also build, causing violent torrential downpours,
02:10dumping hundreds of millimetres of rain in just a few hours.
02:14In the space of like half an hour a bit, we've had so much rain, more than we've seen in the last three years.
02:23Damon, we can't get a big barrier at the top of our decline, but we've just dug a little
02:31trench here and we've made a little barrier, so hopefully no more water gets in.
02:37We really just need to get out of the rain now and just hope for the best. We've done
02:41pretty much everything we can to make sure the mine doesn't flood too much.
02:45In their first season, it's a massive setback for the rookies from the coast, still over
02:57$22,000 short of their season target.
03:00If this goes for much longer, if this goes for like another hour or two, you know, our
03:04mine would almost certainly get flooded. That's gonna suck if that does happen and we have
03:10to shut it down early, you know, that's gonna really be a bummer.
03:16Just 500 kilometres away, the landscape is very different.
03:28Bloody dry. Dry, huh?
03:31Heading to Lightning Ridge, former miner Chris Cheal and 18-year-old son Oscar are entering
03:37a region that's been ravaged by a three-year drought.
03:40It's probably gonna be a bit stressful but I just hope it's not too hot.
03:45Chris is returning to opal mining after the worst drought in a decade destroyed his trucking
03:51business.
03:52Got a road train and I can't grain with that. Obviously with no rain the last three years,
03:57I think the last harvest I did was 2016.
04:02The drought, it's just gone on and on. As you can see from the landscape, it's as dry
04:07as a chip. I've just had to park the truck up and source of work elsewhere.
04:15I just graduated high school, you know, a few days ago, I finished my last exam. Dad
04:19managed to get us down to Sydney for school. He worked his arse off seven days a week every
04:24week and, yeah, I'm just so grateful for that. I'm really looking to give back now that,
04:30you know, I'm kind of moving into the workforce.
04:33The Cheels are back in Lightning Ridge, hunting legendary black opal, worth up to $43,000
04:41a gram.
04:42Lightning Ridge produces the best opal in the world and when you're mining, you've got
04:46a chance to change a life just in one day. You can get yourself ten years in front financially,
04:52you know, and there's not many places in the world you can go and do that.
04:57I'm back here to try and find some decent money because I want to get on top of the
05:02bills. I want to be able to provide for the kids. I'm just trying to give my kids the
05:06opportunities that I never had.
05:11But only weeks are left until 50 degree temperatures make it too hot to mine.
05:17We've got a very small window to put a hole down, get the gear set up and get as much
05:22dirt out as we can.
05:25If we can find 10 gram, it'll cover the cost for this time and we'll have a bit in the
05:28kitty to come back.
05:35Old mining mate Scott McMillan has a claim he's willing to subcontract to Chris.
05:41Righto.
05:42Cheelsy, this is my claim, this one here.
05:44Yep, so that's the boundary?
05:45Yep, this is your claim. And it goes 50.
05:4850 by 50 metres that way?
05:50Yep.
05:53Scott's offered this claim to work. He's done some work in here about 12 years ago.
05:57The holes have been filled back in and, you know, you've got a bit of money here.
06:02Before he takes on the claim, Chris wants proof the ground has the potential to produce opal.
06:08Can we have a look down?
06:09Yeah, sure.
06:10Righto.
06:11No worries at all.
06:12Let's do it, we'll suit up.
06:13We'll just want to go down, have a little scratch. This is Scott's claim but it'll give us a
06:17good idea of what we can expect.
06:20For Oscar, the opportunity to mine again with his dad is a long-held dream.
06:25Pretty much my whole life I've been into open mining. It's a passion of Dad's, so as a young kid
06:31I'd love to, you know, come out hanging off him and jump on the digger and all sorts of stuff.
06:36Geez, that's a right Scott, hey, look. He broke one there.
06:39Oh, right.
06:40Is the other half in there somewhere?
06:42I don't know.
06:43Oh, there you go.
06:44Yeah, that's the other half.
06:47Nice blue bar in it. Well, that's convinced me.
06:51Yeah, no, I'm happy with that.
06:52You know, with a chance. If you're happy with it, we can strike a deal, Scott.
06:56The going rate should be 30, 70.
06:58Yeah.
06:59I'm pretty happy with that if yous are.
07:02Yeah, righto, well, you get 30, we get 70. Hopefully we can make you some money.
07:08Yeah, that'd be good.
07:09Because if you're making money, we're making money.
07:11Yeah, thank you.
07:12Thanks, Oscar.
07:17Where we're digging is supposed to be good opal ground.
07:20We've been up there digging now for quite a few months, and all we've got out of it is a few grand.
07:26So we don't want to push our luck. It's dangerous ground.
07:30We have had collapses around us, but we've just got to get some opal, you know,
07:34otherwise the family's going to suffer. That's the end of the story. The family suffers.
07:41Some opal so we can buy you a car.
07:44Seven years ago, Gavin McFarlane, wife Connie and 16-year-old daughter Tegan
07:49moved to Lightning Ridge from the coast to escape the rat race.
07:53Before opal mining, I was a computer engineer.
07:56Sometimes I'd work seven days straight or I'd be out seven, eight, nine o'clock at night still working, you know.
08:02But there was something missing.
08:04I think the treasure hunter in me was ignited.
08:08You can go to work, $10 in your wallet, and go home a millionaire.
08:14Everybody wants to be a millionaire.
08:19Hunting legendary black opal, the McFarlanes are struggling
08:23with the family home in desperate need of repair.
08:26In the air is my parents' room, so I can see in.
08:29And then there actually is a window there, but it's kind of fallen through a little bit.
08:35And then that wall is just, by the heat and everything, it's just getting deep warm.
08:40Australia has experienced its hottest decade on record.
08:44For opal miners, the conditions are the toughest they've ever been.
08:48We have extreme weather here. At the moment it's 45 degrees, I heard, today.
08:52Tried to put the air conditioner on the other day, and the load was too heavy for the solars, and it just stopped.
08:59And in the dead of this heat, it is killing me.
09:02Even if we had air conditioning, or a fan, or whatever else,
09:06because the ceiling is in the condition that it is, and it doesn't quite meet the walls in places,
09:12any cool air we do have escapes faster than is practical to keep us cool.
09:18This season, Gavin has found little more than $2,000, so it's time for some new tactics.
09:25Mines around me, they've got millions of dollars out of here,
09:29and they are now condemned mines. They all were digging deeper.
09:35So, where we're digging at the moment, we have a hard roof, but we have a really soft base.
09:42I'm looking for a hard sandstone base below me, where the opal's got an opportunity to form.
09:50Gavin's plan is simple.
09:52Explore a nearby mine to see what depth the previous miners found opal.
09:57Then dig to the same depth in his mine.
10:00Offsider Tim Bryant will measure from above.
10:03All right, mate, I'll go down. I'll give you a hoi when I'm right for that tape measure to come down for the first measurement, OK?
10:09Yeah, no worries. You be careful.
10:11I'll be careful.
10:12There is a mine next door that hasn't been worked. It's been pretty much abandoned for 10 years.
10:18CLANGING
10:27This is so dangerous in here.
10:31This has been exposed, open for 10-plus years.
10:35Air coming in dries it out, so it makes it even crumblier.
10:40You have to be aware of stuff like this falling in on you.
10:45It's not solid.
10:47God forbid if the roof fell on you, it'd kill you.
10:50I'm just going to venture up this other hole.
10:54Hopefully there could be something solid below me.
10:58Wow, there's a really, really narrow level underneath what they've been calling here the second level.
11:05You see that in there?
11:08It's like a little narrow level in there.
11:12Certainly could be exactly what we're looking for.
11:23We'll get all this loose dirt behind us here.
11:26We'll put that in the water and that'll soak up all that water and then we can just bucket out those muddy buckets of dirt.
11:33In White Cliffs, the clean-up has begun for the young guns after extreme summer storms flooded their mine.
11:41Still well short of their season target, the rookies want to expand their operation as they hunt for crystal opal worth up to $25,000 a gram.
11:51We're just going to go down the back hole in the corner of the claim just there and see what's down that hole.
11:57The plan is to connect their mine to a neighbouring one and open it up enough for the Kanga Digger to get through.
12:04Go slowly.
12:07But first, Jamin and Noah need to descend nine metres to find the right location to dig.
12:14I'm a little bit nervous again. With shafts like this that are that deep and unexplored, on a swinging ladder it's still a little bit scary.
12:22That's a bit sketchy. Dude, it's a little mine.
12:27There's still a lot more place to go. I mean, there's a downstairs level and there's just the other side of this level.
12:31Some of the ground looks pretty good.
12:32It could have been 10, 15 years ago that whoever was last in here had given it a bit of a go and then just never turned back up.
12:38I don't know.
12:39I don't know.
12:40I don't know.
12:41I don't know.
12:42I don't know.
12:43I don't know.
12:44I don't know.
12:45I don't know.
12:46I don't know.
12:47I don't know.
12:48I don't know.
12:49I don't know.
12:51And yeah, it's just never turn back up.
12:53Whoa.
12:56That must be like the underneath part.
12:58But bloody hell.
12:59I think maybe we check out the bottom level and see what's down that way.
13:03So, I think that's probably where we're going to end up breaking through.
13:06The bottom level is nine metres down.
13:08The same depth as their mine.
13:10This is where Jayman believes they can dig through to join them together.
13:15Let's try and focus on connecting them up and getting the loader in here
13:17loader in here and really clearing out these walls, making them a bit wider, giving us
13:20a bit more room to walk through. I'm going to draw up a bit of a plan of how it looks
13:24down here and then we'll head back up the top and draw a plan of our mind there and
13:28try and figure out exactly in relation to, you know, where we're digging and make sure
13:32we're going in the right direction just to push through.
13:34Oh, nice. Nice. Got it? She's a heavy one.
13:43Key to the plan is this 1.5 metre long auger drill, hired for $700, that attaches to the
13:50Kanga.
13:51Yeah, I love to my little friend.
13:54Yeah, there we go.
13:57Woo!
13:58With the plan to work, the boys are banking on the drill punching through to the other
14:02side.
14:03We're going to give that a try, drill a hole through there, see if we can, you know, break
14:07through into it. That'd be really good.
14:09Just go straight ahead first.
14:10Straight ahead first.
14:11I haven't seen anything open or anything like that come up on the drill yet, but, you know,
14:12at this stage we're really just trying to find that mine and break through there.
14:13Well, it's not a metre that way.
14:14Think about how long it'll take the jackhammer that far.
14:29I know. Now we know at least it's not, you know, in that direction. So now we're going
14:32to come over this way and we think it's, you know, now that way.
14:33We've kind of worked out by putting two holes in either side that we need to go straight
14:54in the middle. So that's what we're doing right now.
14:55That sounds close.
15:11Like they could be a full metre away right now. I mean, just...
15:24I'm thinking that's my hard sandstone level there.
15:30Righto, if you send it down, Toe.
15:34What do you got?
15:36No, that's 10.8 metres.
15:39Okay. I've found a floor that's probably roughly two and a half metres below where my floor
15:47is. So I'm hoping that carries through into my claim. That's where they're talking about
15:53where the opal is.
15:55In a dangerous abandoned mine, Gavin and off-sider Tim have located the opal level. Next step,
16:02dig to the same level in Gavin's mine.
16:05Digging out my floor would be a massive job. Hundreds of tonnes of soil down there below
16:09me. For us to get down into there, we're going to have to, I don't know, we're going to have
16:13to come up with a plan or something.
16:17I've been playing with the idea of possibly drilling underground. Instead of spending
16:24weeks or months digging down with the digger and just moving dirt to get down there, we've
16:29sort of thrown a few ideas around. The best one we've come up with is basically a small
16:35underground drill.
16:40Gavin's gambling the last of the season on this 23 centimetre diameter drill. To dig
16:452.5 metres into the floor of his mine.
16:49For me, the most important thing in my life is my family. For us to find opal would just
16:54make our life that much more better.
16:59Is it going to work underground? Is everything going to work in our favour?
17:04These pins have got to come out, the head's got to come off and then we can assemble it.
17:13The plan is to use the one-tonne hydraulic digger to drive the drill.
17:18All right, they've been coming.
17:23Hold it there for a minute.
17:27Beautiful.
17:28Yeah.
17:29From here, it should be reasonably simple for us now. A few hydraulic hoses and we'll
17:35be ready to give it its first run.
17:38The final step is to connect a hydraulic hose from the digger to the drill motor.
17:43There we go.
17:46Let's see how you go.
17:53Doesn't fit, Gav.
17:55Are you kidding?
17:59It all hinges on the hole, whether he can get down or not. The more time setting up,
18:09the less chance of making money.
18:12Just weeks away from the end of the season, new team, the Cheels, are making a last ditch
18:17effort to find $10,000 in opal to pay mounting bills.
18:22We are starting from scratch and it's the back end of the season. It's getting so hot
18:26out here.
18:27We've got a short period to come out here and smash out as many loads as we can.
18:34Rima, how are you?
18:35Yeah, pretty good.
18:36We're going to have to put a three-foot hole down so we get the big rig in.
18:42Chris's plan is to dig a metre-wide shaft through a layer of hardened rock called silcrete
18:48to the opal-bearing fault line 13 metres down, then widen it by hand in a process known as
18:54belling out to make enough room for a tunnelling machine.
18:59So there's a pretty hard cap. They say it's about eight to ten feet and it's about two
19:06foot thick.
19:07Yeah, that's fine.
19:08At a cost of $1,300, Chris has hired experienced drill rig operator Homer Rima Ramali to drill
19:16the 13 metres.
19:18Probably a bit of a slow go, but you should go through it.
19:22Alright, okay. I need you to get through.
19:27Get the taste of it.
19:29The teeth on the drill bucket are made of tungsten steel designed to carve through earth
19:35and rock.
19:36It's a bucket machine and that bucket, basically, it gets forced down. It fills a bucket. It's
19:42usually about one foot.
19:53What you said?
19:55It's hard. It's down hard.
19:58Sorry. We have to change a few teeth on the cover.
20:02Used to have a tungsten tip, like that. And they're just worn out, wet out. That's how
20:11hard the silcrete is. It's harder than metal.
20:14The boys are only three metres down. They've only really just started in that silt creep.
20:19You wouldn't really expect to be changing teeth already.
20:24Replacing teeth takes up valuable time.
20:32Round two. Back to the grindstone.
20:42We want to get down to about 43 feet. If we can get to that stage today, hopefully by
20:48tomorrow afternoon we're down the hole and actually digging some dirt.
20:53Another one busted dust.
20:57That's gone. Another one gone.
21:00He's done two more teeth.
21:07Seven feet.
21:08I've been out here for a while for seven feet.
21:10I can certainly say my confidence is not growing.
21:14Three hours and nine teeth later.
21:19I'm getting through it slowly, but I don't know how much longer he's going to keep trying.
21:25Eight feet.
21:32The teeth are gone again.
21:36She won't cut it.
21:38She won't cut it.
21:40I'm 100% now. No, I'm going to burn the clutch in a minute. It's too hard.
21:56Right now we're really keen to get through, so we don't want to stop now.
21:59Still well short of their target, the young guns plan to break through into a neighbouring mine.
22:05Oh, where are you?
22:08Has proved harder than expected.
22:13There he goes. There he goes.
22:18Go on, little drill.
22:24They reckon you're really close, but they've been saying that for hours.
22:27For hours.
22:32I can hear them. Listen to this.
22:34Oi.
22:35Hello.
22:36Oi, the tip is in.
22:38What?
22:39The tip is in.
22:42The tip's in.
22:43Are you kidding? I gave up and the tip was in.
22:51We literally just gave up.
22:58Look at that.
22:59Oh, how are you going?
23:07Definitely, like, very happy to be through.
23:09And definitely going to open up so much more options for us in terms of opening the mine up in a huge way.
23:14Perfect.
23:16Just about to do that last little bit of Jack Cameron.
23:19Make it so we can actually walk through into our new mine.
23:22Let's dig.
23:28Yeah.
23:36One more way through.
23:37That's so satisfying.
23:39I'm happy.
23:41The new mine has 45 metres of tunnels that can now be accessed by their digging and mining equipment.
23:48Oh, this is pretty sick.
23:50Checking out a whole new mine.
23:52It's just awesome, you know.
23:53We're going to increase our potential to find opal by magnitudes.
23:57Oi, have you guys checked out this bit?
24:02What's up there?
24:04Lots of backfill.
24:05I reckon he's shoveling all his dirt up here.
24:08Bloody old-timers in their backfill.
24:14Holy ****.
24:16Look.
24:17What have you got?
24:18You've got some purple over there.
24:20Dude, this mine is pent up.
24:29As you can see, look, it's just cutting groove.
24:32Yeah, yeah.
24:34In a desperate effort to clear debts, former trucker Chris Cheal and son Oscar are attempting to open up a new mine.
24:41But their efforts have hit a roadblock.
24:44This clutch is burning out because it's too hard for the reams to get through.
24:47At a cost of $1,300, the hired Caldwell drill can't break through a hard layer of siltrete rock to reach the opal level.
24:56What if I just go down the hole and took that out?
25:02You know it'd be good.
25:04Chris will tackle the hole with a full-face mask to stop silica dust damaging his lungs.
25:11And a 15-kilogram jackhammer that can deliver more pressure to a single point.
25:16We can't get through, so the only thing I can think of is to get the jackhammer, get down the hole and knock it out by hand.
25:28The temperature at the bottom of the one-metre-wide hole is nearing 45 degrees with high humidity.
25:35Yeah, he's definitely going hard down there.
25:38He's got probably about that much to go around the hole.
25:44Working in these conditions, Chris is at risk of severe dehydration.
25:54He's got about a third left to go.
25:56He's got about a third left to go.
26:07It's the hardest ground I've ever dug with a jackhammer.
26:12Well done. Thanks, mate.
26:17Let's give it a shot now.
26:20Let's hope we're not taking off enough down there for him to get through that cap.
26:27Oh, good. Beautiful.
26:30He's through that hard stuff. Thank goodness.
26:34Yeah, pretty happy, eh?
26:4039.
26:4339 feet.
26:45After six hours of labour, the drill has finally reached the opal level.
26:50After six hours of labour, the drill has finally reached the opal level.
26:54With nearly a full day lost and $1,300 down, Chris needs the next step of his operation to go smoothly.
27:03He's gone over to get the blower. I'm going to bring it over here close to the hole.
27:08The blower is a 30-year-old, 10-tonne, high-powered vacuum that can suck dirt up and out of the bottom of a mineshaft.
27:17So this thing will suck a brick 50 metres within a few seconds. We'll hook it up and tow it out.
27:26But the blower doesn't have a working engine. It must be towed into position right over the newly dug shaft.
27:33Can you slow off a bit?
27:36Your wheel's going to be good.
27:42Right on.
27:44That one's good.
27:47Yeah, that one.
28:09Doesn't fit, guys.
28:10Fittings are too big. These are too small.
28:14Eight metres underground, Gavin McFarland's hopes of finding opal this season are slipping away.
28:20Fittings on the motor was different to the hoses.
28:25Unable to fit the hydraulic hose onto the drill motor, Gavin and Tim can't dig the floor of the mine.
28:32I have some fittings up in the truck. Just a heap of spares.
28:37Just a heap of spares. I'll go up, see what I've got.
28:42Gavin needs to make this work. The family's off-the-grid home is in urgent need of repairs.
28:49I don't understand not having a flushing toilet. It's just normal to other people. We don't have that.
28:57Coming down.
28:58Coming down.
29:02Luckily I keep a little box of mixed fittings, brand new fittings up in my truck.
29:09Hopefully they fit.
29:10Let's do it.
29:15Give me some good news.
29:20Guess what?
29:21Ah, yes?
29:22It fits.
29:23Oh, thank God for that.
29:28All right. It'll be the moment of truth.
29:31You ready?
29:32Ready.
29:36All right!
29:38It's spinning.
29:39It's spinning.
29:40Woo-hoo!
29:41Good going, mate.
29:42Excellent.
29:43Ready to drill.
29:44Ready to go.
29:49Mother Nature produces a beautiful gem. She's pretty darn good at hiding it, too.
29:54So that's what we're here for. The treasure hunter, Innes, is trying to find out where she is, where she's hiding it.
30:04Two and a half metres of drilled dirt is sifted through a mesh, catching any small opal-bearing pebbles or knobbies.
30:13Like silver for gold.
30:16Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's that.
30:17Oh, look at that.
30:18Look, look, look.
30:19Look at that.
30:21Is that a knobby?
30:24Hey.
30:26Hey.
30:28Wow.
30:29Wow.
30:31God, let there be colour in there, please.
30:40That one's good.
30:51That's not what we want.
30:52What?
30:53I thought she was coming down, hey?
30:55Too soft.
30:56Right, I'll have to fire the big truck up, snigger out of there and put another hole cover in.
31:03Just added two hours to a day.
31:05Deep in debt and with the season running out, the Cheels have got their ten-tonne blower stuck in the entrance of their new mineshaft.
31:13Obviously, we're trying to get the blower nice and close.
31:15Just the dirt around the hole was a bit soft and, yeah, she just went straight down.
31:20Just staying clear, hey?
31:21I don't have that chain flying off of it in any way.
31:23To get the blower out, Chris needs the might of his 570 horsepower haulage truck.
31:36At the moment, we're at the start of day four.
31:38It's a bit worrying considering we haven't actually gotten down and started digging yet.
31:42We've only got the hole.
31:45Money at the moment's going out.
31:46Nothing's coming in because we're not getting through any dirt.
31:48And we've got this really, really short window to make some money.
31:51And at the moment, every day counts.
31:53And just these little things are just chewing up so much time.
31:57I've got some 40mm steel plate.
32:01And I'll put steel plate over it.
32:04It can't fall in there, can it?
32:18It's all good to go now, hopefully.
32:21All we've got to do now is put the pipes down and we'll just stay at work.
32:29At the bottom of the 13m shaft, Chris will bell out,
32:33widening the hole for a digger that will create the tunnels.
32:40Do you like that sound?
32:42Do you like that sound?
32:45Jack hammering the cement like sandstone is slow,
32:48with only two cubic metres cleared in an hour.
32:52Put your helmet on, come down, we'll take turns on the hammer.
32:55I'm going to jump down there with him.
33:00When you start up there, start on a bit of an angle.
33:03Once your tip gets in there, then lift it up.
33:06He hasn't had much of an opportunity the last few years.
33:09He hasn't had much of an opportunity the last few years
33:11because he's been studying so hard.
33:13And obviously the best way he can learn is just to be put on it and left alone.
33:18He picks things up pretty quick.
33:20That's it.
33:23Yeah, it's really nice being down here and actually digging.
33:31Oscar's back here giving me a hand
33:33because he's committed to putting himself through college and uni.
33:38And, you know, I can't help him much at the moment with his drought.
33:41I'd love to be able to send him back down here with, you know,
33:44some money in his hip pocket.
33:47We'd better be able here because we're at the end of the season
33:49and this is our only shot.
34:00OK, he's open.
34:02So here, chicken.
34:04Oh, you do.
34:05All right.
34:07Just around the edges, OK?
34:09For the McFarlands, their entire season rests on Gavin's find of an opal knobby
34:14that could be worth thousands.
34:16Watch, you're probably better off doing babies.
34:18Back here, you've got more.
34:20OK, yeah, I like the idea.
34:21He's putting faith in his budding minor daughter, 16-year-old Teagan,
34:25to cut away the outer layer of sandstone.
34:28There you go.
34:29Oh, gosh.
34:31Eric, you see OK, bub?
34:32Yeah.
34:33Ah!
34:35So Dad wanted me to, like, chip out the knobby to get, like, the dirt off it
34:40and see if there was anything in there.
34:42You need to get a little one.
34:44It's a bit nerve-wracking when you, like, first do it
34:47because you're like, what happens if it's a big expensive one and you break it?
34:51A little bit more there, baby.
34:54Yeah, now you're getting into the opal.
34:57Ooh!
34:58I feel like if Dad wasn't there, I would have chopped it right in half.
35:02Can I take that much?
35:03Yeah, go on, if you can.
35:09There you go.
35:10Oh, look, there's...
35:11I mean, you can see bits of purple and blue.
35:13Look in there.
35:14I'm just going to give it a bit of a rub just so we can see.
35:16Give it a rub and have a look.
35:18Connie's skill at rubbing the stones on a polishing wheel
35:22will reveal the true value of the opal, a gem or a dud.
35:27So I get to rub the stones.
35:28It's my way of helping being part of the team.
35:34There's a lot of sand in it.
35:35Yeah, I know.
35:36I'd take it all the way to the black.
35:38Yeah?
35:39Yeah.
35:46It's not quite what we want, but she's pretty.
35:49You can see little bits of purple and little bits of green and...
35:53But I think the sand's definitely got to the middle of it.
35:55Yeah.
35:57It's not going to get us a new roof.
35:59No.
36:00No.
36:01The knobby kind of, like, came out nice,
36:03but there was sand straight through.
36:06The McFarland's knobby is a black opal called Sunflash.
36:10It has no colour bar with only specks of floating green.
36:14There are 3 to 4 grams or 15 to 20 carats.
36:18No money in it, sadly.
36:20No money.
36:21Heading in the right direction.
36:22OK.
36:23We've just got to keep it going.
36:24That's right.
36:25Colour was in the pot.
36:27Gavin tells me that that is what we're looking for.
36:30If he keeps on digging where he is
36:32or moves a couple of centimetres to the left or to the right,
36:35we might find that elusive opal.
36:37It just tells me to keep going, keep trying, keep working.
36:40I guess when I do find it,
36:41I'll be probably doing backflips and handstands and...
37:01Oh!
37:03Look at that.
37:04We've got opal in the wall.
37:06Whoo!
37:07After surviving torrential storms
37:09that threatened to wash out their claim,
37:11the young guns have broken through to a new opal-bearing mine.
37:15Some colour for sure.
37:17Oh, it keeps going.
37:18This looks good, boys.
37:20Come on.
37:21Keep going.
37:22Keep going.
37:23That's money going in.
37:26Whoa, whoa.
37:27That's a big boy.
37:28That's a big one.
37:29That's some red and green.
37:31All right, boys, I think that's probably it.
37:33Our bucket's pretty much full there.
37:42Let's do some cutting, boys.
37:45Jamin has decided that to up the price of the opal that we found,
37:48he's going to cut it.
37:50Jamin Sullivan's been learning to cut opals
37:53from his experienced mining father for the past year.
37:56We're just going to grab a couple of stones
37:58and clean off the edges and just see, you know, what opal's beneath.
38:01Using his dad's polishing and cutting wheels,
38:04the value of the stones is now in Jamin's hands.
38:07Every time I touch this bit of opal to our grinding wheel there,
38:11we're losing money, so we don't want that to happen.
38:13We want to take off as little as possible.
38:15All the stones we cut right now are all going to be freeform.
38:18Opals can be cut freeform, which maintains the irregular edges,
38:23or they can be cut into a calibrated stone,
38:25which has perfect symmetry.
38:27So if we want to make a nice, you know, calibrated circle,
38:31you draw with a little pencil around there
38:33so you'll be able to just follow your outline,
38:35but if you're making something like that,
38:37that means you're losing that other beautiful stone.
38:39You've got to decide if you want to keep it as a freeform
38:42or, you know, you take more of your opal away
38:45and make something that might sell a little bit quicker,
38:48so it's always a bit of a gamble.
38:52Look at that.
38:54Oh-ho-ho!
38:56That's awesome.
38:58Well, that's that parcel done.
39:00Just got to get it valued now and see what we've actually got.
39:04Jamin has asked local veteran miner and opal buyer Maka
39:08to value their find.
39:10So these are the opals I was calling you up about.
39:13Hey, man.
39:15What do you think, Maka?
39:18What weight?
39:20We've got about 18 carats.
39:22That one's probably the best one.
39:24Oh, mate, that's beautiful.
39:26That's a king stone, that.
39:28Six or so. Six or eight.
39:30The anticipation's killing me.
39:32I know.
39:34A six and a...
39:39Mate, I'd say between 7,000 and 8,000.
39:42That's fantastic.
39:44Thank you for that, Maka.
39:46That's what we need to hear, I think.
39:48The Young Guns have found crystal opal,
39:51featuring the full spectrum of colours.
39:53It has been cut and polished,
39:55and there's 3.6 grams,
39:57with a top-end value of $8,000.
40:01Ha-ha-ha!
40:03That's like three months of work
40:05in our dead-end jobs at home.
40:07Look at that. We're opal miners now.
40:10We had problems with flooding.
40:12Everything just seemed to be against this.
40:15The next moment, you just see this sparkle,
40:17this rainbow behind the wall,
40:19and that's what makes it worthwhile.
40:21When you see that buried treasure underground,
40:23it's just something special.
40:25Right now, I've become completely
40:27just a lifestyle of an opal miner.
40:29It's just so rewarding.
40:31You move enough dirt, you're going to find opal.
40:33That's just something you can't get another job,
40:35so that's why it's just one of the best jobs in the world.
40:38Oh, I just hope we get something, mate.
40:40Yeah, there's already...
40:42There's already a couple of grand going out,
40:44and, you know,
40:46I just hope it's...
40:48I hope it's not for nothing, you know?
40:50Yeah, exactly.
40:52After the worst drought in a decade
40:54destroyed their grain-trucking business,
40:56father-and-son team, Chris and his son,
40:58have come together to find a way
41:00to make a difference in the world.
41:02We're going to do it.
41:04We're going to do it.
41:06The father-and-son team, Chris and Oscar Cheal,
41:08are banking on their first truckload of dirt
41:10holding opal.
41:12Scott's been kind enough to let us use the agitator,
41:14so we'll get this in.
41:16The agitator's free this afternoon.
41:18Chris and Oscar are going to put a load through that
41:20just to help them out at the time.
41:22Scott said you don't see bugger oil when you're digging it,
41:24so let's hope he's right.
41:26So we didn't really see much down there, did we?
41:28No.
41:30A converted cement mixer,
41:32the agitator uses thousands of litres of water
41:34to wash away dirt
41:36until all that remains are rocks and any opal.
41:38Scott's here with his family,
41:40and then there's Dad and I and a few others.
41:42If we could find absolutely nothing,
41:44we could find a million dollars down the road.
41:48You know, it all comes down to money, doesn't it?
41:50If there's not the money there,
41:52we need to cover the cost for all of it.
41:54You know, we don't go ahead.
41:56Whatever Chris and Oscar find
41:58will be split 70-30 with Scott.
42:00So they'll need to find
42:02over two and a half thousand dollars
42:04just to cover their costs.
42:06Yeah, just see if there's any colour in there.
42:12Yeah, there's some mud.
42:20Hey, look at that.
42:22Nice red colour, isn't it?
42:24Oh, yeah.
42:26That's a good sign.
42:32What have you done?
42:34Another nice bit of colour.
42:42They can make a little green bar in it.
42:46Hey,
42:48check that out, a good bit of colour,
42:50a nice big knobby.
42:52Oh, yeah.
42:54A little bit of red down in there.
42:56It's on black.
42:58That's bloody good.
43:00The Cheels have found crystal opal,
43:02green and blue,
43:04with some of it on a valuable black base.
43:06In the rough,
43:08there are 20 grams of it.
43:10Some good colour here,
43:12nice little peen knobbies,
43:14nice bright colour.
43:16In the rough, at a guess,
43:18two grams.
43:20Their $1,400 share won't cover costs,
43:22but it's the sign the father and son team need.
43:24There was a bit of colour there,
43:26so it's given me a bit of spark.
43:28We need to dig it down and rip some more dirt out.
43:30Yeah, I'm really confident.
43:32Hopefully, you know, it just leads us in the right way
43:34that we can hit a massive pocket.
43:36He's been great, Oscar.
43:38Just been able to teach him a few things
43:40and just get time with him.
43:42He's great to have around.
43:58Money
44:00Money
44:02Money
44:04Money
44:06Money
44:08Money
44:10Money
44:12Money