Gold Rush - Parker's Trail

on this episode Of "Parker's trail"...

You go prospecting on these? Why is this thing so beat up?

...Parker breaks new ground Testing a hard rock mine.

How deep are we Right now?

Yalgoo is the outback, Where the true world starts.

But after 6 weeks on the road, Temperatures are rising...

you're the Medic, fred.

It's not my Job.

This is on me.

Fred, look out.

...As pressure mounts To leave australia

With a viable gold claim.

You smell it? That's the smell of money.

Man, I wish I could Have some of that.

that could blow Your hand off, could it?

That would kill you?

Fire in the hole.

Oh, boy.

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Fred, look out. It's an emu.

no way.

Don't hit it, fred. Big bird's running alongside us.

-come on. -come on. You can do it.

Okay, we nearly Whack into it,

And then it runs along The side of the road,

Threatening to dive out In front of us at any second.

It's like...

Okay, where are We going now?

we're going to a place Called "Yalgoo."

Yalgoo actually means "Blood" In the indigenous language.

-"Blood"? -"Blood."

It's a very intense Place to be,

Especially this time of year. It doesn't drop below 40.

-it doesn't drop below 40? -that's over 100.

It's a really, Really tough place to be.

I know I've said that about The last couple locations,

But this, by far, Will be the hardest.

parker schnabel And his team are six weeks

Into an eight-week mission Around australia,

Looking for gold Mining opportunities to expand

And extend his operation Beyond the yukon winter.

The team are traveling 200 miles

From the murchison goldfields To the yalgoo goldfields.

This became a gold field Because of old gold mine

Called "Emerald gold mine."

This was back In the 1890s.

And they pulled 2,384 tons,

And got 8,334 ounces.

-holy. -wow.

It's insane.

In 1892, a party of prospectors Trek to a spot in the yalgoo

Where gold had been found In quartz

By local Aboriginal people.

They established The emerald reward mine,

Which, over the next 16 years, Produced $30 million

Worth of gold from ground 400 times richer than the yukon.

We are heading out to hard rock Operation, and that's for sale.

It's owned by a guy Named "Big john."

-big john. -big john.

Hard rock is a massive part Of mining in australia,

Especially Western australia.

Right. I understand the concept.

And the majority of mining In the world is hard rock.

Do you think you Could get into this?

It's the direction to head For longevity,

Because plaster mining, we're Mining ground out like crazy.

We just need to be around the Hard rock game a little more,

And see more operations, And see how it's done a bit

In different ways, And dip a toe in.

It looks interesting.

Yeah, this is cool.

Let's go find out.

-how's it going? -alright. How are we going?

Good. I'm parker.How are you going, parker?

tyler. Thanks for seeing us.

-no worries, tyler. -fred.

How are you doing? Danny.

Danny. Did you get here all right?

-yeah. -very good.

horry's just giving me a Hand to treat some dirt today.

oh, he doesn't look Very australian.

-hello. -how's it going?

we need a bit of wind To keep the dust off us.

I'll just show you a bit What's going on here.

As you can see, I've got my little

Treatment plant Over there.

So, this is all Underground, huh?

Yes. Hard rock.

So, this is the shaft?

That is deep.

It's about 40 meters deep.

So, how far did the old boys Go down?

They went down to About 33 meters.

And then, I've continued From there.

The biggest issue here, It's a narrow vein.

It's at a funny angle.

How wide is it?

The ore body itself Is less than 300 mil 1 foot.

-oh wow. -oh, wow.

Hundreds of millions of years Ago, gold and superheated silica

Was forced up From deep in the earth,

And crystallized Within quartz veins.

Big john is selling a mineshaft That chases a thin quartz vein,

Traveling through hard rock At a difficult angle,

130 feet underground.

What grams per ton Are you running at?

It can vary. Hopefully, about 14 grams.

That's not bad, ey?Yeah.

Big john's ground Could be 50 times richer

Than parker's In the yukon.

It's not as Straightforward

As going out the bush, And detecting it.

It's hard work, There's no doubt about it.

You're the first real hard-rock Miner that we've been to.

It's a completely New process to me.

And so, if you're going through That process right now,

I'd love to be A part of it if we can.

And of course, we're looking for Mining opportunities, as well.

So how interested Are you in selling it?

Really interested. I'm getting older,

So I want to sort of Change things a little bit,

And just make life A bit easier for myself.

Happy to Show you around.

Everything's set up, right now, To bore some holes

And then, we can come out, And we can fire.

Right.

And then, once The smoke is clear,

If you're up for a bit Of physical work,

We'll go And fog some ore.

We usually don't end up Leaving anywhere

Without doing a bunch Of physical work.

Very good.

so, how much are you Expecting to loosen up today?

I'm gonna take One more cut,

Which will probably break About 5 tons.

I've got about 15 holes.

I just want to Put a small blast

In the ore body itself The ore structure.

When you say "Small blast," What are we talking about, here?

About 5 kilos Of explosives.

Small blast, to me, Is a banger.

No crackers here.

I'll take you down. We'll do that.

And it'll give you An opportunity

To actually see What that's about,

And if you're Interested in it.

I'm excited. I love this stuff.

Righty-o. I'll head down first.

-good luck, guys. -see you on the flip side.

-good luck. -good luck, mate.

Horry, I reckon you're possibly The most australian-looking

Person we've met so far.

Oh, really?

Very narrow ladder.

In case of an emergency, Horry, big john's neighbor,

Who's on site to help During explosions

Waits on the surface With tyler and fred.

geez, that is Quite a high ladder.

Wow.Amazing, isn't it?

This is A lot of work.

Oh, wow. Look at that.

That's an old Old-timer tunnel.

-yep. -and so is that one?

yeah, it's all Old-timer chutes,

So, this was all done Possibly around 1940.

And those old boys would have Done all that by hand?

Yeah, they would have had A bit of machinery.

Yeah?Definitely, in this rock.

Very cool.

Chasing gold rich quartz veins

Underground in the early 1900s Was notoriously dangerous.

Early air compressor drills, Known as "Widowmakers,"

Produced deadly silica dust

That caused lung disease, And triggered tunnel collapses.

Fatal accidents with primitive Dynamite were also common.

How deep are we Right now?

40-plus meters.

A lot of mines around australia, Here, are 1500, 2000 meters.

But it's impressive for you, Doing it with this,

And by yourself.

Yeah.

So, that's your Pay zone, right?

Yep. See the angle Of the ore body?

Right. I see what You mean about, like,

It laying in an awkward way Of mining.

Yeah.

And none of the gold's visible, Right?

I haven't seen visible gold Until you grind it really fine.

Right.

But to see, like, little Nugget-y bits in the rock,

I have not seen that yet.Right.

So, the plan is, today, Start drawing the ore body.

so, you're gonna use This bad boy?

Yeah. Just a generic Rock drill.

Shall we turn the air on? You've got ear plugs in?

Ear plugs in.

-you alright? -oh, yeah.

Hey?

what?

It's pretty cool. It really is.