Jade Fever (2015–…): Season 2, Episode 10 - Fractured - full transcript

(suspenseful music)

(tools clinking)

- Whoa Oh my god!

[Claudia] Up here near
the Yukon in Jade City,

we've got the world's richest
deposits of nephrite jade.

And the Chinese want it.

(laughing)

- This is gonna be the
million dollar rock!

- Now we just have to find it!

(crew cheering)

[Claudia] I will dig til my hands bleed!



Woo-hoo, go!

(music)

Jade makes people do crazy things.

(laughs)

- [Narrator] In the back woods
of northern British Columbia.

- [Claudia] Okay, this
not my comfort zone.

- [Narrator] On a steep, muddy slope,

with the Jade Mining Claim Wolverine.

- Ron, when I roll it, it's like oh.

- [Narrator] Claudia Bunce
is hunting for the big score.

- No will, so killing
me isn't a good idea!

Tell Robin I love him.

Oh my god!

Okay. (laughs)



- [Narrator] The crew is bushwhacking.

Looking for signs of jade
amongst all the boulders.

(ATV engine roars)

And one giant boulder
catches everyone's attention.

- That's it!

- Oh (laughing) So Robin
just found this rock

and now Guy's coming to grab it.

If xx can't move this rock,
then that's a good thing.

Because that means it's very heavy.

- [Narrator] In jade
hunting, the bigger the rock,

the better the chance of a huge pay-off.

- [Claudia] Oh, that fast?

It's already up and out!

(crashing)

Holy!

- [Guy] We have green in this end.

- [Claudia] It is jade
for sure out of the sand?

- [Guy] I think it's the
best piece we've seen.

- God, it's nice.

Underneath always shows,

cause it's not oxidized or nothing.

And within 20 seconds, just knew.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna have
a relationship with this.

Bam! Bam!

I think we got the goods.

Bam!

- (laughs) Are you kidding me?

- Bam!

- [Narrator] One end of the rock

has obvious signs of Jade at the surface.

- [Guy] I don't know
how, how deep that goes.

- Aw, that's the (beep) end of this.

- It will be

I don't think that will
go all the way through.

- [Narrator] But the
other end is a mystery.

- We want to get $700
thousand for this one too

- I think this is going to
be more than the other one.

- It's more.

- Really?

- [Guy And Robin] Oh yeah

- [Guy] This is a million
dollar boulder here.

- [Robin] It's got to be.

(foreign language)

- [Narrator] A few weeks
ago, Claudia sold a boulder

for $700 thousand after
just cutting off the end.

(foreign language)

Okay, he's going to keep it.

(Laugh)

- Look it's everywhere babe.

- [Narrator] If this boulder
is Jade from end to end,

it can also be worth $700 thousand.

- Bud cut that corner off right there.

- Oh my God, really?

- Yep, the best part of
the rock is this end.

- Really?

- From here, that way.

- Oh God, please make it
look like this inside.

We're going to cut right now.

- [Narrator] But first,
they have to get the rock

back to camp.

- [Guy] I'm not worried
about carrying it back.

I'm worried about scratching it now.

- Throw it over top and
we'll feed it right through.

- [Narrator] Robin and Guy hang a cradle

for the boulder's ride back to camp

to make sure they don't
damage their precious find.

- Get the slings out and
you treat it like China.

- [Guy] The less scratches
on it the better.

- That will adjust itself.

- K? Good.

- [Robin] I'm thinking
maybe we should have grabbed

the big straps.

A little heavy?

- (bleep) heavy

- [Robin] That's over eight tons.

- [Guy] Oh, yeah. He's heavy alright.

- [Robin] You get a picture of that?

- [Claudia] You bet.

- Our best rock of the season yet.

- [Robin] If this one is a good rock,

we beat last year already.

- [Claudia] If this one turns out

to be a grade A jewelry quality,

we're talking about $1,000 a kilo.

This is a game changer for
everything that we're doing.

- Nice (laugh)

- Nice (laugh)

- Today was a great day.

Today was a great day.

Big rock, grade A Jade,

hopefully.

Okay, let's get it on and start cutting.

- Oh, this ain't gonna make it tonight.

- [Narrator] Robin is in no
hurry to cut this rock open.

- [Claudia] Look at my crew.

They're a bunch of lazy bastards.

That's why that's not
under the saw right now.

What time is it?

- It's beer time.

- That's what it is.

- [Narrator] Just one cut can reveal

whether a rock is a dud.

So, the crew wants to
savor this potential score

a bit longer.

- You want to cut it, but
you don't want to cut it

cause you don't want it to not good.

Take your time cutting it

so that you can enjoy that
enthusiasm for a while.

- What time is it, seriously?

How long will it take
to set this up to cut?

- We just want to,

We just want to absorb the moment.

- [Claudia] It's like four o'clock. Is it?

- You have to go make supper.

- [Robin] It's four.

- I don't want to aim too high just yet

because I have been
disappointed too many times.

But, this one looks better
than our first good one.

[Guy]So, I'm going to say
it's going to be the good.

- [Narrator] And this rock
had casted a strange spell

on Guy.

- Can I call your Jade?

I'm just going to call you Jade.

That's fine.

What are you doing later,

like when you're all cut up,

polished up,

and looking good?

Maybe

parts of you will come back, visit me

while you're spread
out all over the world.

Just

send an earring or two.

You know I'd like one.

Aren't you glad I picked you up?

A little bit of mud on
her make her look bad.

(jazz music)

- She's going to make
us a whole lot of money.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] At an abandoned
mine near Jade cities,

Scrappy Larry just
scored the salvage rights

on a bunch of old fuel tanks.

- [Scrappy Larry] I'm going
to load a couple of tanks.

I'll show you what I was
thinking about making

a hot tub out of too.

It's all Claudia's idea
for a party or something.

- [Narrator] Claudia asked
Larry if he had any suggestions

for the annual Jade City barbecue.

- That's a pretty big hot tub, huh.

- [Narrator] But a homemade hot tub

wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

- (sigh) Scrappy wants to build a hot tub

out of an old diesel tank.

Only Scrappy would think of that.

- It definitely would be a hit, you know.

- How are you going to
turn that into a hot tub?

- [Scrappy] You'd cut that in half.

Stand her up and weld a 45
gallon tub on the inside.

Take the manhole cover off.

Then you could put wood
in there to heat the,

heat the hot tub.

Fill her with water and

everybody's happy. (laugh)

- Pretty high tech.

Be interested to see it anyway.

- [Narrator] Before the
hot tub project can start,

Larry and his son, Rick,
need to get the tank

back the to scrap yard.

- Hey, try it.

- Be by trial and error.

- [Scrappy] Hey, Rick?

Pull the truck ahead

and I'll get it facing that way.

Just a kind of crazy thing to do, I guess.

You know.

- [Scrappy] We got to do
something with all these big tanks

for the two days of
summer we get out here.

(laughs)

- [Rick] Hold it

- Oh, it's right where it needs to be.

- [Narrator] Larry's only got
three weeks until the annual

Jade City barbecue.

- [Claudia] The tank is this huge,

rusted,

oil,

diesel tank.

I don't know if we have
enough time to make that

into a usable hot tub.

- I don't know. I think it's crazy.

- [Narrator] The next
day back at Wolverine,

The crew is slicing the end off a boulder

they just found,

in the hopes that it's solid
jade all the way through.

- [Claudia] It's green.

It's definitely green.

- [Robin] That's good color, like milk.

- [Narrator] The initial signs are good.

Because of the lack of iron,

jade filings are usually
white or colorless.

- I just have so much hope for it.

- A few more hours at least.

- [Narrator] As they wait for the boulder,

the Bunce's business partner Alan arrives

with a friend from China.

(foreign language)

- This particular rock, Alan,

we're doing the cut.

If it's what we think it is,

it's the best rock we had ever gotten.

- Let's go have a look.

Yeah.

- [Narrator] If this
boulder is solid Jade,

it would mean Claudia and Alan's investors

could finally see a profit.

- Just showing on the
skin there's some jade.

- It's good potential.

I'd say the number one
thing is no fracture.

Last one we hope.

- Great, good job.

- [Josh] This is a really important rock.

This is really meaningful.

And really fortuitous to have it happen

right when Alan flies in and
Claudia and Robin's here.

Everyone's here to crack it open

and share in the experience.

We found a big piece of Jade
on this property, finally.

- What's up?

- Out of water.

- [Robin] She run dry?

- Yeah.

Guess that's what happen

when you cut for six hours straight.

- [Josh] So, it can't cut it anymore.

- She ran dry?

- [Josh] Out of water

Yeah, guess that's what happens

when you cut for six hours straight.

So, it can't cut it anymore.

- [Narrator] At Wolverine,

- [Claudia] Robin?

- [Narrator] there's no water

to cool the spinning saw blade.

So, while R2 primes the pump
that supplies the water tank,

Alan, his friend, and the crew watch

as they pry open their prize boulder.

- Okay, who's going to hammer?

Tegee?

You, Robin?

Who's breaking this baby?

- Let me do it.

Cross your fingers.

- Hit the end right here.

Yeah

- Come on boys.

- It's almost.

- Keep coming.

- Are we good or no?

- It's in.

Pull.

Pull.

If this is the bad side,

make it be good.

No good?

- It's a lot bit fractured.

- This was the part that I was afraid of.

- What part?

- The fractures.

(grunt)

- Watch out.

- Ooo.

- [Narrator] Large cracks
mean this part of the boulder

has little value.

- [Robin] Because you're
seeing all of the flaw lines.

- [Narrator] But, the
rest of the huge rock

may be different.

- Yeah, we need to go further in.

So, how far do we go
in Robin and cut again?

- Its almost the way
those fracture lines are

we can cut it this way.

We polish this face,

and we cut that to where
there's no more fractures.

- [Narrator] Making a second cut is risky.

Rather than pairing down to solid Jade,

they could expose even more cracks inside,

and the value of the
disintegrating boulder

can fall dramatically.

- It a gamble.

We don't want to cut it
and expose more fractures.

So, the least amount of cuts the better.

But, if the color is not there,

then you have to keep cutting
it to prove the rock is good.

- So, that means just follow this line.

- Yeah, and just go straight across.

We take it up to the other saw

and just start cubing the bad stuff out.

- [Narrator] The middle of the boulder

is too think for the circular blade.

So, Guy halls it over to the wire saw.

- Not square with this.

Right like that.

- [Narrator] As they ready
the rock for it's second cut,

Another visitor lands in camp.

- My dad's coming to camp for
one last time this season.

And remember how long it use to take

you guys to get out here?

- Oh, yeah.

(laugh)

- I love having my dad with me.

We're a daughter and a father team.

We have a mutual respect for each other.

We love each other.

- [Narrator] Claudia takes
Steve to see the boulder

that has everyone so excited.

- So, this is the good one
they are are cutting right now.

- Good. You're cutting okay.

- It's solid Jade.

Yep, this is a beauty.

This one's our money.

- Yeah.

- Well green starts
about an inch and a half.

- Yep, that's right.

- Yep.

- Yep, it's dark green down there.

- [Claudia] It's totally different

from what we've seen before.

- But, see this?

That's fracture.

These are called flaws.

- [Narrator] It's bad news.

Steve thinks that even with a second cut,

the boulder is too fractured to sell.

- To the guys that make jewelry,

It's bad.

Forget about it. They won't buy it.

- Mmmm, no.

- [Steve] Not a money maker.

- But, you see it all the Jade,

All the way threw.

- [Steve] Yeah, it's dark
green down there, yeah.

- [Narrator] At the Wolverine
mime, Claudia's father, Steve,

is worried that the
fractures in her latest find

mean it might be worthless.

- [Steve] I wouldn't make
a deal till you see it.

Well I didn't think much about the loss

when we open this Jade.

But it's a lot of cracks.

What they need now is good stuff.

- I know what my dad is looking for.

- [Steve] Yep

- The impossible (laugh)

- No, it's not the impossible.

You'll see.

- [Narrator] As the wire saw
slices through the boulder

- We'll see when we cut it.

- [Narrator] Claudia and her father Steve

take some time to visit
his old mining camps.

- Lift your feet because
I'm going to get soaked,

but you don't have to.

(ATV engine)

- Told you I'm going to get soaked.

- Woo-hoo.

- [Narrator] Back in the
70's, Steve was a pioneer

in the industry which
started in these mountains.

- There, see that green mountain?

All in the middle, there's
deposits of Jade you can see

right in the middle there.

[Steve] So, here is the Jade.

That's what you see there,

the heart of the world.

Jade.

Right here.

- This was one of my first camps.

I'll show you the fancy
camp where I lived.

- Oh, you forgot to
clean up when you left.

- Yeah.

- Home sweet home?

- That was only forty years ago, you know?

- These are the old mining tags.

- They use to put these on the stakes.

You had to nail this on a little post.

Now, it's all done by computer.

- Oooo,

- Oh, checks.

- [Steve] North American Jade Corporation.

- [Guy] I'm going to fill out a check

and see if it goes through.

- [Claudia] Look at, look at this

Marmite from Australia that people eat.

I think we should put
that in our little museum.

- Here, take this stuff.

This is all from the 70s guys.

Yeah

Yeah, you got to preserve that.

[Steve] It's still Jade

Jade that we left samples
everywhere and stuff.

- [Claudia] This is our mining history.

This is our Jade history.

I love this cause I
see somebody doing this

in our camp 40, 50 years from now.

Nostalgic.

- Crazy, eh?

History

- History, yep

- [Steve] We will keep it
for the new generation.

- [Narrator] At the scrap
yard, Larry is focused on

turning a fuel tank into a big hot tub

for the Jade City barbecue.

- I can see she's still burning good.

You can see the fuel down in there.

- [Narrator] Rather
than cleaning the tank,

he found a shortcut for getting
rid of the excess diesel.

- [Scrappy] Trying to get that
excess diesel out of there.

(laughs)

[Scrappy] It's flaming really
good in there right now.

Yeah, it can blow up, yeah.

It can all of a sudden
go, wolmp right now.

You just don't want a
big poof, right? (laugh)

Flames.

- [Scrappy] It will probably
burn until tomorrow.

And then, uh,

we can cut her.

We'll just see what happens.

We'll play with it.

It might not be ready until Christmas.

(Laugh)

- [Robin] We are going
to need the excavator

to split this one.

- But that's okay

- Both sides are good.

- Yep, both sides are good.

- [Narrator] At the Wolverine Jade Mine,

the crew is prying open a deeper section

of a promising Jade boulder.

- [Robin] Just see what happens, there.

- Okay, good.

- We should both be able
to fall pretty easy.

- It's moving.

- Oh, it's, it's, there you go.

- Done

- That's a nice table.

- Thank you.

- It's too much fracture on that side.

- [Narrator] Claudia's
father Steve was right.

Although the color has improved,

the fractures have worsened.

- This is what we call a wrong cut.

I think you are going to have
to cut once more another foot

to get into good, really good.

- Yeah a cut here and that side.

Perfect.

- [Narrator] If they can
cut around the fractures

and separate a perfect piece of Jade,

the value of the boulder could increase.

- If you cut the corner then,

the only thing you will
see is a nice and green,

no fractured stuff.

So, the price will be up.

- Dollar sign, dollar sign.

(laugh)

- You know what?

If you grab it,

the only way you can tip
it is this way, right?

- [Narrator] Robin repositions the boulder

for a third and hopefully
finally cut on the wire saw.

- K.

- [Guy] Pitter patter, get at her.

(crack)

- [Robin] You got to bring it over.

Right there.

- [Narrator] If they can
trim away the fractures,

the rest of the rock could
bring in the windfall.

- [Robin] It's like
buying a lottery ticket.

Try her now.

Your target is the best
quality Jade out there

and you hope you find it.

Now we wait and see.

Get going faster?

More.

- [Narrator] But with every cut,

their prize boulder gets smaller

with no guarantee of
better quality Jade inside.

- [Narrator] At scrappy
Larry's yard, near Jade City,

the diesel burn off is complete.

But, the tank still doesn't
look anything like a hot tub.

- Right along the seem here

is where it's going to be cut.

- [Narrator] Before he
can get into his speedo,

Larry needs to saw the rusty tank to size.

- A hillbilly hot tub will be good.

You give everybody a can of beans

and everybody will have
a bubble bath. (laugh)

- [Narrator] Larry doesn't
have a lot of time.

The Jade City barbecue
is only three weeks away.

- [Claudia] Whether Larry's
hot tub idea is going to work

or not,

I don't know.

But if anyone can do it, Larry can.

- I hope (laugh).

I hope.

I hope.

- [Narrative] At Wolverine,

- [-] If we will team up on it.

Grab an end of the rock.

- [Narrator] The third cut of
the Jade boulder is complete.

- That's a beautiful color.

- [Narrator] But there's
still a large fracture

separating two fragments on the top

from the prize Jade chunk on the bottom.

- [Guy] It's going to break right here.

- [Claudia] It has already.

- I think just give her a little trim, eh?

- [Robin] Get rid of that other part

There's still lots of
good Jade in this piece.

- [Guy] Nice chunk.

- [Claudia] Yeah, this
will be a great piece

to sell now you guys.

Be careful because it slide's awful.

- [Narrative] They separate the Jade

into pieces along the fault lines.

- That will be really nice to polish.

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] The chunks alone
could bring in $50 thousand.

And in the center of the boulder
is one large solid piece.

- [Robin] There's no real fractures.

It's all flaw lines there.

Transparency this green is really high.

- [Claudia] Look at that.

Look how far that goes in Robin, wow.

- It's very good.

It shines a long way.

- [Steve] I love this green.

This green is really green.

- [Claudia] This green
is really beautiful.

Send her to the guru and sell her.

- [Alan] Half million dollar maybe.

- [Narrator] If Alan can
sell this rock for that much,

it will put them in the black.

For now, it is an encouraging sign

for the investors over in China.

- [Alan] Thank you so much.

- Many more.

- [Narrator] It's been a good day.

Just finding more Jade on the site

has boosted everyone's confidence.

- I want to just keep on going.

Everybody has worked really
hard to get to where they're at.

We have a lot of hard work to
do, but we're getting there.

- [Claudia] We're going to find more Jade.

We're going to cut more Jade.

We're going to sell more Jade.

That's what's next.

Hoo-hoo

- [Narrator] Next time on Jade Fever,

- [Guy] Justin is a dang Jade magnet.

Might get noisy.

Bye-bye.

- [Guy] The piece he's added on the back

is not military issue.

- [Scrappy] No, no. I
won't do something stupid.

(air release)

- Oh, boy, right in my face.

- Hold.

Whoa.

- Oh my God.

- Oh man, where am I supposed to go here?

I don't know about this.

Whoa.