Jade Fever (2015–…): Season 3, Episode 6 - Eyes on the Prize - full transcript

While Claudia and Robin try to prove to their new business partners there's good jade on their claim, Justin and the crew becomes obsessed with finding a way to move and cut a 40-ton boulder that could make them instant millionaires.

(whistles)

- [Robin] Gentlemen, start your engines.

- [Narrator] At the
Wolverine Jade Mining Camp.

- [Gary] Hey Guy,

hang a left if we can.

- [Narrator] Justin Bunce
is taking the Jade City crew

to the biggest jade
boulder they've ever seen.

- [Justin] Check this bad boy out.

- [Guy] Holy (beep).

That there be a big jade rock.

- [Justin] That's the
biggest piece I've ever seen.



- [Narrator] This giant was
abandoned by other miners

over 30 years ago.

- That has been there since the 80's.

Maybe the 70's.

It was just too big to get
out, and when they cut it up,

they realized too much black
in it, so they just left it.

- And they cut it all,

how come they wouldn't take any of this?

They were just checking?

- [Guy] 'Cause back then
it just wasn't good enough.

- [Gary] Oh.

- Something happened with the market here,

like eight, 10 years ago and price of jade

just went through the roof.



- I think this is just cool as (beep).

Chunk of jade that big.

That is just, that's cool.

- The products I want to
make, it's perfect for.

- [Narrator] It's not grade
A jade, but it's ideal

for Justin's new business
venture, jade tabletops.

- [Justin] I mean there's probably

60 plus tables, 70 tables.

- You can charge a good dollar
for a jade table too, right?

- Three foot by three foot?

Fifty thousand U.S.

- [Gary] Holy (beep).

- This rock here, if we
deal with it the right way,

two million, maybe more, in tables.

- [Guy] Jing-a-ling.

(hammers clink)

- [Claudia] Oh my God!

- [Justin] This is gonna
be the million dollar rock.

- [Josh] Yahoo!

- [Claudia] Jadein' makes
people do crazy things.

- [Justin] Trying to
figure out what it weighs.

- [Robin] Yep.

Do you want to hold the end?

- [Narrator] Near Wolverine,
the crew is sizing up

a huge boulder.

- Come back a bit.

- [Narrator] That could be
worth over two million dollars.

- By measuring it, we
can give an idea on the

rough estimate of the weight.

- So two point one, so two by two by two.

- [Justin] One cubic meter
weighs 2,960 kilograms.

- [Gary] You're looking at 40 tons here.

- [Guy] Oh, I bet you the minimum's 60.

- Yeah.

We have nothing on-site.

Or in the immediate
area that can lift that.

- You know, if you could
make it into tables,

it's a good idea.

But it's a huge rock.

- [Justin] That's lots of (beep) work.

- Yeah.

- [Justin] And getting it
out of here is the hard part.

- [Guy] Yep.

- [Robin] There's nothing out here.

Nobody has equipment big enough

to move this rock out of here.

- That particular rock, the guy
that did it a long time ago,

he put a lot of effort in it.

But to haul it out,
would've cost a fortune.

So he lost money on it, and just left it.

- [Justin] It's been sitting here for 30,

40 years.
- [Guy] 30.

- May as well do something with it.

It's nice jade.

Despite my dad saying it's probably

not gonna work, we're
determined to try it.

It's difficult, but it's not undoable

- Now the claim has changed hands,

so we're hoping that Justin can pick it up

and that he can do something with it.

- So I'll see if I can work
a deal with Henry on it.

- [Narrator] The boulder is
on a claim owned by Henry,

an old family friend.

Justin has invited him
to Wolverine in hopes

of making a deal for the rock.

- So when Henry comes, he'll ask him

if he wants to get rid of it.

If Justin gets permission to get the rock,

then we'll help him.

- [Guy] Let's go after step number one.

Let's see if we can get it.

- [Robin] Yep.

- [Claudia] It's a
beautiful, warm day out.

- [Narrator] At Wolverine, Henry flies in

from a nearby claim.

- Henry's an old family friend.

I've known his uncle for over 40 years.

Henry, seriously!

Where's the wine?

Where's the booze?

I think that Justin's
idea to turn Henry's rock

into tables is a great idea.

Justin can do anything he puts his mind to

and if he wants to make giant tables,

he'll make giant tables.

- [Justin] What are you doing

with the big one across the lake?

- [Henry] Which one?

- [Justin] The big one.

- What big one?

- [Guy] The one's that exposed.

- The big, big one.

- [Robin] It's still there!

- It's the (beep) big one?

- [Claudia] It is!
- [Justin] Yeah!

- There was like 30 people
standing on it, "Yeah!"

- What are you doing with it?

- [Henry] I don't know.

- What you want to do with it?

- [Henry] I don't know.

- [Claudia] Justin wants it.

- [Justin] I want to
make a table out of it.

- On that thing?

- [Justin] Yeah.

- So is it even jade or what?

- [Justin] Yeah, sittin'
right on the side of the lake.

- [Henry] You know what?

We should go and take a look.

- [Justin] You wanna?

- [Henry] Yeah.

- [Narrator] Justin and Henry
head out to see the rock.

- [Guy] Okay, let's go.

- [Narrator] While the rest
of the crew are desperate

to get things back on track
at the Bullion Creek claim.

- I think there's some high potential

of jade on that property.

The ground and everything,
the rocks that are there,

it's all good.

But, where it is, I don't know.

Not good.

- [Narrator] Claudia's partners,
the mining company NEK,

are getting worried that there
are still no signs of jade.

Company rep, William, is assessing things.

- I can tell that William's anxious.

It's always hard starting
a new partnership

'cause it all sounds great
in the very beginning

but, goes downhill really fast.

- Anything there, Reuben?

- [Reuben] Nope.

- [Narrator] The crew has
found nothing but duds

in the last two weeks at
the Bullion Creek site.

- [Robin] Nope!

That's not jade.

- Nothing green about that.

Garbage.

- [Guy] Nope.

- [William] Not so good?

- No.

Too dark.

- The only way to keep
the new partner's trust

is to find lots of jade
and have it sellable.

(hammer clinks)

- I want to say "nay-nay" on this one.

I've had butter in the kitchen
that was harder than this.

- [Gary] I found some more smaller ones.

This is one that caught my eye.

Is it crap?

- [Guy] You got to look at
it and you got to hit it.

It's got colors there
I like on the outside.

It's got that little
jing-a-ling doing, eh?

Yeah, we'll load her up.

Got more over there?

- [Gary] Just one.

- [Robin] It has potential, but,

- Okay, so, one, two-

- Three. These three.

- We've got six potential rocks.

They look okay, but we've got to cut them

to see what's inside.

They're not that stupid obvious,

so, yeah, we'll send them back

to the camp area and cut them up.

Keep your fingers crossed
and it'll work out good.

- [Justin] Well it's not
small, that's for sure.

- [Narrator] Across the lake,
Justin and Henry size up

the giant boulder that's
been sitting abandoned

on Henry's claim for decades.

- It is jade.

- Of course it's jade, Henry.

- You want to get this thing out like ,

to become a jade table?

- [Justin] Yeah.

- You can make like a jade bed here, man!

- [Justin] Well, it's it big table.

A dining room table.

- [Henry] That's huge, man.

It's cool.

- It's a freaking big rock.

- (beep) man, it's huge.

- [Justin] I'll take the whole thing.

- I think we,

yeah, I'll do you a favor, man.

- [Narrator] Moving a rock
this big is a challenge.

- [Justin] Okay.

- [Narrator] So Henry
offers it up for free,

in exchange for a
percentage of any profits.

- A 60 ton boulder is
extremely difficult to move.

Extremely difficult.

- And how the rock trucks
going to get to this point?

- [Justin] Uh, I don't know yet.

- [Henry] (laughs) Probably
will think you're crazy.

- [Justin] Oh, probably.

(laughs)

- [Guy] I've just got to coil
this 200 feet of cable up.

- [Narrator] At Wolverine,
Justin has come up

with a plan to move a 60 ton jade boulder.

- We're gonna have to
haul over the wire saw

we've got here, and cut it
down into smaller pieces.

- [Robin] I'm thinking that
this cable goes in the bucket.

- Yep.

- You're so smart, give me a kiss.

- [Guy] Smart enough to get into trouble.

(laughs)

- [Narrator] If they
can cut the giant rock

with the wire saw, they'll
be able to haul it out

one chunk at a time.

- Right now, Justin and
I are bringing the motor

and a wire saw over to the big rock.

Yeah, that rock, minimum, 60 tons.

That's lots of weight for the old girl.

- [Narrator] While the
rest of the crew is gone,

- [Josh] Yeah, I'm stoked, man.

- [Narrator] Josh and
R-2 get to work cutting

the six boulders Gary
dug up at Bullion Creek

- [R-2] With jade being so inconsistent

it really is a lot of luck
and a lot of gambling.

Yeah, get her up a bit
and I'll pull it over.

Six rocks cut just in this batch.

Hopefully one of those has
some good, solid green in it.

(motor starts)

- Yeah, It's extremely important
for William to be happy

because he's the middle
man in this scenario.

He's the one that needs to relay

all the positive or the negative news

to our Chinese counterparts in NEK.

So, we really need some
good, sellable jade.

(saw whines)

- [Guy] Jing-a-ling.

- [Narrator] On the
other side of the lake,

the crew has arrived with the wire saw.

- [Robin] Um, Guy, if you can lift it

that far just to feed the cable through.

- Oh, boy.

It's just not going to happen.

- [Robin] Yeah.

- [Narrator] They need to get the wire

underneath the giant boulder.

But the rock is too heavy
to lift with the excavator.

- [Robin] If you take the excavator

and sit on that higher ground, there.

You stick the tooth under this side,

you might be able to get it
high enough that we can um,

- [Guy] Take some pressure off.

Get the cable under.

- [Robin] Yep.

- So that's half the weight
that way then it is this way.

- [Robin] That's right.

'Cause here you're lifting everything.

That way you're just
pivoting on that part.

- It's gonna be interesting.

We're gonna have to tip the rock.

And then try and shimmy
the wire underneath.

- [Robin] Once it comes
this way it might rock,

so we got to be careful and be
ready to move out of the way.

Real fast.

No matter what, you stay in that cab.

- That'll be my call.

(laughs)

Sometimes you can't go down with the ship.

(laughs)

- [Narrator] If Guy tips the rock too far,

it could roll backwards
onto the excavator.

- Please stand back 30 feet,
and we'll give her a shot.

- [Robin] We have to watch, stay clear.

Be ready to run.

Just pull it.

Don't try to lift this way.

- Should I just go like this?

- 'Cause you'll break
all those blades off.

There's no way you're
going to lift that rock.

(metal crunches)

Hold it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

I said, "Whoa!"

I didn't say, "Let go!"

- Easier said then done my friend.

I don't know man, it's a tough call.

60 tons, this is a 33 ton excavator.

But the way's it's sittin',

with gravity and centrifugal
force and all that (beep),

might be able to just tip it.

- Okay, now up.

Justin!

- [Narrator] On his second
try, Guy lifts the rock

a few inches off the ground.

- [Robin] Thread it through the pipe

and then I'll pull the pipe off it.

- Me and my dad are gonna
pull the diamond wire under.

One person is gonna be on either side,

and we're just going to pull it under.

- [Robin] Okay.

- [Narrator] The wire saw is ready to go.

The next step is to see if they
can cut this monster boulder

into movable chunks.

- [Josh] It turned
white, actually and clear

for a few seconds.

- [Narrator] At Wolverine,
the first of the Bullion Creek

boulders is showing good signs.

Clear filings and a slow cut.

- [Josh] Cleared up quite a bit.

And it cut super slow.

Could be something, yeah.

- [R-2] Well, there's jade in it,

it's so mixed with the black.

- Yeah there's definitely signs of jade

here in between all the black.

- [William] It's too dark.

Fracture.

- [Josh] Sell that in China?

- No.

- NEK I'm sure is very nervous right now.

This is bad news for them, us,

this is bad news for everybody.

- [Narrator] At Wolverine.

- [Josh] Nothin'.

Not even close.

Holy (beep)!

[Narrator] Josh and R-2
are down to their last rock

from the Bullion Creek
six-pack of boulders.

- [Josh] Well, one more rock.

- [Claudia] We've cut through
dozens of rocks this season.

I'm sure my partners are getting antsy

because we've only found one good one.

- [Narrator] Claudia
needs good news to deliver

to her anxious partners.

- [Josh] This is serpentine.

Holy (beep)!

- [William] (speaks in foreign language)

- [R-2] Yeah, this is junk.

The rocks are not yielding jade.

That's the simple fact of the matter.

- Of course William's disappointed.

We're disappointed.

It's not what we wanted it to be.

- [Guy] Let's go fire up that generator.

- [Narrator] On the
other side of the lake,

the crew is about to start
cutting the giant boulder.

- Sun's out and things are looking good

and so we're just gonna see
if we can get that wire saw

going around that big rock.

- [Narrator] Justin brought
in his geologist buddy,

Chris, to help.

- [Justin] Hey, Chris, you want to come

and just watch this end here?

- I'm pretty sure my job is
just to hold a piece of plywood.

- Pretty much, you see a line.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Guy] Just don't let the
cable go past right here.

So you hold it in place so
it gets into a little groove.

- [Narrator] They need
to keep the wire in place

until it digs into the rock.

- [Guy] Okay, firing up.

(motor runs)

- [Gary] Let it go back.

(grunts)

- [Chris] Pull it back?

- [Gary] Yeah.

- Pulley's a little small
for the size of the rock.

I don't know if it's got enough power

to make the whole wire saw

go around this big rock.

So we're going to have to
hand move it and get it free.

- [Narrator] This boulder is twice as big

as what the wire saw can handle.

- [Gary] Oh, there she goes!

She's going there by itself.

- [Robin] Let's get the show on the road!

- [Chris] Let's crank the
speed up a little bit?

(grunts)

- [Guy] Jesus, (beep) me.

- [Gary] She jammed the underneath.

- [Guy] Yeah.

She did catch once or twice.

I felt it.

- [Gary] Yeah.

- [Justin] I think it might have to do

with the approach, anyway.

Like if this was here.

- [Gary] Yeah.

- [Justin] But can we take
one of these boards out

'til we get her fired up?

- We sure can.

- [Narrator] They adjust
the height of the saw

so the wire can cut along
the bottom of the boulder

in a straighter line.

- [Gary] There, it's between the lines.

- [Guy] Okay, take two, fire it up!

- [Gary] Ho, ho, ho!

(water squirts)

- [Guy] We put that two
by four in place behind.

Or, you keep doing that.

- [Gary] We're making
it, Guy, I'm making it!

(metal clangs)

- She down.

- [Gary] Jeez!
(beep)

- It's a big ass rock for that pulley.

Have to say we're done.

- [Justin] It will work.

- [Guy] Yeah well, wait
'til your dad gets here.

(walkie-talkie beeps)

Hello, Robin or Claudia, you on here?

- [Claudia] What do
you think we should do?

- [Narrator] At Wolverine,
Claudia and Robin have a problem.

Their new partners aren't happy.

- NEK, up there, everything we've done.

All the holes.

There's no jade.

- If I don't prove myself to
my new partners this year,

we don't mine.

- We can't sit there, and
everybody standing around.

They're not gonna be impressed with that,

'cause you can't pay
somebody to sit there.

- So what do you want to do?

That 60 ton boulder's
taking way too long to cut.

It's time to go and focus
on NEK and doing Bullion.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Well let's go up there,
spend a day, get it done,

and be done with it.

- Okay, I will go and tell the guys.

If we get it going right away
and it starts cutting, fine.

But if it doesn't, we're done.

- [Claudia] I agree.

- [Robin] Okay.

- [Claudia] Yeah.

(intense music)

- [Guy] Oh, here comes Robin.

- [Narrator] Robin tells the crew

they've got one more
chance to cut the rock.

- But we've got to try, right?

- Yep, but only for so long and that's it.

I can't pay my guys to do this.

When we've got other stuff to do.

If it doesn't cut right
away here, we're done.

It's, we're pulling our (beep) back out.

- The problem is there's
too sharp of an angle

in the back, on the back side.

- [Robin] That's what I was saying.

There's too much drag on that thing.

You can always try that pulley on the end.

- [Guy] Jing-a-ling.

So instead of the cable going straight up

around the back side,
we'll have the cable going

up on an angle through a
pulley so it's not so sharp.

So we're not doing a 90.

- [Narrator] A pulley will allow the rope

to turn more smoothly around the rock.

- [Robin] Oh, yeah, that's a pulley, dude.

- Nice and tighty.

You've got to stick with the groove.

- [Robin] Let's see what happens.

- [Guy] Okay, fire up the generator.

(motor starts)

- We'll try the pulley.

And if that doesn't work, then it's done.

We're finished.

- Okay?

- [Robin] Yep.

- [Guy] Crank it up a little more.

Higher.

There you go.

- So far, this is working great.

Our pulley system is workin'.

- It looks to be working
pretty well right now.

I'm kind of worried about this wobble,

but they said it was fine.

We'll see how it goes.

(cable snaps)

(metal clinks)

- [Robin] (beep)

- [Guy] Motor come off.

- [Robin] It ain't cutting.

(grunts)

This hasn't got the (beep) power.

And that's it.

There's not much we can do.

- [Robin] Whoa, now the boss is here.

- [Narrator] On the far
side of Wolverine Lake,

- [Robin] Now you're in trouble.

- [Narrator] Claudia's
crew has been struggling

to cut a massive boulder
for the past two days.

- I came to take a look and
see what you guys are doing.

Now it doesn't look
like you're doing a lot.

- [Robin] This is, it's not cutting.

- [Claudia] What do you mean?

- We can't do the back
side 'cause it's too high.

And the motor is junk.

- So what does that mean?

- This isn't going to cut the rock.

- [Claudia] It isn't gonna?

- [Robin] No.

We need a bigger saw.

- So all this work for nothing.

- Mining is a big risk
and it kind of sucks

but at the same time I knew
it was a bit of a long shot.

- So, let's get back to mining

and let's clean this all up.

- [Robin] Yep.

- [Claudia] Okay.

We've tried everything we
can with Justin's boulder.

We helped him.

We tried to figure it out.

We don't have the proper equipment

and I think that we need
to get back to our partners

and get back to Bullion Creek.

We really need to find
boulders of our own.

- We're fighting a
losing battle right now,

so, shut her down.

- [Gary] That's a wrap.

- Just a part of the life,
is hauling everything back.

So here we go.

- [Robin] Nothing went for us
here today so time to go back

and relax a little bit.

Tomorrow's another day.

- [Claudia] What?

Are you kidding me?

Oh, (beep)!

- [Narrator] The next morning,
Claudia gets bad news.

- Okay, do what you want to do.

Such (beep)!

Oh, (beep) kill me now!

- [Narrator] Her partner
company, NEK, is done.

- A little stressful there right now.

NEK consider us failures.

But that's not us.

It's the ground.

You can only get what's there.

If the jade isn't laying
there, you're not getting it.

- [Narrator] A few hours later,

a chopper arrives to
fly William out of camp.

- [Claudia] This really,
is the worst thing

that could happen to us right now.

I don't know what's next.

I don't know what's next for tomorrow.

I don't know what's next for one hour.

It's the worst case scenario

when your partner decides they
don't want to mine anymore.

(helicopter blades whir)

It's really hard for our group.

Because we've set our
season around working

that Bullion Creek claim.

This is tough for all of us.

We really need to regroup and figure out

what we're gonna do for
the rest of the season.

With the short time that we have left.

- [Narrator] Next time, on Jade Fever.

- [Guy] A little speed bump.

- Oh!

(water splashes)

- [Guy] We are dead in the water.

- [Robin] I guess we should
have picked a different spot.

- [Guy] Punch it, Joey!

- [Justin] The area that we're focusing on

has never been drilled.

Holy!

This is the best jade
that's come off the site.

- [Robin] Hello.

- [Claudia] What the hell?

- [Robin] We haven't got the permit.

- Why?

- [Guy] Things just got complicated.