Jade Fever (2015–…): Season 3, Episode 8 - Start It Up - full transcript
Everyone scrambles to help Justin and Mike set up a new jade quarry at the Dynasty mine. Scrappy Larry mutilates the highway moving the excavator down the highway. Josh cuts boulders around Jade City that Claudia tries to sell to a buyer.
(Soft music)
- Did you not see this?
- No.
- Oh freak, it's nice.
- Oh! - Wow!
- That's why you're after this piece.
- Oh yeah, cause its not to bad.
- No.
- [Narrator] Justin Bunce
thinks he's standing on
a fortune.
- We've seen the core from
down below and it stays
pretty consistent with that.
The value of this land could
be a quarter of a million.
Can be quiet large for my family's future.
- Lets get that (beep)!
- [Narrator] Weeks ago Justin
and his business partner
Mike Meed made a starling discovery.
- [Justin] That's like, grade A.
- [Narrator] Grade A Jade
at one of Claudia's mining
sites called Dynasty.
- This is a game changer.
- [Narrator] To get to
the prize, they need help.
- So you feel like coming
here for a few months?
- Oh yeah! I'm in.
- [Narrator] And Claudia's
crew just happens to be
available.
- We're back!
- We'll milk it for all it's worth now.
(All laugh)
- [Narrator] But winter
arrives early in the north, so
starting a new site in
September is a gamble.
- You could have five days,
you could have ten days
you could have two months, you don't know.
- There is a fair amount of
jade on that piece of property.
But, by the time you get
your equipment set up and get
going, the weather could
change you could have an
early winter and you only get three weeks.
- We're really starting
from scratch, in the middle
of the season that's
so short, but we don't
have a choice.
(Tools cracking rock open,
country music playing)
- Oh my god!
- [Justin] This is gonna
be the million dollar rock!
- Yee-haw!
- [Claudia] Jade makes
people do crazy things.
- [Narrator] Eighty
kilometers south of Jade City
- Easy, baby easy!
- [Narrator] Robin and
Scrappy Larry are trying
to drop off Claudia's
excavator at Dynasty.
- Keep it straight now!
- [Robin] Okay!
- [Larry] Now you gotta turn, yep!
Keep coming! That's good!
- Okay.
- [Larry] Hey!
We forgot to cover the window!
- [Robin] Did it break?
- Yeah.
- [Robin] Oh no.
Ah (beep).
- All that gravel down there!
- My tires don't have tread
how can they throw rocks?!
Must've been them kids with slingshots.
[Larry laughs]
[Robin Laughs]
This way a wee wee bit.
Okay, keep coming.
Okay.
Now quit making me want to (beep) myself!
- [Larry] How about you
get the (beep) up here?
[Both Laugh]
- How's he gonna work?
- [Narrator] With the
excavator on site, the next
step is unloading all
the newly arrived gear.
- The drill is tucked in
here, with the drill steel.
- [Narrator] In just a few
weeks Mike has been able
to pull together investors and equipment.
- Box of nice shiny new
parts for the drill.
Spare track for the wire saws.
Biggest of the two wire saws here.
- [Narrator] Now they
can launch their plan.
To quarry for jade at Dynasty.
- [Robin] Okay try it, see what happens!
- [Mike] We're kind of taking a different
approach, some new machines,
some new technology.
- [Justin] We're cutting
the blocks out of the
mountain, versus ripping
it. It's more gentle on
the product and brings
out a lot bigger chunks.
- That is a big ass wire saw.
- [Narrator] Mike bought
two used Italian made
wire saws down in the US.
- Just unhook the clevis, yep.
- [Mike] Yep, good!
- [Narrator] And he found investors.
But Justin and Mike also
had to put down their
own money to import these unique saws.
- [Justin] Mining is a
big risk, and its all fine
and dandy when its someone
else's money but when
its your money going in
with it you want to see
the reward at the end of the season.
- Where do you want this?
- Just go on over there.
- [Claudia] I think there's
a huge amount of pressure
on Justin and Mike to prove
themselves as jade miners.
If they can make it through
season one, then they can
make it through anything.
- Getting the old generator
ready here to hook
up the wires for our new wire saw.
- [Narrator] Their strategy
is to have the whole
crew running both saws
around the clock, and to
get enough jade out to
make a profit before
the snow flies.
- This is a whole new piece of machinery.
This is Italian.
- Here we have installation drives.
- [Narrator] But they've
never seen saws like
these before.
- Oh! Look at that. Voltage
control, power stage
- It came all the way
from Monisea like that.
- [Miner] We're just gonna set one up!
- [Narrator] The plan is
to get to the Jade lands
they've nicknamed The Big
Fin, a land they think
is worth a quarter of a million dollars.
- Can't wait to do the bad boy.
- [Narrator] To get The
Big Fin out in a solid
piece they'll have to
start leveling and cutting
out blocks of jade around it.
- And then we'll crack
along that bottom crack
- Yep, you betcha.
- I've never cut a big
chunk like this, this
is the first time.
- This thing could cut
eight meters in no time.
- This is gonna be cool as (beep)
- This whole thing is gonna
spin down ninety degrees.
And be cutting flat.
- [Narrator] The saw's
drive can pivot to make
horizontal and vertical
cuts, allowing it slice
out perfect slabs of Jade.
- It's Italian, but it's not a Ferrari.
- [Narrator] Gee will man the generator.
- The old caterpillar.
- [Narrator] And try to set
the right amps and volts.
- Pick whatever phase its
in and match it on the
generator.
- This has got lots of
juice, that means don't
touch it or you're gonna light up!
- [Claudia] Its exciting,
these are bigger saws
than I've ever ran. (laughs)
- That looks pretty good huh?
- We are almost ready
for cutting just gotta
wire the saw.
- Okay boss!
(Claudia laughs)
- Watch!
- [Narrator] Gee fires up the generator.
- A little rusty.
(Claudia Laughs, alarm blares)
- Warning alarm everybody stand clear!
- Clear.
- Clear!
- [Narrator] Mike turns on
the saw for the big moment.
(Machine whirs weakly)
- Stop.
- Well that's weird.
- It won't fire up?
- Nope.
We're not getting power to the main motor.
- Okay, hang on.
- [Narrator] They're
getting power from the
control box, but the
saw's motor isn't moving.
- Reset.
- You guys want the power off?
- Yeah hit the break there,
- Having issues is never
a way you want to start
out a new venture.
- What's going on here?
- Somethings blown.
(Tense music)
- [Narrator] At Dynasty.
- Well that's weird.
- It won't fire up?
- We're not getting
power to the main motor.
- Nope!
- [Narrator] Justin and
Mike are having trouble
getting their mining program up to speed.
- There it goes.
- Now it works.
- [Narrator] They're used Italian wire saw
popped a breaker.
- Okay, turn it on?
And then turn it on again.
(Machinery starts)
- There it goes!
- [Narrator] They're ready
to try and fire it up again.
- Should be going way faster now, eh?
- Speed it up!
- [Narrator] Now they've
got power to the saw
but its not rotating
fast enough for cutting.
- That's not me.
- You can't speed it up?
- Nope.
We're not getting enough power.
- Don't stop!
- Power it back up.
- I didn't stop it, the breaker went.
I got like eight people yelling at me.
The breaker went.
- Don't get angry.
- [Narrator] The motor
has stopped running.
And Mike's starting to feel
the heat for his purchase.
- And did you see this one running?
- Both of them ran at the exact same time.
Because I was like I
want to see the two of
them start up on the
generator that you say just
so we can get confirmation.
So we let that one warm
up for 15 minutes, and
then he fired this guy up.
- Mike is a little stressed
because he went down
and he went and viewed the machinery and
approved it for purchase.
- It won't stay running?
Did it pop the breaker or
can you fire it up again?
- There we go.
- When he had approved
it the machines were
working everything was
fine, in between that
time and when it had arrived
on site something happened.
- Another breaker popped.
Yeah, I don't know what
the issue would be thought.
- Unless these breakers are snapped here.
- There should be the one
that actually speeds it up.
Well there's gotta be a
breaker in there that's
not working though, because ...
Somethings not running
right, we're not running it.
We need an electrician.
- [Mike] If it's not
one thing its another.
(beep)damn.
(Soft guitar music)
- [Claudia] Hello Jade City?
Yes?
- [Narrator] The next
morning, Claudia gets a
call from an old friend.
Robin?
- Yo?
- I just got a call from Lou and he wanted
to confirm that they want
100 tons of Jade next week.
- [Narrator] Claudia's friend is looking
to buy a large quantity of low-grade Jade.
- They want to line
buildings in China with this
Jade so it doesn't have
to be the best Jade
as long as it doesn't
fall apart so yeah this is
a great potential for us.
Can we go take a look
around, see what we have of
our own and then see if
we have 100 tons that can
be loaded right now?
- Okay.
- Financially, we're in
a lot of trouble. We put
a lot of money into starting
up this mining season.
- [Narrator] With little
jade to show for it
Claudia decides its
time to crack open some
family heirlooms.
- My dad had a bunch of
old rocks siting around,
we all hope that they
were jade, but we've just
never cut them.
There's gotta be twenty
tons here that we can put
together, don't you think?
- Oh yeah.
This one here? Its a good rock.
- We have to maybe cut that one.
- And this one, and this one here.
- So ten, twenty tons with
these three, four boulders?
- Yeah. Its not as much
as we hoped to get but
it'll be better than nothing.
- They all have potential
of being great jades
so now we're just gonna
spend some time cutting
the big old ones to see
if there's any great jade.
We have to make money
during this season or we
don't mine next year.
We have to make money.
- We're broke, so
hopefully we get this rock
open and its beautiful.
- [Narrator] Their son
Josh gets the job of
cutting the boulders. To help speed up the
process he sets up one
boulder at the wire saw
and another on the blade saw.
- This'll take like
probably five or six hours
to cut all the way through
as far as I can go,
definitely not going to
be able to cut the whole
rock, which kinda sucks but whatever.
Good to go.
- [Narrator] At Dynasty.
- We'll be able to get mining
here before it freezes.
That'd be nice, eh?
- [Narrator] A local
electrician has arrived to
look at the wire saw's setup.
- I'm gonna bring an
electrician in, and then
hopefully we'll be able
to continue operating.
- How you doing?
- Not to bad.
So you lost a motor on this one.
- Right here.
- This is a little bigger
than I thought, you
know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] It looks
like more than just an
electrical problem.
- Its Italian.
- Its Italian?
- Yeah, the book is in Italianio.
(Both Laugh)
- This runs the cable saw.
- [Narrator] The motor
is shot and a replacement
from Italy will take months to arrive.
- Okay Troy, thanks.
If it don't rain it pours.
- [Narrator] Justin and
Mike's two saw program is
now down to just one.
- It's frustrating to
have issues with the wire
saw because right off
the bat you're production
is cut in half.
- [Narrator] They hook up the second saw.
- You good?
- Okay go.
- [Narrator] And hope the
motor on this one works.
(Machine starting)
- Okay, firing it up.
- What did you just do there?
(Device crunching)
- Listen to that.
- Won't turn?
- It's turning.
- Something wrong with that.
- [Narrator] The motor
that pivots the rotating
blade isn't working.
- Come take a look at this motor.
- Well the motor's (beep)ed.
Its smoking you can smell it.
- Its cooked.
- Un(beep)ing believable.
We got two wire saws down.
(Tense music)
- Its smoking you can smell it.
- We got a burnt out motor here.
- [Narrator] At Dynasty,
Justin and Mike's mining
program has been grounded
by bad equipment.
Gear that seemed to be
working fine when Mike
bought it.
- You rotated it when you were there.
- Everything (beep)ing worked.
I checked both saws,
every single component.
- All right.
- [Narrator] The motor
on the first saw proved
faulty now the motor on
that controls the blade
angle on the second saw has ceased up.
- The motor that does the
rotating of the actual head
ended up burning up.
- Stinky.
- (beep) if it wasn't
for bad luck you guys
would have no luck at all.
- [Narrator] They try rotating
the saw wheel by hand.
- My big sausage fingers are too damn big.
- Gary's gonna have a go at
setting the saw manually.
- Lets take a look in
there first, all right?
- [Narrator] If they
can't fix this saw Justin
and Mike's program is done.
- We spent a significant
amount of capital purchasing
this equipment and we've
already had mechanical
failures, we've got one
saw down so I'm worried
about the long term plan.
- I think the boys are having tough time
they started really
late in the season, its
getting cold, lots of miners
came in for one season
and were gone.
(Water running)
- Okay, well I guess
this rock was a display
stone for fifteen years for a reason.
- [Narrator] In Jade
City Josh has finished
cutting the first of the
boulders that Claudia
hopes to sell to buyer
looking for a lot of Jade.
- It's really fractured, all
the way through everything.
If there's fractures in
it you can't use it for
anything, for industrial
or carving it doesn't
matter, jewelry or for
whatever. This is (beep).
- [Narrator] The rock isn't sellable.
And the other saw has
only cut half way through
the second boulder.
- We're finally down to a
point where its as far as
I can get it cut.
See if I can wedge this
out of the way and open
up a window.
- [Narrator] The buyer
is on his way, so Josh
decides to try cracking open this one.
- As soon as a crack starts
to form in the bottom-
Oh there it is! A crack's
started to form this is
going to break. Here she comes.
Here we go!
Come on!
(Grunting)
You wanna hear a funny
story? That's actually some
really nice jade, and that ain't no joke.
Nice pockets through
here, nice and solid, like
look at that. Lots of
nice veins. That's a nice
spot right here. Its
nice, its a nice rock. Its
Sellable. We need it.
Everybody will be stoked.
- You haven't changed?
(all laugh)
- How you doing?
- [Narrator] Claudia's
friend has arrived with
the jade buyer.
- What's the idea of the use?
- Well I'll tell you what
I got a Chinese group
that wants to buy them but-
- [Narrator] The buyers a middle man for a
contractor in China,
who wants large pieces
of Jade with few fractures.
- What I'm looking for is as low cracks as
possible, all right?
- This was really strong
it was really clear.
This season in particular
its really important
that we just make some money.
- [Narrator] Claudia
takes him to see the rock
that Josh liked so much.
- So what do you think about this one?
- Well, its pretty cracked up.
- What about the larger ones here?
- Now this has fractures,
they're obvious, but
the little tiny ones
are surface, but there's
some nice color jade in this piece.
- It really is just a few right here, eh?
This is just really little little amounts.
- Oui! There's a crack right through it!
I don't like it.
- I'm known for having cracks in my jade.
(Laughs)
I'm the crack queen.
- No, there's nothing better? - Nothing.
We're running around trying to figure out
which boulder to sell him, we need this
really bad.
Take off some of the dirt.
- Definitely not good.
- No, lets go look at other stuff.
Looks like its just one right there.
- Its out of the question.
Nothing left.
- [Narrator] The buyer
doesn't see much he likes.
He tells Robin and Claudia
he wants to think about it.
- Not so lucky.
- [Narrator] Claudia's
much needed cash infusion
is leaving town.
- [Narrator] At dynasty.
- Oh this works!
- [Narrator] Gary has found a hack for the
busted pivoting motor on the saw.
- Its working!
- Its working, finally?
- [Narrator] He's manually
rotated the cutting angle.
- I did it with a little wrench.
- Gary Mcguiver'd it with
arm power and a ratchet.
- Mcguiver's based on me.
(All Laughs)
- We'll get Justin on some
controls, we'll cut a rock.
- I got this end over here lined up.
- Bring it ahead a little bit.
- That come through?
- [Narrator] The crew
threads the diamond studded
wire through the saw's pulleys.
- Little more!
- More.
- Good.
- Water's on.
- Good to go!
- Put it back down in the groove.
- Everyone's good?
- [All] Clear!
- Whoa! Its okay, keep going!
- [Narrator] The saw's
working. It's finally
cutting into the first lands.
- I can crank the speed up a bit.
- Now we're cooking with peanut oil!
- Coming through!
- He's gonna tip it over. - I'll try!
- We'll see if its usable material.
- [Narrator] If the jade
lens crumbles coming
down it will be worthless.
- It's gonna be heavy!
- It's gotta be at least ten tons.
That's the first good sign.
- There's lots of nice green in there, eh?
- That's not too shabby!
- For what we want to do?
No its (beep)ing good.
- [Narrator] The quality
of the Jade in this
lens is better than they expected.
A promising sign for the
new program at Dynasty.
- Well we weren't expecting
great things out of
this one neither, right?
- I was expecting just this.
- Well that's still pretty cool man.
- [Narrator] But any
chance for success now
hinges on Justin and Mike. They've got to
pull out enough unfractured
jade before freeze up
to satisfy their investors.
- We know this is a good
way to go. Its gonna
be a bit of a challenge
but nothing that we can't
overcome. Either way the
freaking wire saws work.
- Now we know.
- If this mining method
works and appears to be
viable and efficient, the
money that the company
can make is a lot more
than what it was before.
- Older model miner.
(All laugh)
- [Narrator] Next time on Jade Fever.
- Lets fire up this bad boy.
- Hill Billies, bunch
of weird peoples' idea.
- They already told me
you can't pee in there.
(Laughing)
- [Claudia] Seriously?!
- [Claudia] Here it comes.
- It's not gonna wreck it.
- Well as long as it gets
to Vancouver in tact.
- Hey Keith, you break it you buy it!
- (beep)ing please work.
- Did you not see this?
- No.
- Oh freak, it's nice.
- Oh! - Wow!
- That's why you're after this piece.
- Oh yeah, cause its not to bad.
- No.
- [Narrator] Justin Bunce
thinks he's standing on
a fortune.
- We've seen the core from
down below and it stays
pretty consistent with that.
The value of this land could
be a quarter of a million.
Can be quiet large for my family's future.
- Lets get that (beep)!
- [Narrator] Weeks ago Justin
and his business partner
Mike Meed made a starling discovery.
- [Justin] That's like, grade A.
- [Narrator] Grade A Jade
at one of Claudia's mining
sites called Dynasty.
- This is a game changer.
- [Narrator] To get to
the prize, they need help.
- So you feel like coming
here for a few months?
- Oh yeah! I'm in.
- [Narrator] And Claudia's
crew just happens to be
available.
- We're back!
- We'll milk it for all it's worth now.
(All laugh)
- [Narrator] But winter
arrives early in the north, so
starting a new site in
September is a gamble.
- You could have five days,
you could have ten days
you could have two months, you don't know.
- There is a fair amount of
jade on that piece of property.
But, by the time you get
your equipment set up and get
going, the weather could
change you could have an
early winter and you only get three weeks.
- We're really starting
from scratch, in the middle
of the season that's
so short, but we don't
have a choice.
(Tools cracking rock open,
country music playing)
- Oh my god!
- [Justin] This is gonna
be the million dollar rock!
- Yee-haw!
- [Claudia] Jade makes
people do crazy things.
- [Narrator] Eighty
kilometers south of Jade City
- Easy, baby easy!
- [Narrator] Robin and
Scrappy Larry are trying
to drop off Claudia's
excavator at Dynasty.
- Keep it straight now!
- [Robin] Okay!
- [Larry] Now you gotta turn, yep!
Keep coming! That's good!
- Okay.
- [Larry] Hey!
We forgot to cover the window!
- [Robin] Did it break?
- Yeah.
- [Robin] Oh no.
Ah (beep).
- All that gravel down there!
- My tires don't have tread
how can they throw rocks?!
Must've been them kids with slingshots.
[Larry laughs]
[Robin Laughs]
This way a wee wee bit.
Okay, keep coming.
Okay.
Now quit making me want to (beep) myself!
- [Larry] How about you
get the (beep) up here?
[Both Laugh]
- How's he gonna work?
- [Narrator] With the
excavator on site, the next
step is unloading all
the newly arrived gear.
- The drill is tucked in
here, with the drill steel.
- [Narrator] In just a few
weeks Mike has been able
to pull together investors and equipment.
- Box of nice shiny new
parts for the drill.
Spare track for the wire saws.
Biggest of the two wire saws here.
- [Narrator] Now they
can launch their plan.
To quarry for jade at Dynasty.
- [Robin] Okay try it, see what happens!
- [Mike] We're kind of taking a different
approach, some new machines,
some new technology.
- [Justin] We're cutting
the blocks out of the
mountain, versus ripping
it. It's more gentle on
the product and brings
out a lot bigger chunks.
- That is a big ass wire saw.
- [Narrator] Mike bought
two used Italian made
wire saws down in the US.
- Just unhook the clevis, yep.
- [Mike] Yep, good!
- [Narrator] And he found investors.
But Justin and Mike also
had to put down their
own money to import these unique saws.
- [Justin] Mining is a
big risk, and its all fine
and dandy when its someone
else's money but when
its your money going in
with it you want to see
the reward at the end of the season.
- Where do you want this?
- Just go on over there.
- [Claudia] I think there's
a huge amount of pressure
on Justin and Mike to prove
themselves as jade miners.
If they can make it through
season one, then they can
make it through anything.
- Getting the old generator
ready here to hook
up the wires for our new wire saw.
- [Narrator] Their strategy
is to have the whole
crew running both saws
around the clock, and to
get enough jade out to
make a profit before
the snow flies.
- This is a whole new piece of machinery.
This is Italian.
- Here we have installation drives.
- [Narrator] But they've
never seen saws like
these before.
- Oh! Look at that. Voltage
control, power stage
- It came all the way
from Monisea like that.
- [Miner] We're just gonna set one up!
- [Narrator] The plan is
to get to the Jade lands
they've nicknamed The Big
Fin, a land they think
is worth a quarter of a million dollars.
- Can't wait to do the bad boy.
- [Narrator] To get The
Big Fin out in a solid
piece they'll have to
start leveling and cutting
out blocks of jade around it.
- And then we'll crack
along that bottom crack
- Yep, you betcha.
- I've never cut a big
chunk like this, this
is the first time.
- This thing could cut
eight meters in no time.
- This is gonna be cool as (beep)
- This whole thing is gonna
spin down ninety degrees.
And be cutting flat.
- [Narrator] The saw's
drive can pivot to make
horizontal and vertical
cuts, allowing it slice
out perfect slabs of Jade.
- It's Italian, but it's not a Ferrari.
- [Narrator] Gee will man the generator.
- The old caterpillar.
- [Narrator] And try to set
the right amps and volts.
- Pick whatever phase its
in and match it on the
generator.
- This has got lots of
juice, that means don't
touch it or you're gonna light up!
- [Claudia] Its exciting,
these are bigger saws
than I've ever ran. (laughs)
- That looks pretty good huh?
- We are almost ready
for cutting just gotta
wire the saw.
- Okay boss!
(Claudia laughs)
- Watch!
- [Narrator] Gee fires up the generator.
- A little rusty.
(Claudia Laughs, alarm blares)
- Warning alarm everybody stand clear!
- Clear.
- Clear!
- [Narrator] Mike turns on
the saw for the big moment.
(Machine whirs weakly)
- Stop.
- Well that's weird.
- It won't fire up?
- Nope.
We're not getting power to the main motor.
- Okay, hang on.
- [Narrator] They're
getting power from the
control box, but the
saw's motor isn't moving.
- Reset.
- You guys want the power off?
- Yeah hit the break there,
- Having issues is never
a way you want to start
out a new venture.
- What's going on here?
- Somethings blown.
(Tense music)
- [Narrator] At Dynasty.
- Well that's weird.
- It won't fire up?
- We're not getting
power to the main motor.
- Nope!
- [Narrator] Justin and
Mike are having trouble
getting their mining program up to speed.
- There it goes.
- Now it works.
- [Narrator] They're used Italian wire saw
popped a breaker.
- Okay, turn it on?
And then turn it on again.
(Machinery starts)
- There it goes!
- [Narrator] They're ready
to try and fire it up again.
- Should be going way faster now, eh?
- Speed it up!
- [Narrator] Now they've
got power to the saw
but its not rotating
fast enough for cutting.
- That's not me.
- You can't speed it up?
- Nope.
We're not getting enough power.
- Don't stop!
- Power it back up.
- I didn't stop it, the breaker went.
I got like eight people yelling at me.
The breaker went.
- Don't get angry.
- [Narrator] The motor
has stopped running.
And Mike's starting to feel
the heat for his purchase.
- And did you see this one running?
- Both of them ran at the exact same time.
Because I was like I
want to see the two of
them start up on the
generator that you say just
so we can get confirmation.
So we let that one warm
up for 15 minutes, and
then he fired this guy up.
- Mike is a little stressed
because he went down
and he went and viewed the machinery and
approved it for purchase.
- It won't stay running?
Did it pop the breaker or
can you fire it up again?
- There we go.
- When he had approved
it the machines were
working everything was
fine, in between that
time and when it had arrived
on site something happened.
- Another breaker popped.
Yeah, I don't know what
the issue would be thought.
- Unless these breakers are snapped here.
- There should be the one
that actually speeds it up.
Well there's gotta be a
breaker in there that's
not working though, because ...
Somethings not running
right, we're not running it.
We need an electrician.
- [Mike] If it's not
one thing its another.
(beep)damn.
(Soft guitar music)
- [Claudia] Hello Jade City?
Yes?
- [Narrator] The next
morning, Claudia gets a
call from an old friend.
Robin?
- Yo?
- I just got a call from Lou and he wanted
to confirm that they want
100 tons of Jade next week.
- [Narrator] Claudia's friend is looking
to buy a large quantity of low-grade Jade.
- They want to line
buildings in China with this
Jade so it doesn't have
to be the best Jade
as long as it doesn't
fall apart so yeah this is
a great potential for us.
Can we go take a look
around, see what we have of
our own and then see if
we have 100 tons that can
be loaded right now?
- Okay.
- Financially, we're in
a lot of trouble. We put
a lot of money into starting
up this mining season.
- [Narrator] With little
jade to show for it
Claudia decides its
time to crack open some
family heirlooms.
- My dad had a bunch of
old rocks siting around,
we all hope that they
were jade, but we've just
never cut them.
There's gotta be twenty
tons here that we can put
together, don't you think?
- Oh yeah.
This one here? Its a good rock.
- We have to maybe cut that one.
- And this one, and this one here.
- So ten, twenty tons with
these three, four boulders?
- Yeah. Its not as much
as we hoped to get but
it'll be better than nothing.
- They all have potential
of being great jades
so now we're just gonna
spend some time cutting
the big old ones to see
if there's any great jade.
We have to make money
during this season or we
don't mine next year.
We have to make money.
- We're broke, so
hopefully we get this rock
open and its beautiful.
- [Narrator] Their son
Josh gets the job of
cutting the boulders. To help speed up the
process he sets up one
boulder at the wire saw
and another on the blade saw.
- This'll take like
probably five or six hours
to cut all the way through
as far as I can go,
definitely not going to
be able to cut the whole
rock, which kinda sucks but whatever.
Good to go.
- [Narrator] At Dynasty.
- We'll be able to get mining
here before it freezes.
That'd be nice, eh?
- [Narrator] A local
electrician has arrived to
look at the wire saw's setup.
- I'm gonna bring an
electrician in, and then
hopefully we'll be able
to continue operating.
- How you doing?
- Not to bad.
So you lost a motor on this one.
- Right here.
- This is a little bigger
than I thought, you
know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- [Narrator] It looks
like more than just an
electrical problem.
- Its Italian.
- Its Italian?
- Yeah, the book is in Italianio.
(Both Laugh)
- This runs the cable saw.
- [Narrator] The motor
is shot and a replacement
from Italy will take months to arrive.
- Okay Troy, thanks.
If it don't rain it pours.
- [Narrator] Justin and
Mike's two saw program is
now down to just one.
- It's frustrating to
have issues with the wire
saw because right off
the bat you're production
is cut in half.
- [Narrator] They hook up the second saw.
- You good?
- Okay go.
- [Narrator] And hope the
motor on this one works.
(Machine starting)
- Okay, firing it up.
- What did you just do there?
(Device crunching)
- Listen to that.
- Won't turn?
- It's turning.
- Something wrong with that.
- [Narrator] The motor
that pivots the rotating
blade isn't working.
- Come take a look at this motor.
- Well the motor's (beep)ed.
Its smoking you can smell it.
- Its cooked.
- Un(beep)ing believable.
We got two wire saws down.
(Tense music)
- Its smoking you can smell it.
- We got a burnt out motor here.
- [Narrator] At Dynasty,
Justin and Mike's mining
program has been grounded
by bad equipment.
Gear that seemed to be
working fine when Mike
bought it.
- You rotated it when you were there.
- Everything (beep)ing worked.
I checked both saws,
every single component.
- All right.
- [Narrator] The motor
on the first saw proved
faulty now the motor on
that controls the blade
angle on the second saw has ceased up.
- The motor that does the
rotating of the actual head
ended up burning up.
- Stinky.
- (beep) if it wasn't
for bad luck you guys
would have no luck at all.
- [Narrator] They try rotating
the saw wheel by hand.
- My big sausage fingers are too damn big.
- Gary's gonna have a go at
setting the saw manually.
- Lets take a look in
there first, all right?
- [Narrator] If they
can't fix this saw Justin
and Mike's program is done.
- We spent a significant
amount of capital purchasing
this equipment and we've
already had mechanical
failures, we've got one
saw down so I'm worried
about the long term plan.
- I think the boys are having tough time
they started really
late in the season, its
getting cold, lots of miners
came in for one season
and were gone.
(Water running)
- Okay, well I guess
this rock was a display
stone for fifteen years for a reason.
- [Narrator] In Jade
City Josh has finished
cutting the first of the
boulders that Claudia
hopes to sell to buyer
looking for a lot of Jade.
- It's really fractured, all
the way through everything.
If there's fractures in
it you can't use it for
anything, for industrial
or carving it doesn't
matter, jewelry or for
whatever. This is (beep).
- [Narrator] The rock isn't sellable.
And the other saw has
only cut half way through
the second boulder.
- We're finally down to a
point where its as far as
I can get it cut.
See if I can wedge this
out of the way and open
up a window.
- [Narrator] The buyer
is on his way, so Josh
decides to try cracking open this one.
- As soon as a crack starts
to form in the bottom-
Oh there it is! A crack's
started to form this is
going to break. Here she comes.
Here we go!
Come on!
(Grunting)
You wanna hear a funny
story? That's actually some
really nice jade, and that ain't no joke.
Nice pockets through
here, nice and solid, like
look at that. Lots of
nice veins. That's a nice
spot right here. Its
nice, its a nice rock. Its
Sellable. We need it.
Everybody will be stoked.
- You haven't changed?
(all laugh)
- How you doing?
- [Narrator] Claudia's
friend has arrived with
the jade buyer.
- What's the idea of the use?
- Well I'll tell you what
I got a Chinese group
that wants to buy them but-
- [Narrator] The buyers a middle man for a
contractor in China,
who wants large pieces
of Jade with few fractures.
- What I'm looking for is as low cracks as
possible, all right?
- This was really strong
it was really clear.
This season in particular
its really important
that we just make some money.
- [Narrator] Claudia
takes him to see the rock
that Josh liked so much.
- So what do you think about this one?
- Well, its pretty cracked up.
- What about the larger ones here?
- Now this has fractures,
they're obvious, but
the little tiny ones
are surface, but there's
some nice color jade in this piece.
- It really is just a few right here, eh?
This is just really little little amounts.
- Oui! There's a crack right through it!
I don't like it.
- I'm known for having cracks in my jade.
(Laughs)
I'm the crack queen.
- No, there's nothing better? - Nothing.
We're running around trying to figure out
which boulder to sell him, we need this
really bad.
Take off some of the dirt.
- Definitely not good.
- No, lets go look at other stuff.
Looks like its just one right there.
- Its out of the question.
Nothing left.
- [Narrator] The buyer
doesn't see much he likes.
He tells Robin and Claudia
he wants to think about it.
- Not so lucky.
- [Narrator] Claudia's
much needed cash infusion
is leaving town.
- [Narrator] At dynasty.
- Oh this works!
- [Narrator] Gary has found a hack for the
busted pivoting motor on the saw.
- Its working!
- Its working, finally?
- [Narrator] He's manually
rotated the cutting angle.
- I did it with a little wrench.
- Gary Mcguiver'd it with
arm power and a ratchet.
- Mcguiver's based on me.
(All Laughs)
- We'll get Justin on some
controls, we'll cut a rock.
- I got this end over here lined up.
- Bring it ahead a little bit.
- That come through?
- [Narrator] The crew
threads the diamond studded
wire through the saw's pulleys.
- Little more!
- More.
- Good.
- Water's on.
- Good to go!
- Put it back down in the groove.
- Everyone's good?
- [All] Clear!
- Whoa! Its okay, keep going!
- [Narrator] The saw's
working. It's finally
cutting into the first lands.
- I can crank the speed up a bit.
- Now we're cooking with peanut oil!
- Coming through!
- He's gonna tip it over. - I'll try!
- We'll see if its usable material.
- [Narrator] If the jade
lens crumbles coming
down it will be worthless.
- It's gonna be heavy!
- It's gotta be at least ten tons.
That's the first good sign.
- There's lots of nice green in there, eh?
- That's not too shabby!
- For what we want to do?
No its (beep)ing good.
- [Narrator] The quality
of the Jade in this
lens is better than they expected.
A promising sign for the
new program at Dynasty.
- Well we weren't expecting
great things out of
this one neither, right?
- I was expecting just this.
- Well that's still pretty cool man.
- [Narrator] But any
chance for success now
hinges on Justin and Mike. They've got to
pull out enough unfractured
jade before freeze up
to satisfy their investors.
- We know this is a good
way to go. Its gonna
be a bit of a challenge
but nothing that we can't
overcome. Either way the
freaking wire saws work.
- Now we know.
- If this mining method
works and appears to be
viable and efficient, the
money that the company
can make is a lot more
than what it was before.
- Older model miner.
(All laugh)
- [Narrator] Next time on Jade Fever.
- Lets fire up this bad boy.
- Hill Billies, bunch
of weird peoples' idea.
- They already told me
you can't pee in there.
(Laughing)
- [Claudia] Seriously?!
- [Claudia] Here it comes.
- It's not gonna wreck it.
- Well as long as it gets
to Vancouver in tact.
- Hey Keith, you break it you buy it!
- (beep)ing please work.