Jade Fever (2015–…): Season 4, Episode 7 - Slipping Away - full transcript

The crew struggles in the rain and mud to make a deeper cut on the Pit 3 lens. When Claudia learns an important buyer is on his way to Jade City, the race is on to expose high quality jade....

[High-Pitched Calm Music]

- [Robin] Son-of-a-bitch!

Rain.

- [Guy] It's not rain
Robin, it's liquid sunshine.

- [Robin] (laughs)

- [Narrator] It's a wet, Soggy day for

Jade Mining in Northern British Columbia.

- [Guy] Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain.

- [Reuben] Yep.

- [Guy] We all hate it,
but it comes with the job.

- [Guy Martial] The weather today sucks.



It's our first big day of rain and,

it's okay to get a little bit of rain,

but we don't want too much.

- [Robin] Now this is muddy here.

Standing in mud all the time,

it's wet all the time.

You're cold.

- [Guy Martial] Eh, it's a colder day,

I can go for a beer.

- [Robin] (laughs)

Just fricking wonderful.

(sighs)

- [Narrator] For weeks, Robin and Guy

have been trying to cut their way to some



Solid jade inside a one-hundred ton lens.

- [Guy] You gotta go in
on an angle a little bit,

right?

- [Robin] Well, here's
where we're running.

- [Narrator] They thought
the lens was worth

as much as a million dollars.

[Dog Growls]

- [Robin] You know,
you might be sitting on

a million bucks there, Stuker.

- [Narrator] But the first two cuts

revealed deep fractures.

- [Guy] Guy not happy, at all.

- [Narrator] Now, They'd be happy with

any solid piece they can sell.

- [Robin] It's got some good color,

but there's still fractures.

Okay.

We're gonna have to be right here.

- [Guy] It's more gooder?

- [Robin] Yup. That'll do it.

Perfect-o-mundo.

- [Guy] Let's fill it
out to build a pad here.

- [Robin] Yeah, it's
gonna have to be here.

Setting up the wire saw when

you're cutting on a slope is very hard.

The top is gonna run right there.

You have to have a
specific line you're going.

- [Guy] You know, it is
gonna fill up with water.

- [Robin] Yup.

We've gotta deal with the mud.

There, has to be dug first

to get rid of this water.

- [Narrator] They need to divert the water

and make a dry platform for the saw,

so it doesn't sink or twist while it cuts.

- [Robin] It's just one of those days,

in mining, in the rain.

(laughs)

(music becomes slightly erratic)

- [Robin] Yeah, and just
break that part over.

There we go.

- [Guy] The back end's
gotta go that way right?

- [Robin] Yup.

- [Narrator] Now they have to get the

diamond-toothed cable around the rock.

- [Guy] The cable we have is,

about a foot too short?

So, we're gonna add a foot,

and that way we get all
of our rail distance,

for cutting.

- [Robin] Don't worry about it,

you got more fingers.

- [Guy] You can only do
that nine more times.

- [Robin] (laughs)

- [Narrator] Gary, Josh
and Claudia arrive,

to help with the cut.

- [Claudia] Perfect timing.

Hey, what's happening?

- [Gary] How many guys does it take

to crimp a wire?

- [Claudia] (laughs)

- [Robin] As many as you can get involved.

- [Gary] Okay.

- [Robin] Are you in yet?

- [Guy] I'm in.

- [Robin] (laughs)

- [Gary] Warm up the geny, then.

- [Guy] Yup.

- [Gary] Yup.

(engine sputtering)

- [Claudia] We're looking for a two,

three-foot section that's a nice

apple green.

Solid, no fractures.

We haven't found it yet, so hopefully

this third cut will be the magic cut.

- [Guy] You got her in place?

- [Josh] Yup.

- [Robin] Hey, we're gonna
need to have all of us

to get that to go.

We'll be holding it there for a while.

- [Guy] And, action!

- [Robin] Wrapping it
around the rock is great,

but trying to set up on an angle,

that is almost impossible.

- [Guy] What was that?

- [Robin] Hang on.

Very hard on the wire saw because

there's nothing for it to grab.

- [Gary] Getting a little
slumber there, Robin?

- [Robin] We get a groove up here,

then we can reconfigure here.

You're gonna hold it with a board,

until it wears a groove deep enough

to actually hold the wire.

- [Guy] Okay.

- [Robin] Okay.

- [Guy] Fire in the hole.

Nope.

- [Josh] Nope.

- [Robin] Okay. Let your motor back.

- [Guy] Common problem when the rock's

shaped real funny, it's really hard

to get a groove on.

- [Robin] Let's just try it gently again.

Okay.

- [Guy] Oh!

- [Robin] We've gotta hold the wood there.

Push it in.

Uh-oh.

Extremely aggravating.

Okay, Guy.

- [Guy] Okay.

Three, two, one.

- [Robin] Yup.

Okay, let's go.

Pull together.

- [Guy] A little more?

- [Gary] Turn it up, yup.

(electric guitar background music)

- [Gary] That's what I'm talking about.

- [Robin] Yup.

- [Guy] If this is
forty percent good jade,

we're laughing all our
way to the bank, man.

- [Gary] This one's
gonna be the one we want.

(hammering sounds)

- [Claudia] Ho, ho, ho my god!

(upbeat music)

- [Gary] This is gonna be

the million dollar rock.

- [Josh] Yee-hoo!

Jade makes people do crazy things.

- [Gary] Alrighty brother,

you talked to your dad?

Gave you a heads up?

- [Josh] Yeah.

- [Narrator] Just below pit three,

Josh is getting a chance to work

with the Excavator.

Something he's been
waiting for all summer.

- [Gary] Okay, all this in this corner,

we're gonna leave.

- [Josh] Okay.

- [Gary] So we can start right here,

and then these piles you see here,

all gotta go in this hole

and we've gotta squeeze the water out.

- [Josh] Okay.

This season, I wanna take every

opportunity I get to operate

heavy equipment, so it's nice

to have the trust of my parents

to become a more proficient operator.

- [Narrator] Robin wants his son to level

the areas where water is pooling.

- [Robin] We have to deal with the water.

If we let it sit there
and it keeps raining,

you got one hell of a mud hole.

- [Gary] All right, I'll
hang around for a bit,

make sure you're getting
what you gotta get,

and then I'll go check on Guy.

This kind of work for josh,

this is perfect for him.

Give him a chance, he'll get it.

He'll do it.

Okay, nice and slow.

- [Josh] Okay.

- [Narrator] Gary's been
mentoring josh all summer,

but it hasn't always gone smoothly.

- [Gary] Loosen your
handle, right up here.

- [Josh] (bleep)

You show me now

(bleep) stupid

- [Narrator] this time,
Gary is switching it up

and giving josh some space

to work on his own.

- [Gary] This is how you
learn how to run an excavator.

There's a little bit of
finesse that comes with it,

and I think he'll get it.

And, I'll give him a few tips and pointers

on how to finesse it out.

Can you get a rock like that that far out?

Just pull it towards ya.

- [Josh] Okay.

- [Gary] Don't try to lift it there,

bring it right up to ya.

- [Josh] Right.

- [Gary] And then you can pick it up.

- [Josh] Yeah, okay.

- [Gary] Or you'll just go "Weeh"

- [Josh] Yeah, understood.

- [Gary] All right?

- [Josh] No problem.

I really really look up to my dad,

and hearing Guy as well,

so this is a great opportunity

and I definitely want to do a good job.

- [Gary] All it takes
is a little patience.

We'll see how much patience he has.

- [Narrator] A kilometer
away, at pit three.

- [Gary] Shouldn't be too long.

- [Narrator] The countdown is on

for the latest cut on

the hundred-ton jade lens.

- [Gary] Can't be much holding it now.

- [Robin] Yeah, we can't have

that much further to go, like.

- [Guy] Five, four, three, two, one.

- [Claudia] (laughs)

it's so close Guy.

I hope it's really nice and green

over there at the front of this one.

Right at the center, about
a foot would be great.

- [Guy] Will ya let go?

- [Claudia] What's that?

- [Guy] Talking to the rock.

- [Claudia] (laughs)

- [Guy] can you just let go?

- [Claudia] Three, two, one.

- [Guy] Okay, a hundred count.

- [Claudia] (laughs)

- [Guy] Ninety-nine.

- [Claudia] All right, okay.

- [Robin] Fractures still here.

- [Claudia] Yup.

- [Narrator] Deeper into the lens,

there are still lots of fractures.

- [Robin] It's basically the same.

- [Claudia] Yep.

It really is deceiving.

It's not easy.

I'm very pessimistic right now.

- [Gary] We're not
gonna hit the nice stuff

till we're in here.

Where that core was.

- [Claudia] Yep.

- [Gary] Because we've got
30 inches of beautiful core.

- [Claudia] My worst fear is that

it could be a pod this big.

- [Narrator] After three weeks
spending time and money on

this lens, Claudia is starting

to second-guess their future on pit three.

- [Claudia] Am I worried?

Yes.

It cost 20-30 thousand
dollars to cut this rock.

Looking at how much
energy goes into cutting,

and how much money.

- [Robin] Yup.

- [Claudia] It's huge.

Is it worth it?

Can I make that kind of money selling it?

If the answer's no, why waste our time?

Move on.

- [Robin] Okay, looking underneath.

The only place we can get a wire

through is right about

here.

- [Claudia] Where?

How are you cutting it?

- [Robin] Straight across.

We're cutting this off.

- [Narrator] After
three unsuccessful cuts,

robin has had enough.

He wants to cut the lens
straight down the middle

and see once and for all

if there is any jade of value in the rock.

- [Claudia] We've already
cut it three times,

we're gonna do one more
cut on this boulder,

right near where we took the core sample

that was so exciting,

and we're gonna see legitimately how much

actual green jade that
is sellable is in there.

- [Robin] Well we'll have
to go back right back

to that bank.

- [Guy] Right up against the bank?

- [Robin] The tower has to
be almost touching the rock.

- [Guy] Nothing like working
in confined space, eh?

You've got a spot here,

where I can do a little more digging?

Then the wire can punch
through right there.

- [Robin] It's our dime,
so we wanna make sure

whatever we do is not wasted,

but it's a gamble, am I wasting time,

wages, money on fuel,

or should I start in another spot?

You're always second guessing yourself

until you actually find
that piece of jade.

- [Guy] Well, we're between a hard rock,

and bedrock, so we're
trying to find a hole here.

We want to know what's in here.

- [Narrator] Guy digs out
the dirt below the lens,

so they can snake the wire underneath.

- [Robin] Right here, so we
just gotta feed the wire in.

Let it come to here, we'll drag it out.

- [Guy] Hey, I see the light!

- [Robin] I need more wire keep pushing.

- [Guy] Hurts these feet.

Perfect.

- [Robin] Almost like we
know what we're doing.

- [Gary] Don't tell nobody.

- [Robin] Won't tell nobody.

- [Gary] Please.

- [Robin] They wouldn't
(bleep) believe me anyway.

- [Gary] (laughs)

it's a big cut.

Everybody wants to know what's in here,

whether it's good, bad or otherwise.

Woaw, woaw, woaw, woaw.

- [Robin] Yeah, that's good.

- [Guy] Okay, good.

- [Robin] Okay.

- [Guy] Okay?

- [Robin] This is the kind
of crap we can create here.

Here we go!

- [Guy] Fire in the hole.

- [Robin] Right there.

- [Guy] There she goes.

Wooh!

- [Robin] Alrighty.

- [Guy] Yeah, couple more hours.

Bring us to the end of the day.

- [Robin] Another day,
another fifty cents.

It's like gambling, you're just,

you're hoping you pick the right part.

- [Josh] Hey Gary if you're bored,

you should come take a look.

- [Narrator] Josh has been
operating the excavator

unsupervised for half the day.

- [Gary] Yeah, okay just give me five-ten,

I'll be down there and I'll have a looksy.

- [Josh] Roger.

(Dog barks)

- [Gary] You stay here.

- [Narrator] He wants Gary
to check his progress.

- [Gary] Josh, if you can
get him focused on a job,

he does it and he does it quick,

but he's gotta be focused on it.

I wasn't sure if you understood

what I meant like, by flattening it,

but you got it.

You nailed it.

Your dad's gonna like that,

put money on it, he's gonna like that.

- [Josh] It's nice to
not have somebody come in

once a job's done and tell you

ten different ways to do it better.

It's nice to not have somebody come in

and pick your work apart.

- [Gary] Sounds like you got it covered.

- [Josh] All right.

Okay, I'm gonna walk up outta here.

- [Gary] Yeah, with
those tracks, just slow.

- [Josh] Oh yeah.

- [Narrator] Gary warns Josh to go slow in

the old excavator while finishing the job.

- [Gary] Just take the weight off,

might be your safer bet
with how wore out it is.

- [Josh] Yeah.

I'll catch you in a little bit.

- [Gary] You got her.

- [Josh] This is my chance.

I need to be as efficient as possible

and not waste time or break the equipment.

(loud scraping noise)

What the (bleep)

(Erratic music)

It just broke.

Nice job.

Oh my god.

(loud thunder)

(growls)

(wind blowing)

- [Gary] what the (bleep) did you do?

- [Josh] Yeah.

See if I can get this track back on

now that I knocked it off.

- [Gary] It happens.

- [Josh] Yeah.

- [Narrator] At Dynasty, josh's
perfect day has hit a snag.

One of the excavator's
tracks has popped off.

- [Gary] Flipped the
track off it's sprocket,

he figured he did something wrong,

but this happens.

There's nothing you can do about it.

Been operating since 1993,

and it happens lots.

It's nobody's fault,

but you got lots of work to do here.

Okay, nice and slow, straight out.

- [Josh] Yup.

- [Gary] Got somebody green
that's never done it before.

It's gonna take a little bit.

Oh!

Okay.

Over.

As long as he listens he'll learn.

Okay, now, really slow.

Oh.

- [Josh] I didn't even (bleep).

- [Gary] Something like this,
you've gotta have patience.

Okay, ahead a little bit.

Keep going.

Oh!

- [Josh] Son-of-a-bitch!

- [Gary] But he's got very little patience

when it comes to stuff.

You've just not got it on there.

There you go, nice and-

(bleep)

- [Josh] yeah, it's very frustrating.

I need to know right?

Not you.

I need to know.

Because I think I'm having finesse

and then I touch it with finesse

and all of a sudden it's like "Blah!"

- [Gary] yup.

- [Josh] Come on.

I really want to get the track back on

with Gary's help so I
have that experience.

Okay.

- [Gary] His finesse isn't there yet,

but he's getting there.

I need this one turned really slow,

backwards.

Come on, baby.

Oh!

You're good right there, nice.

- [Josh] Shut it down?

- [Gary] Yup.

- [Josh] I'll go get the grease gun.

- [Gary] All right.

Gonna head back.

- [Narrator] Gary heads back to pit three,

leaving josh to finish the track repair.

- [Josh] Grease gun.

Now that we've got the track back

on the excavator,

we need to tension the track back up.

Grease gun puts thousands of pounds

of pressure on the track.

The thing that I'm pumping grease into

is a big cylinder right here.

You know, a tube, and
then the end of the tube

has a ram on it,

and the ram pushes this big wheel.

And I've gotta use
grease to fill that ram,

and I'm, you know, pumping by hand.

Ho, ho my god.

Yeah, this takes like,

three hundred pumps at
least to empty a tube

so I've got like,

ten of those down.

Oh that's so annoying.

I'm wet, jacket's wet, the ground is wet,

excavator's wet.

This is literally a four minute job

with the electric gun.

Been out here for an hour.

Oh god.

Getting soaked to my bone.

Beautiful day.

Sixty percent chance of liquid sunshine,

hundred percent chance of misery.

(groans)

(phone rings)

- [Claudia] hello, Jade City?

- [Narrator] Back in town.

- [Claudia] Hi!

Yeah?

Claudia just got an important phone call.

Absolutely, we'll all be at Dynasty

for you, for sure.

- [Narrator] A jade
buyer and family friend,

Henry Lee, is arriving
from China in two days.

Henry has visited before,

and provided helpful
advice to Claudia's crew.

- [Henry] So far it's all seventy.

Just do our services first, and see

is any jade there?

We have a million bucks.

- [Narrator] But this time,
Henry is interested in

seeing what Claudia and Robin have found

at pit three.

- [Claudia] Henry is one of

the largest jade buyers in the world.

It opens up a huge opportunity.

The last few season in
sales have not been good,

so if we can sell some jade

and make some money back, great.

Whatever you get as a
miner, you're grateful for.

- [Narrator] They need to
finish cutting the lens

if they want to have jade to show henry.

- [Claudia] I'd like
to get that piece off,

even if we're there till midnight.

Yeah.

(laughs)

- [Guy] Not that warm, is it.

- [Narrator] Back at Dynasty.

- [Guy] Second week of July.

You can still see your breath.

- [Narrator] The wire
saw is struggling to make

the large cut through
the center of the lens.

- [Guy] Can't get no
speed out of this thing,

I don't know if it's cause
the jade's too hard or.

- [Gary] It's slow cutting.

Painful.

- [Guy] This could be a world record for

the slowest cut ever.

- [Gary] Just makes it a long day.

It's rainy and miserable.

- [Guy] (bleep) cutting day.

(bleep) weather.

Even my dog's not happy,
so if he's sad I'm sad,

and if I'm sad, Gary's sad.

It just goes down the line.

We're all sad.

Maybe another snow storm
after this would be nice.

- [Gary] Feels like it doesn't it.

- [Narrator] But Gary and
Guy have bigger problems

than the cold.

- [Guy] I'm not liking
how that dirt's moving in.

- [Narrator] The wet weather
is making their site hazardous.

- [Gary] All our mud is
starting to slide here,

it's starting to move.

- [Guy] Gonna get Gary
to go in the 350 and move

the one big bank we have a concern with.

We're gonna waste most
of the day doing it,

but it's a safety issue,
so it needs to be done.

It just would've sloughed right in,

would've buried the saw.

Or if we're down here doing something

and the rock comes down.

Trying to stay ahead of the game here.

Move the banks back,

make it safe and we get a chance

to do a little bit of
cutting this afternoon.

But if it rains nonstop

we're in a whole lot of trouble.

It will push us out,

so we need mother nature
on our side a little bit.

Nice if it quit raining.

- [Gary] Hell yeah.

(calm background music)

Half this pit could be
backfilled by morning

if it keeps raining like this.

- [Narrator] At pit three
on the Dynasty Jade Mine,

the rain has not let up,

and Guy has had enough.

- [Guy] Yeah, I think we're gonna pull

this motor right out of there.

We'll lift her out, play it safe.

Yeah this is a horrible ground.

It's a steep hill and it's just not good,

so I made an executive decision,

shut her down early.

- [Claudia] What is with this weather?

It's pouring, it's sunny.

- [Narrator] A kilometer away, Josh

is finishing up his excavating job

and Claudia and Robin stop by

to check in on their son.

- [Claudia] Hey.

What's happening?

- [Josh] I got this done,

but right when I was finishing off here.

- [Claudia] Yeah.

- [Josh] I slipped my tracks, so.

- [Claudia] Well, this looks great hun.

It looks good.

You're doing great.

- [Josh] I really appreciate you guys

gave me the job to do.

Most people don't have the opportunity

at my age to be on this
expensive equipment so,

it's nice to have the trust of my parents.

I want to learn this season
to become an operator

and to be more efficient

with every piece of equipment.

- [Claudia] Just being on your own

and doing it yourself,

this is a really great job.

- [Josh] People say
find something you love

and try to do it everyday

and I love operating equipment.

- [Robin] You're doing a good job, man.

- [Josh] Right on, you
don't gotta tell me twice.

Bam, bam, bam.

- [Guy] Oh, I'll have
a chat with the boss.

- [Claudia] Hi, guys.

- [Guy] Hey.

What's with this freaking rain?

- [Narrator] Back up in pit three,

the heavy rain continues

and has made the site
too dangerous for mining.

- [Guy] Well, I'm at the point here where,

because we can't move
our dirt any further away

this is gonna slough in on us and

I don't want this to get buried

or any of us to get hurt.

- [Claudia] Guy decided to
move the saw out of the pit

because he saw that the integrity of

the wall of sand right beside it,

and behind it, it was falling away.

I guess our biggest concern is

if the weather continues like this

we're gonna be kicked out of here.

It's really unstable because of the rain.

It's just pure mud,

all this machinery is sinking,

it's just not safe.

- [Robin] We need this part to cut there.

This is not good.

- [Guy] Mother nature is
not helping us at all.

- [Narrator] The jade buyer
is arriving in two days,

but Claudia is forced to shut down mining

until the site dries up.

- [Claudia] Safety comes first.

I don't want anybody
getting hurt over this.

You guys, the rain's
kicking us out, let's go.

Let's go.

- [Guy] Geez.

Should've brought my hard hat.

Mother nature needs to help us out

a little bit more.

- [Claudia] Never seen a summer like this,

where it's this torrential down pour rain.

I don't know if mother nature's

telling me to get out of Dynasty,

or if she's telling me to
get out of the Jade industry.

- [Narrator] Next time on Jade Fever.

- [Guy] Fire in the hole.

That jammed up didn't it.

Blew a hole on the generator.

- [Gary] That's a sore.

- [Guy] Yup.

- [Robin] To succeed,

exploration is one of the
things you have to do.

- [Claudia] Our old friend Henry is here.

Let the games begin.

- [Robin] You look confused.

No, I'm not confused.

- [Henry] (bleep) rain.

- [Robin] This core would
indicate to you carbon quality,

right?

- [Henry] No.

- [Claudia] It really is
a really tough decision.