Parker

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 16.]

Our favorite miners are back in the Yukon for Season 16 of Gold Rush on Discovery Channel. With the price of gold continuing to surge to upwards of $3,500 an ounce, Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness, and Tony Beets look to cash in a big way. The two-hour season premiere on Friday, November 7 kicked off with a quick interaction between Tony and Parker. 

The latter eyed an aggressive 10,000 ounces this year and years to come. Tony was looking to build on momentum from last season. “I’m glad you’re doing well,” Parker said. Tony said the same to him. Parker replied, “Hopefully, the wars are behind us.” We’ll see if things will stay cordial between the prodigy and the “King of the Klondike.”

Parker Schnabel 

The 31-year-old sunk a ton of money into his monstrous Dominion Creek claim. He counted on four wash plants to deliver better results than last year, which brought some disappointment. Parker sat down with his two foreman Mitch Blaschke and Tyson Lee before the work got underway. The mine boss didn’t sugarcoat things by warning them, “It’s going to be a stressful year for you two.” Mitch was assigned to finish up at Sulphur Creek over the 10 weeks Parker had a water license for it. Tyson had the pressure of running Dominion. A strong finish could mean Parker and his crew bring in $35 million. 

Before Tyson could hit any paydirt at Dominion, the crew had to deal with the water that flooded the cut over the winter. Pay was buried with three feet of solid ice. Parker wanted to get wash plant Bob sluicing over the week. Adding more issues, the feed chain system on the prewash conveyer was down. Mechanics worked feverishly to repair it, which gave them three days to sluice. 

Mitch felt under the gun alone on the job at Sulphur. The good news is it wasn’t for long as in an unexpected turn of events Parker poached Brennan Ruault from Kevin Beets in a shocking move. Brennan had previously walked out on Parker after disagreements and reappeared working for Tony Beets’ son. Now after five years, he came back to Parker’s operation after breaking the news to a stunned Kevin and his partner Faith Teng. “Christmas came early,” said Mitch, as he reflected on the shocking switch.

There was some disagreement between Mitch and Parker. Mitch wanted to focus on the ditch to dig to get rid of water, which went against Parker who wanted immediate panning. Parker laid down the law, “you have two options: find some virgin ground or else you can leave.”  They finally drained the cut and exposed what could be their first hidden pay pocket. Parker panned and found encouraging gold. The Parker crew get together to meet up for their first weigh. Tyson’s result at the Bridge Cut ultimately brought in 125.80 ounces worth more than $440,000. A nice start, but Parker grounded the team, “we have long ways to go.” 

Tony Beets

Tony Beets/Discovery Channel

Tony and family had already started sluicing two weeks into the season. He hoped for a quick score at the Early Bird Cut. There was already a weigh-in with 417.56 ounces from Indian River worth $1.5 million. Tony aimed for 6,500 ounces worth $22 million this season. His son Mike was directed to run Paradise Hill while Monica oversaw the gold room cleaning what would be coming in. Mike had the deadline to hit pay dirt by the end of the week. This was a proving opportunity. Mike worked to strip more ground and extend the cut. He had six new trucks to use. One of those $750,000 pieces of equipment flipped over with the driver Graham stuck inside. The truck hung on the edge of what could have been a 200-foot drop. The crew broke the top of the window so Graham could get outside. A dozer got the truck upright with the excavator used to keep it from falling off the cliff. Tony decided not to fire the crew member, but Mike was now down a truck. They do hit pay at Paradise Hill and could get sluicing. 

Kevin Beets 

Kevin Beets/Discovery Channel

At Scribner Creek, Kevin has started round 2 in his journey as a mine boss. He had a nice start sluicing early as well. Kevin poured his life savings into jumpstarting this operation last year. He hoped to double his return this time around with a goal of 2,000 ounces. Kevin and Faith were floored, losing Brennan. “I think we should go poaching too,” Kevin said. Despite the setback, he moved forward and depended more on others of his team. Kevin’s parents paid a visit as they were leasing the ground with a 10 percent cut. They weighed from one week of pay and came up at 57.04 ounces worth $200,000. It added up to being $60,000 more than the same amount was worth last year. Now it was about hiring another foreman. 

Rick Ness 

Rick Ness/Discovery Channel

The underdog sat on a pile of gold at his Duncan Creek claim worth more than a million dollars. That’s because he still didn’t have a water license. He can’t mine there until that goes through. Rick explored the idea of venturing to a different piece of land while things get worked out. He headed to Lightning Creek to prospect if there was gold to mine. The claim was owned by his old landlord Troy Taylor. It was the man who sold him the Duncan Creek claim. Troy felt bad about the water license and hoped offering this opportunity would be a makegood. 

Rick questioned if he could trust him. Rick ran a spot check to see if the juice was worth the squeeze. He and the team weighed the small sample and wished to get a gram on the two-yard run. It came in at .525, just half of what Rick was hoping for. Rick doesn’t think it’s worth it. “We’re screwed,” he declared. 

Rick joined Parker and Tony in Dawson City where a local union has been working with miners without a no water license. Rick thought it was a waste of time. Rick, Tony, and Parker met for a drink and to reminisce. Parker and Tony thought he should reconsider the Lightning Cut. Based on their insight, Rick decided to make a run at Lightning Creek after all. 

Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel