After hitting some big weeks on Gold Rush, it was all about location, location, location for Tony Beets and Rick Ness to keep their momentum going. During Friday’s (January 31) episode, the two mine bosses were looking for their next sweet spots. This process could be very costly, especially if their hunch doesn’t prove fruitful.
With so much invested and his small but mighty team depending on him, Ness felt the most pressure to deliver. After all, if he doesn’t get his water license renewed, this could be the end at Duncan Creek. For Parker Schnabel, it was more about staying the course. With three wash plants running, his crew looked to make up some ground lost earlier in the season. Read on below to see how the miners did.
Parker Schnabel
Schnabel introduced his new four-legged chocolate Labrador named Bosco, a birthday present from his parents. Perhaps the dog could provide some much-needed good luck as he hoped to get closer to his 10,000-ounce season goal, but Schnabel had the slowest start of his mining season to work through. He may have turned a corner at Dominion Creek. The crew ran top layer pay dirt at the Bridge Cut while others were finally mining out the first half of the Long Cut. There was also Ken and Stuarts lending a hand in gold totals. Needless to say, Schnabel has stretched his team to the limit. He tasked the team to get them set up better for next season by hauling wash plant Roxanne to a new pad where it will sluice to an existing pond in 24 hours. After an initial issue with air being sucked into a pump from a loose intake hose, it was mission accomplished.
Newbie Tayvin Peterson was promoted to feeding Roxanne after running rock trucks earlier in the season. He ran into a hopper jam. After trying to shovel out the blockage, he called on foreman Mitch Blaschke to lend a hand. He discovered a large rock caused the issue. Blaschke appreciated being called before things got worse. Schnabel met for the week’s weighing. After running Roxanne in the Long Cut, the result was 222.5 ounces worth $556,000. Big Red came next with 82.8 ounces worth $207,000. Big Bob at Ken and Stuart’s brought in a massive 346.80 ounces worth $867,000. Schnabel was happy, but with time dwindling, they needed more of this and fast.
Tony Beets
Tony doesn’t think Mike solved the problem as the baffles were angled to pick up the pay dirt, but some are poorly positioned sending the pay and water back the wrong way. He removed the misaligned baffles to allow flow in the correct direction. Tony blamed Mike for not removing the baffles in the first place. Tony’s solution actually made the problem worse. His new plan was to place two sheets of steel at the entrance of the Trommel so any water splashing out would be redirected away from the sluice box. Tony doesn’t agree. The plan worked. Mike felt disrespected about how he was treated. The Paradise Hill gold weigh-in for the week was 127.70 ounces worth $320,000.
Kevin Beets
For Kevin, it was all about finally getting to sluice at his claim leased from his parents at Scribner Creek. He hoped for 100 ounces to get started into his 1,000 ounces. He and partner Faith Teng invested $2 million so far and paid Tony no royalties yet. The crew added two new recruits John Bell and Kayden Foot. There was some delay when a giant rock got stuck in the wash plant. The prewash was blocked, which caused the plant to shut down.
A member managed to remove the rock to get back on the gold. Water started spraying everywhere due to broken spray bars that wouldn’t wash the gold properly. They repaired the problem. Operator Hunter Canning opened up about being away from her 10-year-old daughter and sacrificing so much to provide a better life. Tony and wife Minnie met at their son’s site. After three-and-a-half months he had his first gold weigh-in of the season, which was 33 ounces worth $82,500. Tony said he will have to crank things up. Kevin wondered if he would be able to hit his goal at this point, but he was finally making progress.
