Parker Schnabel Drops a Bombshell on Kevin Beets in Explosive ‘Gold Rush’ Season 16 Premiere

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.”