With the season winding down and winter looming, the pressure is mounting for the Beets family to finish strong in Gold Rush Season 15.
The series took a two-week hiatus but is back with plenty of action to keep viewers engaged.
The April 4 doubleheader episodes saw Kevin Beets push himself and his crew to their limits in a bid to double their gold total.
At the same time, his father, Tony Beets, brought back a piece of mining history in a last-ditch effort to strike it rich.
With just weeks left, the Beets clan is pulling out all the stops to meet their ambitious goals.
From overnight shifts to decades-old dredges, nothing is off the table. And after a week of sweat, setbacks, and strategic moves, the numbers speak for themselves.
Kevin Beets goes all in to save the season
Kevin Beets, now stepping into his role as mine boss, had spent five grueling months accumulating 470 ounces of gold.
With just four weeks left, he knew he needed to double that to even have a chance at another season. To maximize their output, Kevin tasked foreman Brennan Ruault with digging out pay dirt and stockpiling it while the rest of the crew ran the wash plant around the clock.
Veteran miner and former bank manager Rick Johnson joined the team for the high-stakes push, working overnight alongside Hunter Canning.
But the shift hit a snag when Johnson’s truck got stuck in the mud. Hunter had only eight minutes to help free the truck and return to feeding the hopper before gold started spilling out of the sluice box.
They succeeded, only to hit another issue the next morning when rocks clogged the prewash, forcing a shutdown while Canning dug it out manually.
The grind paid off. At week’s end, Kevin’s biggest gold haul came in at 205.58 ounces, with nuggets adding another 4.14 ounces. The total, now at 680 ounces, was valued at more than $500,000, a huge morale booster and a major step forward.
Tony Beets revives the dredge and pushes to the finish line
Tony Beets revived his 85-year-old dredge for the first time in five years to take advantage of thawed pay dirt at Indian River. He brought back Greg Mason to help with the setup, using dozers to haul the beached dredge to a nearby pond.
Despite discovering a leak in the pontoon, Tony’s crew, with help from nephew Michael, managed to pump out the water and patch it. Two days later, the dredge was back in action, sluicing pay dirt for the first time in six weeks.
Weigh-ins followed: the dredge produced 31.75 ounces worth $83,000, and Mike’s Paradise Hill Trommel delivered 172.15 ounces, valued at nearly $500,000. Their new season total stood at 4,363 ounces.
During the second hour, Tony pushed wash plants at both Paradise Hill and Indian River. With the dredge nearly out of pay, he brought in nephew Mike to run Sluice-A-Lot at the Comeback Cut extension.
Mike, with wife Ruby Mahoney assisting, moved the plant and fired it up by day’s end.
The final push paid off: the Trommel added 251.48 ounces, the Comeback Cut extension yielded 146.46 ounces, and the dredge wrapped up with 58.74 ounces.
Their combined total hit 4,800 ounces, just 200 ounces shy of their 5,000-ounce season goal, with momentum on their side.
Gold Rush airs Fridays at 8/7c on Discovery Channel.