Parker Schnabel, Tony Beets, and Kevin Beets face mounting challenges in Gold Rush Season 15, Episode 17.
As the season nears its end, each miner battles equipment failures, environmental hazards, and dwindling time to reach their ambitious gold targets.
Parker, struggling with poor returns from Dominion Creek, has already lowered his goal from 10,000 to 8,000 ounces.
Meanwhile, Tony operates at limited capacity, hoping to hit 5,000 ounces despite progress in frozen ground stalling.
Kevin, in his first year as a mine boss, is pushing through setbacks with his own financial investment on the line.
With obstacles piling up, the miners must work through frustration, risk, and last-minute recoveries to keep their operations running.
Parker Schnabel faces a production crisis
Parker Schnabel’s mining efforts took a hit as Dominion Creek, and the Long Cut struggled to produce high yields.
With only two wash plants running, Sulphur Creek’s shutdown further slowed progress.
Mitch Blaschke led efforts at the Long Cut, using A60 rock trucks to move 600 yards of dirt per hour.
However, a broken drive shaft caused a major delay, shutting down operations for six hours.
The weekly gold weigh-in delivered disappointing numbers, with Big Red producing 100.08 ounces and Long Cut’s Roxanne delivering 206.08 ounces—almost 100 ounces less than the previous week.
With his lowest weigh-in in seven weeks, Parker’s path to 8,000 ounces looks increasingly difficult.
Tony and his son Kevin Beets tackle setbacks
Tony Beets started strong but now faces hurdles, running just one of his three wash plants.
At Indian River, frozen ground stalled operations, forcing his son Mike to carry the load at Paradise Hill.
An environmental scare emerged when muddy water from the Trommel threatened to spill into a nearby creek, which could have shut them down.
The crew scrambled to reinforce the dike while dealing with another crisis, a side dump truck tipping over a 15-foot drop.
Operating a single wash plant throughout three nights, the Beets family mined 143.58 ounces, valued at $350,000. This leaves them with 1,200 ounces left to mine to reach their goal of 5,000.
Meanwhile, Kevin Beets’ first year as mine boss proved challenging, with water problems turning the Links Cut extension into a muddy mess.
With no spare pump available, foreman Brennan Ruault took matters into his own hands, buying an $11,000 pump to get operations back on track.
Tony and his wife stopped by for the weekly weigh-in as they awaited their 10 percent royalty. The Links Cut yielded 156.60 ounces of gold, valued at over $390,000. It marked Kevin’s best haul of the season, doubling his overall total to 312 ounces.
Gold Rush airs Fridays at 8/7c on Discovery Channel.