On tonight’s amazing episode of Gold Rush, team Tony Beets is facing a ton of new challenges, literally.
The Dutchman is coordinating a huge heavy move of equipment from one plant to the other, and it’s not easy and it’s totally being scrutinized by his lead man, Juan Ibarra. In fact, based on our exclusive clip, the task looks to be near impossible.
As we open the action, the move between Thistle Creek and Dawson City seems a straightforward one on paper, but Gold Rush’s luckiest and most hardworking Dutchman will face some major obstacles before the day is out.
Beets is dismantling the last sections of his 1940s dredge at the remote locale of Thistle Creek, getting things ready to transport about a hundred miles south to Dawson City
Watching Juan Ibarra and his son Mike Beets, Tony gets the gang in gear.
However, Juan is more cautious than gung-ho Tony. He says: “You can’t be too careful with the lift like this you don’t want to hurt anybody… because at the end of the day someone’s life’s is dependent on that.”
As per usual, Tony was ready yesterday and is impatient to get the loader in action and the giant pile of heavy metal in motion. He asks Mike how much the load weighs, in his estimation.
Mike thinks it to be at least 30 tons. Tony brings in the 375 horsepower loader and as you can see in the clip, the pile moves a bit, but as Juan watches with a careful eye, Papa Tony is putting crazy amounts of stress on that loader and is literally lifting up in the air as the counterweight to his machinery. All a bit hairy.
The look on Juan’s face says something is about to break, but what?
Last week, Tony was sorting out his trammel troubles on the episode. Trammels are the spinning centrifuge-like giant cylinders that wash the trace and chunk gold from the slurry material that feeds into a rotary mining scrubber where it is cleaned and sifted with great force as the soil and rock mix is broken up. Then the target mineral, being gold in Beets’ case, is released in a separate part of the machine.
This was the challenge as Tony coached his man Mike Scriba navigate the arm of the crane, but as things happen on this unpredictable show, the trammel – while hoisted well into the air – went loose as one of the supporting chains snaps suddenly.
This is where we have to wonder, the season started out so good for Tony, Minnie, Kevin, Mike, and Monica, but where will it end up? Will Parker Schnabel smoke him at the end with more gold in the kitty or will the Dutchman pull out a miracle?
Make sure to tune in as Tony Beets is always highly watchable, regardless of his machinery woes.
Gold Rush airs Fridays at 9/8c on Discovery