‘Gold Rush’: Parker Schnabel Poaches Another Member of Kevin Beets’ Crew

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 16.]

The stage was set during last week’s premiere for what looks to be an eventful Season 16 of Gold Rush. Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness, Tony Beets, and his son Kevin continue the push toward their respective goals. 

Each was willing to do whatever it takes to get results with gold prices surging. And for Parker, that meant potentially even stepping on some toes. Let’s unpack what took place during the November 14 season. 

Kevin Beets 

Kayden Foot/Discovery Channel

At Scribner Creek, Tony’s eldest had a nice start, already banking 57 ounces into a 2,000-ounce target. Though the second-year mine boss once again faced personnel challenges when Brennan Ruault, his foreman, jumped ship back to Parker Schnabel’s operation. This was a big hit that put more pressure on Kevin’s team. Among them was Kayden Foot, a local mechanic and operator. The 23-year-old expressed concerns regarding Kevin’s plan to run wet pay. He felt the rolling of the dice would cost them in the long run. “Poor planning leads to piss poor production which leads to piss poor results,” he said. 

The disgruntled crew member ran into issues as he predicted and had to shut the plant down. Despite the feeder and conveyer problems due to the wet pay, Kevin’s plan was to move along. He would use high-pressure hot water to blast away the mud and then fire up the plant to feed the pay at a slower rate. Kayden reminisced about working for Brennan. “With Kevin, I feel like I’m disrespected,” he said. 

Cut to Parker meeting with Kayden and bringing him aboard his team. Yes, Parker poached a second crew member in two weeks. “In my eyes he is the ‘King of the Klondike,’ Kayden said. The latest departure broke the news to Kevin and his partner Faith Teng. Kevin wondered if Brennan helped with this. Kayden mentioned that it was maybe just a reference. If looks could kill, Kayden would be in trouble the way Faith was looking at him. Despite the setback, Kevin kept moving along. The Beets family met up with Kevin and Faith for a weigh-in. After a week of sluicing wet pay, their results came in at 48.46 ounces worth $170,000. That’s just over a 100 ounces for the season. The couple remain hopeful. Now they just have to work to keep their crew. 

Parker Schnabel 

Parker Schnabel/Discovery Channel

Parker was gunning for a record-breaking season of 10,000 ounces worth $35 million goal. He knew a key to that was getting four wash plants running. Mitch Blaschke made progress stripping a two-acre cut hunting for pockets of gold left behind by old-timers. Elsewhere, Tyson Lee was in charge of two cuts at Parker’s bread and butter, Dominion Creek. He had the 114-acre Bridge Cut where Bob was sluicing and the new 52-acre Golden Mile where drill results indicated had the potential of holding up to $12 million in gold. For the latter, the crew looked to bring Sluicifer out of retirement for the first time in two years. 

Tyson tasked Kayden with helping get the water filtration system going by digging up the access road to the cut and installing culverts. Kayden’s excavator got stuck. Not a good start for the first day. Tyson managed to get it back up and running. Just as he was set to move Sluicifer to the Golden Mile, he received news from Parker that Bob was down. Tyson turned his attention to the Bridge Cut where Bob’s converters shut down. Rather than deal with the fuel tank and other delays from the equipment’s generator, he decided to just swap it out for a backup. They managed to get Sluicifer running. Parker’s team came together for a weigh-in. Bob generated 161.80 ounces while Sluicifer delivered an initial 112.01 ounces. Together that’s worth just under a million dollars. “Still a long way to go,” Parker concluded. Parker wanted a third plant going sooner rather than later. 

Tony Beets

Tony Beets/Discovery Channel

Tony had a great start to the season and started sluicing early toward his 6,500-ounce goal. The “King of the Klondike” already netted 417 ounces worth $1.5 million. He wanted two sites ultimately running with his son Mike at Paradise Hill and Cousin Mike at Indian River. Tony checked on Cousin Mike and wanted to talk about what to do this season. He came upon high water and immediately told him to shut down the plant. A beaver plugged the culvert connecting two ponds and caused water to flood in to the area. Cousin Mike worked to clear the culvert using an excavator. They managed to get the sticks out and fire up Sluice-A-Lot once again. Despite the beaver shutting down the only working wash plant for half a day, the Early Bird Cut brought in 214.6 ounces. It was slightly below target, but worth almost three quarters of a million dollars. This brought  their total to more than 632 ounces, nearly a 10th of the season gold. 

Rick Ness 

Rick Ness/Discovery Channel

Without a water license, Rick’s operation at Duncan Creek was at a standstill. This gave him no other alternative but to seek out alternative land to mine in Lightning Creek. The 44-year-old would go back to leasing ground to his old landlord Troy Taylor. They negotiate with Rick offering 10 percent royalties. Troy was thinking 20 percent. Rick came back with 15 and reminded Troy of their partnership the last six years. 

Troy ultimately agreed to the 15 percent, but he needed a minimum output of 100 ounces. He saw it as an insurance policy knowing Rick would immediately want to head back to Duncan Creek if the license gets approved. Rick agreed, knowing he had to deliver $350,000 worth of gold. Regardless Rick was happy to get mining again. Help was also coming with his best friend Brian “Z” Zaremba and a new recruit adding to his skeleton crew. He named the new spot they prepared to dig into as the Diamond Cut. 

Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel