‘Gold Rush’: Tony Beets Receives Devastating News That Derails Future Plans

Parker Schnabel has fallen behind on his 10,000-ounce goal on Gold Rush. However, the mine prodigy isn’t one to go down without a fight. He brings out one more trick up his sleeve during the March 27 episode to jumpstart the operation again. 

Tony Beets already exceeded his 6,500-ounce goal, amassing $23 million in gold. Despite record-breaking numbers, the “King of the Klondike” shows no signs of stopping with more than a month left in the season. His eldest son Kevin certainly felt the second-year growing pains as a mine boss. He looks to turn things around, but continues to face personnel issues that slow down progress. 

Let’s dig into how things shook out on the Discovery Channel series for the three below.

Parker Schnabel

Parker Schnabel (Discovery Channel)

Parker brought out the big guns in the form of a new wash plant at Dominion Creek named the Golden Goose. He ordered the $1 million piece of equipment that was expected to bring more yardage, good recovery, and pick up in time a lot of sluicing needs to be done. With gold numbers plummeting the last few weeks, he hoped this would give the crew a nice shot in the arm. With Sluicifer parked for the season, they look to finish up at Dominion by mining out the Golden Mile and setting up two big piles for Big Red and the Golden Goose to work through. As the Golden Goose was being set up, the pressure was on for the rock trucks to hustle and get the pay out in time. 

The crew worked to make sure water could be supplied to the new addition by linking a new intake pond and installing a hose to pump from the pad. They got good news that the water pump was up and running. Just when the plant was fired up, there was a bad sound. It turned out to be some minor rock and dirt blockage to clear. Parker and his lieutenants met up for the weekly gold weigh. They decided Golden Goose was a lame name and dubbed her GG the super model. Even though GG didn’t run long enough to bring in gold this week, Big Red did to the tune of 140.07 ounces. Bob at the Bridge Cut added another 127.40 ounces. Roxanne sluiced all week at Ken & Stuart’s and generated 153.20 ounces. Parker finished up from last week with a $1.5 million haul. “I do think we have a real shot of making this happen,” he said of making his goal this season. 

Tony Beets

Tony Beets (Discovery Channel)

Life was good for Tony. Sluicing continued at Paradise Hill with Indian River’s Corner Cut running two wash plants day and night. One not to rest on his laurels, he looked at what’s next. And that was acquiring the Wounded Moose, which holds 213 claims, for a whopping $4 million. Tony saw this as an opportunity to set up two or three more generations. It was four miles east of Indian River and one mile south to where Kevin leases land from him. The turnkey operation includes excavators and an existing camp with the potential of delivering up to $200 million. Although it’s untested ground, Tony knew this was a deal he had to take advantage of quickly.  “Without risk there is no gain either. If you don’t do something stupide, well you’re never gonna f*ck’in win now are you, right?” 

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His initial panning of the grounds revealed what he described as hitting the jackpot. Tony saw this as the opportunity his son Mike had wanted for so long. Much like Kevin, Mike would be a mine boss in charge with the deal being split 50/50. The first step was getting wash plant Harold over to its new home. Just as things were getting started, Tony’s wife Minnie received a devastating call. She brought the rest of the family in to break the bad news that they had no water license on the claim. They were under the impression the license was through 2027, but the paperwork wasn’t transferred to Tony. This meant the crews had to pivot and Mike’s dream suffered a major roadblock. Team Beets focused on the positive during the weigh-in. Sluice-a-Lot at the Corner Cut pulled 218.74 ounces. Find-a-Lot clocked in at 237.58 ounces while work at Paradise Hill generated 258.98 ounces. That is a $2.5 million week pushing them to nearly $26 million from 7,333 ounces of gold! 

Kevin Beets

Kevin Beets (Discovery Channel)

Kevin had secured $2.5 million in gold, but he needs to double that to reach his 2,000-ounce goal. He made one last ditch effort to get there. Not making things easier was Tayvin Peterson. The operator was told numerous times he was moving too fast and potentially damaging the loader. Kevin asked him to slow down. Tayvin didn’t think he was going too fast, but didn’t want to get fired again. Six weeks ago the worker was let go by Parker’s operation. Kevin and his partner Faith Teng decide to take him out of the loader and into a rock truck. Faith told Tayvin about the demotion and that he needed to learn from his f*ck ups.

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Tayvin expressed his disgruntled feelings to foreman Buzz Legault over the walkie. He even talked trash about Faith, which as you’d expect, Faith hears. “Am I getting fired,” Tayvin asked when confronted by Faith. Surprisingly, Faith gave him one last chance or he was out. In reality, Kevin couldn’t afford any more hiccups or to lose a crew member. Faith and Kevin meet for the weigh-in, which was 222.85 ounces worth nearly $800,000.  “Not great,” Faith concluded. They are just under 1,000 ounces at this point. “I’m wondering if 2,000 ounces was a bit much,” Kevin reacted. We’ll see in the coming weeks if he was right. 

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

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