‘Gold Rush’: Rick Ness Faces Disaster in Dramatic Season 15 Premiere

It’s back to the Yukon for the miners of Gold Rush as the popular Discovery Channel series returned with the Season 15 premiere. Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness, and Tony Beets continued their respective operations with the same goal of getting their piece of that golden pie. Find out how things kicked off for the three below. 

Parker Schnabel

Discovery Channel

The 29-year-old took his biggest bet by leveraging everything into buying the Dominion Creek claim. Time was of the essence for Schnabel with six years left of the license. In order to accomplish his goal, he must mine at least 10,000 ounces a year. Attention is turned to the Long Cut. However, crew members Tyson Lee and Mitch Blaschke had to break the bad news to their boss that the area was not able to start to wash leaving the site at a possible disastrous standstill. Schnabel isn’t accepting the idea of not running with the idea there is possible gold in a money pit left by a previous owner. He hoped the gravel pile would pay off, but a 34-hour run leaves minimal results. Around 5.6 ounces at $14,000, which translates to what Schnabel called the worst cleanup they’ve ever done. Not a good start, but as we’ve seen in the past, he is up to the challenge. 

Rick Ness 

Rick Ness, Ryan Kent and Kyle Lawson on 750 Excavator during build. (Discovery Channel)

Last season, Ness began his comeback story and seemed to be in great spirits at the start of things. His crew including Brian “Zee” Zaremba saw the renewed motivation. The 43-year-old invested in production with a new 750 excavator. He was eyeing the biggest payday of his career at Rally Valley, looking for 1,500 ounces. Ness feels he is within striking distance of becoming a land owner until a meeting with Duncan Creek landlord Troy Taylor threw him for a loop. He told Ness that he has not secured a water license approval for next season, which could be disastrous for his operation. We’ll see how Ness and the company can possibly move forward after such a big setback. 

Tony Beets

Tony Beets and Kevin Beets sat on side of Kevin’s Washplant, Happy. (Discovery Channel)

The patriarch faced his share of challenges last season and the family struggled as a result. The long-time miner saw his eldest son Kevin step out on his own after starting out as chief mechanic in 2019. Father and son butted heads on how to run the mine to where Kevin reached his breaking point. He quit the family business only to come back into the fold. Tony gave him a chance to prove himself by leasing him some of his ground. Now it’s up to Kevin and his better half Faith Teng to show they can handle their own operation. They negotiate with the head honcho where Kevin would ultimately receive 10% royalties from what they generate. Kevin and Faith were pleasantly surprised with how fair the deal was for them. Things were looking up for Tony in that they got a headstart on Indian River for a week with a $750,000 first haul, breaking the record for the most gold first week of the season. Can he continue the momentum? We’ll see as the season unfolds. 

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