‘Gold Rush’ Recap: Rick Ness Hits Massive Roadblock That Puts His Season in Jeopardy

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 15, Episode 13.]

After hitting some big weeks on Gold Rush, it was all about location, location, location for Tony Beets and Rick Ness to keep their momentum going. During Friday’s (January 31) episode, the two mine bosses were looking for their next sweet spots. This process could be very costly, especially if their hunch doesn’t prove fruitful.

With so much invested and his small but mighty team depending on him, Ness felt the most pressure to deliver. After all, if he doesn’t get his water license renewed, this could be the end at Duncan Creek. For Parker Schnabel, it was more about staying the course. With three wash plants running, his crew looked to make up some ground lost earlier in the season. Read on below to see how the miners did. 

Parker Schnabel 

Mitch Blaschke looking stressed. (Discovery Channel)

Schnabel introduced his new four-legged chocolate Labrador named Bosco, a birthday present from his parents. Perhaps the dog could provide some much-needed good luck as he hoped to get closer to his 10,000-ounce season goal, but Schnabel had the slowest start of his mining season to work through. He may have turned a corner at Dominion Creek. The crew ran top layer pay dirt at the Bridge Cut while others were finally mining out the first half of the Long Cut. There was also Ken and Stuarts lending a hand in gold totals. Needless to say, Schnabel has stretched his team to the limit. He tasked the team to get them set up better for next season by hauling wash plant Roxanne to a new pad where it will sluice to an existing pond in 24 hours. After an initial issue with air being sucked into a pump from a loose intake hose, it was mission accomplished.

Newbie Tayvin Peterson was promoted to feeding Roxanne after running rock trucks earlier in the season. He ran into a hopper jam. After trying to shovel out the blockage, he called on foreman Mitch Blaschke to lend a hand. He discovered a large rock caused the issue. Blaschke appreciated being called before things got worse. Schnabel met for the week’s weighing. After running Roxanne in the Long Cut, the result was 222.5 ounces worth $556,000. Big Red came next with 82.8 ounces worth $207,000. Big Bob at Ken and Stuart’s brought in a massive 346.80 ounces worth $867,000. Schnabel was happy, but with time dwindling, they needed more of this and fast. 

Tony Beets

Tony Beets stood surveying. (Discovery Channel)

The “King of the Klondike” has been ahead of the pack, mining 2,914 ounces worth more than $7 million in gold so far. His son Mike has been on a roll at Paradise Hill running the Trommel 24/7. Then at Indian River, following a week for maintenance, his nephew Mike had Sluice-A-Lot running comeback pay dirt. With nephew Mike running through pay so fast, Tony has run into the danger of running out of good ground. In order to keep on the gold at Indian River, he was in search of a new sweet spot. Using a $2 pan, he examined some ground and found some encouraging results. 

He alerted the team to strip cut to pay dirt and build a wash plant pad for Sluice-A-Lot. Cousin Mike had to shut down a 45-ton wash plant on Comeback Cut and move it to the new Corner Cut to get sluicing. The dozer struggled, leading the mammoth move. Tony’s nephew Mike managed to drive the equipment over to the spot without any issues. Next up was to build up a pay pile. It wasn’t long until he ran into permafrost, which slowed down the process and put Tony’s plan on ice. The family convened for the weekly weigh-in. The Comeback Cut brought in 75.66 ounces worth $190,000. The Trommel added another 374.34 ounces worth $936,000. With Tony’s nephew Mike’s operation halted, his son Mike was now depended upon even more to keep the gold coming. 

Rick Ness 

Discovery Channel

With the Crew Cut not delivering, Ness sought new ground to build upon his almost 1,000 ounces. If he didn’t find a better spot, he could risk losing the money he made at Duncan Creek. He targeted ground near the Bench Cut, which was covered in permafrost. Ness didn’t want to make the same mistake of getting another bad spot. He took extra precautions and wanted to investigate smarter by digging up a sample. Five hours later, the test run revealed there was some gold coming out. Ness was cautiously optimistic on the Edge Cut. 

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He met with the team to get the plan underway with hopes it could get him the quick hit needed to inch closer to the 1,500-ounce goal. It was all hands on deck to strip and remove overburden as quickly as possible. Ness wasn’t seeing much gravel, which maybe meant no gold. Things weren’t looking good. He decided to run another test before investing any more money in this operation. In the meantime, Ness showed off his collection of rocks including his “Wu-Tang” rock and “stone sandals.” Ness felt at a crossroads as he needed to see 10 ounces to make the Edge Cut worth exploring. The result was 2.55 worth just $6,500. Ness needed to find better gold fast or have no choice but to cut his season short.  

Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery