‘Gold Rush’: Rick Ness Makes Messy Misstep & Parker Schnabel Faces Financial Strain

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 15, Episode 19.] The end of the season is within sight, but the miners of Gold Rush still have a way to go if they want to meet their season goals. Things are especially dire for Parker Schnabel , whose Dominion Creek claim hasn’t delivered anywhere near what he thought.

During the March 14 episode of the popular Discovery series it had gotten so bad Schnabel started selling some of his equipment to Brian McCaughan, who sensed there might be some financial woes because he was able to negotiate the normally hard bargainer down on price. Elsewhere, Rick Ness and his crew have been a month into their big gamble of removing overburden at Vegas Valley. He spent nearly a million in profits, hoping to double his investment with a $2 million jackpot.



With no gold coming in or guarantee he could mine next year, he prayed this latest risk pays out big. First-time mine boss Kevin Beets faced his own race against the clock. The son of Tony Beets wants to prove he can be successful and break out of the shadow of Dad.

Kevin is hoping sluicing 24/7 will lead to him reaching the thousand ounces he set for the season. How did things pan out of the three? Read on below to see. Mitch Blaschke, Tyson Lee and Parker Schnabel (Discovery Channel) Foreman Mitch Blaschke could feel the end was in sight in terms of sluicing at the Long Cut after 19 weeks.

There was concern that the Roxanne wash plant would be shut down and have nothing else to do for the year. This led Schnabel on a search for new ground with only a few weeks left to mine any gold and hit his adjusted 8,000-ounce goal. Schnabel saw a glimmer of hope in the form of some tailings from the 1980s into the 1990s.

He brought Tyson Lee to further investigate. The results were enough for Schnabel to pursue a test weigh-in at his home base. Meanwhile Damien Browne was finishing up the pay pile at the acquired Sulfur Creek claim.

Without anymore thawed pay, wash plant Bob was all but wrapped up for the season. Unfortunately, the test results were not encouraging enough for Schnabel to pursue the space he had in mind. Despite the uncertainty, the crew came together for the weekly weigh-in.

Big Red at the Bridge Cut generated 111 ounces. Big Bob at Sulfur Creek brought in 182.20 ounces.

Roxanne at the Long Cut gave them an additional 155.90 ounces. The three wash plants overall produced just about 449 ounces worth over $1.

1 million. Schnabel broke 5,000 ounces for the season. Though with just over a month to hit another 3,000 ounces, it’s going to be an uphill battle toward the end.

Rick Ness and crew in meeting. (Discovery Channel) Hoping to maximize his return, Ness expressed interest to the group of extending the cut. Stripping more overburden did not sit well with the crew.

They thought there was enough pay to work through. Despite the differing of opinion, it’s ultimately agreed upon to follow Ness’ plan. The idea was to spend two weeks to extend the cut by 60 feet and then remove the remaining eight feet for pay.

Problems showed themselves very quickly as the crew ran into a layer of sloppy clay. Operator Kyle Lawson’s rock truck saw its tires sink into the muddy mess. The delays continued with Buzz Legault’s truck also needing to be pulled out of the muck.

More from this section This turned more and more into a bad idea. The crew went to talk to Ness in hopes he’d reconsider the decision to work on the extension. Ness agreed to move on and take what they could get.

The crew spent the last two days removing the last bit of overburden at the cut. Ness investigated the area to see where they may be at and pans some good results. It has become a race to stockpile pay and move Monster Red to Vegas Valley.

Kevin Beets sat in service truck. (Discovery Channel) Kevin’s operation had been running out of stockpile pay. To make matters worse, his 480 excavator went down with repairs.

So far, the team mined out three acres of the Links Cut. They also opened up a two-acre extension and have raced to strip another three acres to supply pay for the rest of their year. Things turned bad when a crew member smelled something burning and saw smoke coming from the their only working excavator.

'Gold Rush': Rick Ness Confronts Disgruntled Foreman Buzz Legault Foreman Brennan Ruault rushed to the scene with a fire extinguisher. The starter appeared to be the source of the issues. Kevin replaced the entire starter motor earlier in the season, but it seemed to not fit correctly.

After four hours, Kevin was able to fix the issues so Brennan could get back to work. The crew got down to the final pay in their area while Brennan tried to hit pay at the extension. Kevin visited Brennan to see the “unreal” pay he noticed.

Kevin took out a pan and saw some decent sized flakes, which meant this spot could play an important role in getting them to the thousand ounces. At the weigh-in, the results were 159.05 ounces worth almost $400,000.

They ended up just under halfway into their goal. However, Kevin was optimistic there would be some decent potential at the extension. Gold Rush , Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery More Headlines: ‘Gold Rush’: Rick Ness Makes Messy Misstep & Parker Schnabel Faces Financial Strain ‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React After More Drama Ends Spectacular Week on Show ‘Percy Jackson’ Scores Early Renewal & Sets Season 2 Premiere Is ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Season 2 Still Happening? Everything We Know Netflix’s ‘The Electric State’ Is a ’90s-set Alt-Reality for the Whole Family.