Gold Rush is in its 14th season on Discovery, a show which follows the mining efforts of family-run companies across the Americas. With so many seasons to date, the cast are practically sitting in gold.
The popular Discovery Channel show saw the return of familiar faces Parker Schnabel, Tony Beets and Rick Ness. While welcoming a new family, The McCaughans, who demonstrated that gold isn’t the only valuable thing that you find in the mines. Business shifts hands, causing divisive outlooks among fans, who think there should be less complaining from a family who have amassed so much wealth. So we know mining comes with drama and danger, but is it worth it in the end?
Parker Schnabel continues to break weekly weigh-in records
Coming in at the top spot is definitely the Schnabel family. Parker Schnabel has worked for his Grandpa’s gold mining firm, Big Nugget, in Alaska since he was just a boy. Starting young in his career has really paid off for Parker as he has some of the highest Gold Rush weigh-ins to date.
Back in season 3, at the green age of just 18, we start to get a hint at Parker’s future success. He breaks his own record pulling in 55 ounces of gold in just one week, totalling in a staggering $88,000.
That was just the start though, after heading to the Klondike Parker Schnabel shows he is following in his Grandpa’s footsteps by pulling in the series top 3 record breaking weekly hauls. In Season 9, airing in 2018, Parker had a weekly weigh-in of 955 ounces of gold, totalling in over $1 million.
Parker Schnabel had a record-breaking season, with the biggest clean-up in Gold Rush history: $8.4 million in gold. Parker continued to break his weekly weigh in records in season 12, 2021, with 1168 ounces totalling $2 million, and a shocking find of 2294 ounces totalling in $4.4 million in season 11, airing 2020.
Parker Schnabel runs two plants in the Klondike, the trustworthy inherited Big Red, and the devilishly named Slucifer. During their time under Parkers operation Slucifer has amassed a staggering 22,000 ounces of gold making Parker $33 million richer, while old faithful Big Red has lived up to their name with 26,000 ounces of gold discovered bringing the family $37 million. In the first 12 seasons of Gold Rush it is estimated Parker made a show-stopping $150 million!
Tony Beets takes a risk on old machine and it certainly pays off
Tony Beets is another fan favourite Gold Rush veteran making his debut in season 2, 2010, of the show. He has appeared in every season since. During 2015, Tony Beets takes a tense risk in employing a 75 year old ‘dredge’, that dredges up (hopefully) gold from the river bed.
This machine was a huge risk as it took $1 million to fire up the old beast and get it working. This means the dredge needs to provide at least 1 ounce an hour to turn profit. In season 6, 2015, his crew wait patiently after running the dredge for its first 20 hours, as the scales climb up it’s almost nail biting. The number stop on 21 ounces, meaning it just surpassed the total necessary.
While this might not seem shocking, the faithful machine continues to break records in the next four seasons. By 2022, the dredge has unearthed an astonishing 6000 ounces, providing Tony a plentiful $10 million and peace of mind his risky investment paid off.
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