Parker Calls In A HUGE Favour With Tony Beets | Gold Rush

It’s just a killer crew this year. Gold prices are high, and we’re looking at getting through as much as we can. With gold prices soaring to a record $1900 per ounce, Parker Schnabel is on a mission to bank enough gold to expand his mining empire.

We’re up there, and the amount of ground we’re going through is crazy. Just keeping ground out ahead of Big Red and Sluicifer is going to be our big challenge. After four years mining the last cut, his wash plant Big Red is down to under a month’s worth of pay dirt.

The gold price is so high that it’s given us even more incentive to go as hard as we can while we’re here and make the best of it because this might not last forever. Four miles away on the Promised Land, Sluicifer is even closer to running out of pay. Everything’s been motoring along really nicely here, but we’re certainly getting down to the last of our pay.

Parker’s Promised Land claim covers 2,000 acres of gold-rich ground, but most of it is locked in permafrost ground that’s frozen solidly. The Sluicifer crew is churning through 24 acres of pay dirt opened up at the start of the season and left to thaw. Now, there’s only a week’s thawed pay dirt left to run.

I can’t believe how fast we’ve gotten through this ground. We’ve got to think about having enough ground opened up, but it is the Yukon, there is permafrost, and the ground isn’t thawed right now. Worst-case scenario, we’re going to run into here is being out of thawed pay and no place opened up and nowhere to go.

To keep his wash plants sluicing, Parker needs new ground found fast. I’ve got my eye on a piece of ground here on the Indian River that looks like it should have some really good potential—the airstrip, a million square foot claim two miles downstream from Parker’s camp. He owns the water license to mine it but not the ground itself.

This piece doesn’t have much time left on the license, so we have to just go in and mine it and get it out and no screwing around. The big problem is Tony owns it. Last season, Tony Beets lost his water license on the Indian River and asked Parker to share his so that he could mine the airstrip.

Unless we make a deal somehow, we’re out of here. We’re screwed. There’s been some bad blood at times with Tony, but I’m going to be calling in a favor one of these days. And so I’m fine with it. Good, thank you. But the deal fell apart. Hey, youngster. When it came to the contract, you’ve got to be a businessman too. Yeah, a signing it.

Tony, right now, would prefer to come out here and mine it himself, but he’s still waiting on his own license. I’m just going to see him right now. Let’s see what he has to say. Hello, knock knock. Can I come in? Of course you can. I don’t see anybody here that bites. Shoes on or off? On. Look like Taj Mahal to you?

How are you going, B? I’m good. How are you doing? Pretty good. What the do you want? Part of the reason why I’m here is we’re just about done around our camp. That’s licensed ground right now downstream from us, kind of around the airstrip. I know you’ve done some work in there, but we’re not far away with a whole bunch of equipment. I’d love to mine it if you’re game.

I’m all for it. Finish that. Finish it off. Okay. I would mine as much as I could in the next couple of years. This is a new Tony. I’m not used to this. Well, no, but I mean, I think the agreement is good that we have. What if you don’t get another license in a couple of years? Get it the out. Well, yeah. I appreciate that because we’re always hungry for ground.

And with that, we’ll be paying you a lot more royalties than I thought we would, but that’s okay, I guess. I don’t think you’ll mind. Thanks. But the way things are these days, the gold price is absolutely excellent. I think we would rather have that money in our pocket than in the ground. Otherwise, it may lay there for years.

Well, that was definitely one of the more strange meetings I’ve had with Tony Beets. Good result. I’m just still confused by the ease of it. I don’t know. I mean, we got another block of ground, so that’s the best part. Parker orders an excavator and rock truck, a two-man stripping crew to move to the airstrip, and sets them a mammoth task—strip a 600,000 square foot cut down to pay dirt, ready for Sluicifer to move into next week.

I’m crossing my fingers that everything’s going to be done, but we’re so behind schedule. At the airstrip, Parker Schnabel has tasked new hire JM with stripping a 600,000 square foot cut ready for Sluicifer to move into in just four days. I’ve got 20 things to do, and I only have time to do 10. I mean, like, we’re two people here, and it’s like we need an army right now. But we’ll do what we can, you know. This season, everybody’s just been pushed to the limit.

Three and a half miles away at the Promised Land, foreman Mitch Blashki closes in on the last of the thawed pay. Well, we’re motoring through this pretty quick, a lot faster than we were originally thinking we were, and these wash plants have been running real nice. So very important that we get the airstrip cut opened up. We want to have that cut ready to go for when we finish running this pay dirt. We want to wheel right over there and get right back to sluicing. We’re coming in hot.

If the airstrip is not down to pay dirt before Sluicifer arrives, Parker’s biggest moneymaker will sit idle, costing him $4,000 an hour in lost gold. Yeah, I need to talk to JM and see where we’re at. We’re closing in on them quickly. Yeah, no doubt. Use the radio if you need anything. Sounds good. Yeah, no problem. Have a good one.

I’m Parker Schnabel, and you’re watching Discovery Australia. Hit subscribe now to not miss out on any Gold Rush content.