What To Know
- Tony Beets’ gold mining operation faces a major setback when a beaver blocks a culvert, causing flooding and forcing a shutdown of the wash plant during a crucial period of high gold prices.
- The beaver’s dam prevents water from draining between settling ponds, resulting in an overflow that threatens Tony’s only active gold-producing cut at the moment.
- Meanwhile, other miners like Rick Ness and Parker Schnabel confront their own challenges this season, with Rick lacking a water license and Parker pushing his crew to meet an ambitious gold target.
Tony Beets has gotten off to a solid start during Season 16 of Gold Rush. The “King of the Klondike” began sluicing two weeks into the run on the Discovery Channel reality series. He looks to take advantage of the historic highs of gold prices with a 6,500-ounce goal worth upwards of $22 million. The Beets’ operation has been dependent on the family as son Mike oversees Paradise Hill, Monica is in charge of gold room cleaning what comes in, and cousin Mike handles things at Indian River.
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Even though there is momentum on the side of the veteran mine boss, Tony knows issues are bound to arise. And a big one appears to be happening during the November 14 episode. In the sneak peak shared exclusively with TV Insider above, Tony notices high-water flooding within his territory on Indian River, blockading the culvert and needing immediate excavation. “Look at this commotion,” he declares driving through the messy area. Tony calls over cousin Mike to see what is going on. Mike reports that there is a lot of water coming into the dubbed Early Bird Cut.
When he hears this, Tony orders the crew to shut off the wash plant Sluice-A-Lot. “With this gold price any time you shut down, it costs s***loads of money,” he said with frustration. Upon further investigation, the elder statesmen who probably has seen it all in the Yukon, discovers the probable culprit. “You see that beaver in the water,” Tony points as the camera pans to find the rodent having a nice swim where they let the water out of the pond. He hypothesizes that the beaver plugged the culvert up overnight and goes into fix-it mode. Cousin Mike heads over with an excavator.
It’s explained that the 13-acre Early Bird Cut connects to two connected settling ponds, which holds all the dirty water from the wash plant Sluice-A-Lot. The beaver has stuffed the culvert with sticks. Unable to drain into the second pond, the first pond fills up and bursts its banks causing water to pour into Tony’s only gold producing cut at the moment. He isn’t going to let the animal get the better of him. “Be damned if I’m gonna get [let] that beaver f*** me around,” Tony said.
The bottom line is the stakes are so high and the site is currently his sole bread and butter, so he needs to get things back going before things turn disastrous. Elsewhere, Rick Ness is contemplating his next move without a water license at Duncan Creek. Parker Schnabel has put the pressure on his crew to deliver by any means necessary with a 10,000-ounce season goal over their heads. Tony’s eldest son Kevin, once again runs into personnel issues in his second season as a mine boss. We’ll see how things pan out for these miners in the weeks to come.
Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel