The latest season of Gold Rushhas been a rough one for its mining crews. Rick Ness and Kevin Beets have each experienced setbacks during their mining operations. Beets, in particular, is feeling the pressure of taking over a whole mining operation from his father, Tony (though he pulled through and even managed to turn a profit). It's Ness, however, who made a mistake that could cost him the entire season, and it highlights just how rough the gold mining profession really is.
That mistake involved the type of pump that Ness brought to speed up the sluicing process, which cost a pricey $150,000, leading Ness to joke, "This could have been a Ferrari in my garage." But it was no laughing matter when it turned out that he had brought the wrong type of pump, which led his whole operation to grind to a halt.
Rick Ness’ Mistake Underlines a Reality That ‘Gold Rush’ Rarely Touches On
Image via Discovery Channel
Ness is far from the first miner on Gold Rush to deal with a setback during their mining operation, but his issues with his pump underline that gold mining is a tough business. The wrong type of equipment can affect your haul, and so can the environment; it's far easier to pull gold out of a river than a frozen patch of ground. There's also the paperwork; miners have to go through lots of permits and other legal matters before they can actually start their operation. In a previous Season 15 episode, Ness learned that his water license is set to expire, which means that he only has one more year to pull gold out of Duncan Creek. This makes his mix-up with the pump hit even harder because it effectively put a ticking clock on his haul for the season.
Rick Ness Isn’t the Only Miner Suffering Setbacks on ‘Gold Rush’
Ness's misfortune was eventually corrected during the following episode when he was not only able to recoup the money he spent on the wrong pump but was able to use it to pull a substantial haul that was worth nearly a million dollars! But he's far from the only miner who's been struggling throughout Gold Rush Season 15. Parker Schnabel has been dealing with setback after setback; first, he discovered that the area he wanted to mine was frozen over. On top of that, multiple equipment failures have stalled his operation.
It's genuinely surprising because Schnabel has been one of the most successful miners in previous Gold Rush seasons. In fact, he's the miner with the biggest hauls in the show's history, so this reversal of fate only hammers home that even if miners get lucky, there's no chance they'll stay lucky. Schnabel's haul is also far from what Gold Rush fans might expect. In Season 15, he fell far short of the 10,000 ounces he planned to haul away; his total hauls have also been far under his usual record-breaking results.
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Despite His Troubles, Rick Ness Is Determined To Finish This ‘Gold Rush’ Season on a High Note
Ness might have turned things around, but he was fairly open about how tough the mining business is during an interview with TV Insider:
When a problem is staring me in the face, I’m making myself stand there and deal with it. I lost my path for a while, but it’s about facing these struggles head-on. Don’t put it aside or ignore it, but it then gets tougher and tougher. I’m still a work in progress, but I’m doing my best to face everything head-on and plow through it. It’s what I did then and do now.
Indeed, Ness decided to push on despite having the wrong equipment, and it wound up paying off. Season 15 of Gold Rush has been fraught with setbacks for its miners, but it also taught them to improvise. In Ness's case, if he hadn't thought about using a different method with the pump he had, his fortunes might not have turned around. Time will tell if future episodes in Gold Rush Season 15 see him coming out on top or running into another setback.
Gold Rush is available to stream on Discovery Plus in the U.S.
Follow a group of determined miners as they search for gold in remote corners of the world. With high stakes and unpredictable challenges, each season captures their relentless pursuit of fortune and the dramatic ups and downs of mining life.
Release Date
December 3, 2010
Cast
Parker Schnabel
, Chris Doumitt
, Paul Christie
Image via Discovery Channel
Image via Discovery Channel
English (US) ·