‘Gold Rush’ Rick Ness Struggles Despite Achieving Major Dream
Rick Ness has been having a rough year on Gold Rush. He returned last season after taking time off for mental health reasons. However, since returning, he has proven to be one of the best miners on the show, although he still ranks behind Parker Schnabel and Tony Beets. However, those two miners had one thing that Rick never had. That all just changed.
Rick just experienced a dream come true, but he still has to deal with some problems this season on Gold Rush.
Rick Ness Finally Achieves Major Gold Rush Milestone
Throughout his time on Gold Rush, Rick Ness has been working hard to make his name as one of the top gold miners in Alaska. However, there is one thing that he has never achieved. It was something that Parker Schnabel and Tony Beets accomplished long ago. Rick had never owned his claim outright.
On the most recent Gold Rush episode, titled “Big Cat Fight,” Rick Ness finally achieved this milestone he has been working toward. He finally owns his claim outright and is a Yukon landowner at Duncan Creek. It took five years of hard work, and he finally made his final payment of 250 ounces of gold to Troy Taylor to own the claim outright.
He still has a lot of obstacles in front of him, though. He has to find a way to get the water license renewed before the deadline, which will be hard. If he doesn’t get it renewed, this claim he owns could become worthless to his operations. Rick also just faced more obstacles in mining on the land with more equipment breakdowns.
Rick Ness Struggling With Equipment Breakdowns
In the last episode, Rick got great news about his land ownership status. However, he also had some bad news with some equipment failures. Rick acquired a new five-and-a-half-acre Crew Cut. They then had to strip and prepare the site for the wash plant, Rocky.
However, Rocky has been inactive for almost a year. As soon as they were ready to start, they noticed an oil leakage from the excavator. This led them to discover a blown turbo. Once again, Rick saw his operations hit a roadblock and a delay when it came to sluicing.
Rick, still riding his high, raced in with a new excavator to keep the work moving. However, thanks to the delay and the temporary halting of sluicing, Rick only weighed in with 10.23 ounces of gold ($25,000). This means he fell short of the 43 ounces for the week.
What are your thoughts on Rick Ness and his up-and-down season on Gold Rush? Do you think his ownership claim outweighs the week’s disappointing gold totals? Let us know in the comments below.
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