Exclusive: ‘Gold Rush’ Miner Parker Schnabel Races To Salvage Mud Mountain Gamble
The next Gold Rush is a numbers game as the season races to an end. To date, Parker has spent four months and four and a half million dollars getting to pay dirt at Mud Mountain.
Not even thirty years old yet, Parker Schnabel is worried. In TV Shows Ace exclusive Gold Rush preview below, we ride with Parker as he grouses that he has too much money invested in Mud Mountain. And not only Parker, but the opening shows a wandering grizzly bear on the same road.
Parker says: “You know, this season we put a lot of our eggs in the Mud Mountain basket, and it’s really not paying off like we
expected.”
And with less than a month before winter freezes him out of the mining game entirely, Parker Schnabel’s season is in the balance.
He adds: I don’t even know if we’re going to break even in it, which is a real bummer.” Parker has spent a lot of money digging deep and covering two bases.
Parker says: “Everybody killed themselves trying to make it happen.”
Mud Mountain and more on Gold Rush
Up to now, Parker is searching for a hot spot that could hold eight thousand ounces of gold, as the piece that’s left on his cut is the center of the where the best drilling allegedly can be found. It appears that Tyson Lee’s “pad” idea to get rid of tailings without involving cleanup was pretty clever. But Schnabel’s crew are not immune from equipment failure.
Tony Beets has millions invested in the Indian River and has faced one obstacle after another. He struck out twice a third time to get a water license. At Paradise Hill, he has been running pay through son Mike’s trommel, and his whole family is on the payroll.
On top of his troubles are machine failures, and last week’s truck/crane failure and hauling up the steep hill was intense. He’s desperate to pick up what he believes is ten million in gold unclaimed. The bright spot is after three years of fighting for a water license. It looks promising.
And veteran boss Fred Lewis has created an alliance. His gold production is not good, and he has created an opportunity for his crew to make some money. Unfortunately, his landlords leaned on him a bit last week, and they leveled that he needed bigger equipment and told him he was not welcome next year unless he fixed this issue.
Lewis called up Beets to get a D8 or a D9, and Beets shut him down. Brandon Clayton shut him down initially, but Fred talked him into a 50/50 partnership on any gold recovery.
Tune in to see if the partnership sticks and Schnabel’s Big Red luck continues to improve
Gold Rush airs Friday at 8 PM ET/PT on Discovery.
In addition to watching the series on Discovery, viewers can check out new episodes each week on DiscoveryGO. Additionally, viewers can join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #GoldRush.
