‘Gold Rush’: Tony Beets Confronts Crew Member About Drinking on Job

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 16.]

One of the biggest hurdles during Season 16 of Gold Rush for our favorite miners has been crew members. When the stakes are high as the gold prices, they all want to make those big scores. However, in order to do that they need to hire bodies. And, as seen in recent weeks, that means not all of these workers are experienced or will work out. Oftentimes they also bring their own baggage. 

Tony Beets felt that first hand during the December 12 episode as he revved up operations at Indian River. More on that below. Elsewhere, his son Kevin received a welcome shot in the arm with veteran Buzz Legault, who used to work with Rick Ness, coming aboard. Speaking of Rick, his small but mighty team are digging into the unknown hoping for a score before financially hitting rock bottom. 

Let’s break down this week.   

Tony Beets

Tony Beest, Cousin Michael Beets, and Jarrod Macleod (Discovery Channel)

At Indian River, the pay has been a bit slow. The “King of the Klondike” looked to double down beyond just the Early Bird Cut with new ground prospected last year called the Corner Cut. He moved trucks and other resources from son Michael’s site at Paradise Hill. He wanted to strip overburden and reach pay by the end of the week. Tony hired 10 new folks to drive rock trucks. These greenhorns frustrate Tony after two ignored his instructions to stop what they’re doing and wait for him. They were mishandling rock trucks at the dump site and taking unnecessary risks driving in the water-logged section of the cut. One of those on the verge of taking a walk was Sam Moore, who was sent off to camp. 

The second didn’t reveal themselves outright, but Tony vowed to find the “weasel” in the crowd. That ended up being Jarrod Macleod. His strategy was to keep his head down, but his erratic driving drew attention his way. Cousin Mike suspected he had been drinking on the job and asked him to step out of the truck. Jarrod initially admitted to partying the night before, but Mike believed he hadn’t stopped and put himself and others at risk as a result. Tony formally fired him. The Beets family meet for a weighing after a rough week with personnel. The result was a record-breaking weekly total of 467.8 ounces worth $1.5 million. 

Kevin Beets

Kevin Beets (Discovery Channel)

Kevin continued to deal with growing pains as a second-year mine boss. Luckily, Buzz was there to help as they had been stock piling pay at the Pyramid Cut. Buzz felt the pressure to get the wash plant going in order to start sluicing. Kevin’s slow and steady strategy worked on paper, but his parents Tony and Minnie wanted results. They lit a fire under him to stop looking for perfection and get sluicing. “You have to make money instead of spending all your savings,” mom said.

This pushed Kevin to go to Buzz to motivate him to get the equipment going ASAP. Buzz needed to finish the job before he left to witness the birth of his daughter. He managed to meet the tight deadline. However, Kevin found a problem after he turned on the wash plant. A pile of concrete-like dirt was left in the prewash and needed to be cleared out. They shovel it out. It wasn’t a hundred percent fix, but got them running. Unfortunately, Kevin was down Buzz as he left for the milestone delivery of his child. However, he mentioned he’d return. 

Rick Ness

Rick Ness (Discovery Channel)

Rick welcomed back loyal mechanic Ryan Kent. He’ll need all the help he can get, spending 200 ounces of gold to acquire Lightning Creek. Rick paid half upfront, but owed the other part to Troy Taylor in two weeks. He rolled the dice on the Diamond Cut and was down to pay. Would this area pay off and get him closer to that 1,800-ounce season goal? Ryan wasn’t convinced, feeling this was going on more of a hunch and word of mouth than substantial data. Wash plant Rocky ran into some issues Rocks from the creek blocked nozzles on one side and raised the water pressure. 

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The prewash spray bars were blasting pay out of the plant. Ryan widened the shaker bar nozzles, so the rocks could push through. Team Ness met for the weighing. All their work turned up a measly 7.35 ounces worth just $25,000. “A big waste of time is what that is,” Rick concluded. Ryan was concerned. “If you go broke, I go broke.” he said. This left Rick wondering if he made the right decision. Rick picked the wrong spot at the Diamond Cut, but will continue to search for the right one and not give up because failure wasn’t an option. 

Gold Rush, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel