‘Gold Rush’: Parker Schnabel on Tony Beets Rivalry & Season 17 Challenges

The battlelines have been drawn in the Klondike for Season 17 of Gold Rush. Parker Schnabel looks to beat Tony Beets after failing to pull in more ounces than his mentor turned rival last year. With gold at all-time highs, the stakes remain even higher as the mine boss plans to make the most of his big long-term gamble at Dominion Creek. Schnabel has added more equipment and team members to get the job done. For the prodigy, failure is not an option.

“It’s going to be a hell of a season,” he tells TV Insider. “When you see gold princes at these kinds of record numbers, it’s a time when you see people’s full potential. That was my goal this season. What is this company’s full potential and let’s see what that is. That’s the theme for the year.”

Beets isn’t the only other miner besides Schnabel wanting a big piece of the pie. His buddy Rick Ness also returns for another season hoping to hit the jackpot and find the light at the end of the tunnel.  A new face in Greg Gibson joins the treasure hunt on the Discovery Channel show. Ahead of the premiere on October 2, Schnabel previews what’s to come. 

Discovery Channel

You’re coming off a record-breaking season last year, but it still wasn’t enough to edge out Tony. What are your thoughts on how things panned out? What was your big takeaway? 

Parker Schnabel: I think that I’m an extremely competitive person. Tony and I have always had a bit of a storied relationship and storied past. It definitely bugged me. Unlike most other businesses, it’s not really a lot of implication of not beating him or him beating us. It doesn’t mean much in the short-term. It’s not like he has more market share in the business. But it definitely does affect what kind of war chest you have, what kind of ground you can buy. We are competing for ground, and you want to hav.the most profitable operation that puts you in the best position. That’s the part of it that bugs me. Coming out of that it definitely made me refocus how we are doing things. Are we doing things the right way? Are we doing what we can to maximize productivity? At the end of the day it’s about putting as many ounces away as we can. And so we came into 2026 with a pretty big mandate not to have that happen again. We’ll see what happens. 

In terms of property, it looks this season you and Tony are a little too close for comfort. What can you share when it comes to having to deal with Tony a little bit more than you’d maybe like?

I mean, it’s just tough because some days Tony is great. Some days he and I get along super well, and some days I feel like I’m his biggest enemy. When you’re mining, we have a shared property line. We’ve always managed to kind of avoid each other in that shared property line where he’ll be mining in a different part of the property than where we are when we’re against his property line, and vice versa. This year that was not the case. We were mining side-by-side, so a good chunk of the season can be pretty challenging. 

What can we expect in terms of new equipment and additions to your team? 

As the company has gotten bigger and we have more going on, we have a lot more demand for good people and good equipment. With gold prices where they are, we went into the season with gold at $5,000 an ounce. It hasn’t held that mark. That’s where it was in January, February. But with equipment, it’s about making sure that you’re set up right. That’s an important thing because you need to produce. We brought some good new people that you will see through the season that are interesting and great for the company. We bought some new equipment, quite a bit of new equipment toward the end of last season and this season. Of course there are always a few new toys to have some fun. It’s a great time to be mining because of gold prices where you have to do everything you can to keep the stuff going to keep the plants and find gold. 

Mitch [Blaschke] and Tyson [Lee] have been your go-to guys for so long. How is it for you to see their growth in leadership positions? What kind of challenges do they face this season? 

My approach in the last few years has been to give Tyson the wash plant complex projects where he has led lots of plant moves, lots of conveyors. He is very good with the technical setup of the wash plant. Mitch is very good with the technical side of difficult pits. Tyson has the most difficult plant logistic areas. That’s their strong point. They are under the gun this season. There is a huge amount of ground to get through, so we’ve added people to the stripping crew so we can make sure we have enough ground to open. Once that happens, that puts a huge amount of pressure on the wash plant crew and the foreman running those wash plants, Tyson and Mitch, to get through that ground. So, we’ve opened more ground than we ever have before. We’ve got a lot of ground to sluice. Mitch and Tyson both have a huge challenge this season. Our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs.

Rick encounters some health struggles at the start of the season. I think this brings to light the stresses a mine boss is constantly under. There can be a mental and physical toll given the high-pressure situations within such a short time. How do you manage stress? 

I drink a lot. No, it is definitely a challenging business from that point. When it comes to Gold Rush, I more than anyone delegate a lot of that responsibility and stress to other people. When you look at Rick and you look at Tony, they are very much businesses that are built on day-to-day decisions that those two guys are making. I don’t operate that way. I let the people in the field make a ton of decisions. I let Tyson and Mitch run their pits the way they want to run them. On the show, they highlight when I come in and change something. That’s not a very high percentage of decisions being made outside of the show. I’d say they are making 95 percent of the decisions without my input.

That is how I manage that. There’s a group of us that make decisions when there’s big picture issues. I have a lot of other people that have a huge amount of responsibility when there is something that we encounter that we haven’t experienced before, and don’t really know how to deal with the situation, we come together and figure out a plan. I don’t get too stressed out when it comes to that kind of thing because I do have such a good group of core managers that have been with me for a long time, know the business inside and out, and care about it like it’s their business. We’re in it together. They really help carry that weight and responsibility. 

Tony Beets, Parker Schnabel, Rick Ness posing together (Discovery Channel)

What do you make of Rick’s journey? 

You look at Rick and Tony. I think Tony has his brother back, so he has his support. Rick doesn’t really have anybody who is a solid number two that I know of. I don’t know, maybe he does, but from my vantage point, I haven’t seen that. It’s a really hard business when you do this and you don’t have that core competent group that’s leading with you. I think that probably makes it that much harder for Rick to deal with. I  kind of feel bad he doesn’t have that. At the same time, you have to build that. It’s not handed to you. You have to bring in those people you trust their judgment and believe in and give them autonomy and support. You also have to commit to them as much as they commit to you. That comes with a responsibility on your part. Be communicative. A lot of me supporting people is, okay, I’m going to leave you because you obviously just have a plan and want to execute it.

I’m not going to get in the middle of that. Tony can’t do that. I think he’s pretty incapable of letting somebody else make a plan and execute it. I have no problem with that. I enjoy that more than anything is watching the growth of the people that work here and giving them autonomy and authority and seeing what they do with that. That’s been the growth of the company. It hasn’t been me saying we have to mine more gold and mine more ground. It’s putting people in position and saying we could do this and it would be awesome and they find a way to do that. That’s how we grew the company a thousand ounces a year to 10,000. 

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What’s your impression of Greg, who joins the show this year? 

There have been quite a few random people showing up in the Yukon the way gold prices are. Not as many as I expected, but quite a few. Greg is a very interesting guy. I really like him. I really like his energy. I was talking to my girlfriend about him shortly after I met him, and I was like, “Yeah, he is kind of an interesting guy.” When he gets on a roll, he has this indiscriminate aggression. He’s an aggressive person, and I like that kind of person. I like those kinds of people because they care and are hungry and want to build something. I really do like and respect him. I’m excited to have him in the Yukon. Those are the kind of people we need. People who are responsible and hungry and looking at mining as something they really want to do and not just get rich, then leave a mess behind them. I really appreciate his approach. 

You mentioned a girlfriend. Does she like mining? What does she think of your job?

No, no, no. She does not, she does not like mining. Well, it’s not like she doesn’t like it. She loves it up here, but she’s not a huge fan of the mining side. I’ll bring her around. It takes some time.

Are we going to see her on the show?

No, those days are over. She is smart. 

Gold Rush Season 17 premiere, October 2, 8/7c, Discovery Channel