Gold Rush Returns to Discovery Channel as Pandemic Drives Up Gold Prices

Shore News Network

ANCHORAGE, AK – The stakes have never been higher for the stars of Discovery Channel’s hit television show Gold Rush as Parker Schnable, Rick Ness, Tony Beets and Fred Lewis risk it all during a global pandemic to strike it rich.

Discovery reports:

When a global pandemic shut down the world in March 2020, markets crashed and rocked the U.S. economy. However, with economic uncertainty comes great opportunity for those who can seize upon the moment. And in the goldfields across North America, the opportunity of a lifetime awaited as gold prices spiked to record highs and the price of fuel, a miner’s biggest expense, bottomed out. In this all-new season of Gold Rush, seasoned gold miners are joined by greenhorn miners eager to forge their own destinies and gamble like never before in pursuit of the greatest pay day of their lives. The all-new season of Gold Rush premieres with a two-hour special Friday Oct. 23 at 8PM ET/PT and will continue to air Fridays at 8PM ET/PT for the remainder of the season.

Gold miners Parker Schnabel, Tony Beets and Rick Ness take massive gambles this season as they face the worst time crunch ever as the gold fields opened two months late because of COVID-19. And joining Gold Rushthis season is ex-special forces medic and greenhorn miner Fred Lewis who takes his destiny into his own hands as he strikes out with a band of out of work veterans in the hopes to hitting it big in the gold fields of Oregon.  


Parker Schnabel arrives in the Yukon one month late with massive ambitions to expand his mining business beyond the Klondike.  His goal is to bank enough gold to buy new ground and he’s determined not to let the COVID-19 pandemic slow him down. As soon as he can, Parker assembles his crew and doubles down – opening two enormous operations. This season, Parker will rely more than ever on his crew to keep his operation running while he heads out to prospect new ground in Alaska and beyond.  But with gold prices spiking, the cost of rich ground also goes up, so the pressure is on co-foremen Mitch and Brennan, and rookie plant boss Tyson to battle breakdowns and disasters to make the team enough gold to afford new ground.


After two seasons of missed goals, Tony Beets is ready to take advantage of the perfect mining conditions. If he can identify the last of the virgin ground on Paradise Hill, this could be a record season for him, ensuring the success of the future Beets generation. Tony is determined to hit his goal of mining out the massive Mega Cut in just one year. It’s an ambitious engineering feat that require the Beets family to move massive tons of earth.  To be successful, Tony will have to dig deep into his arsenal of mining equipment.

Rick Ness can’t afford another season of failures. For years he has worked with mining prodigy Parker Schnabel, rising to rank of foreman. Two years ago, Rick struck off on his own. After a strong debut, he suffered a major setback last year and lost all his profits, leaving him in the position to barely break even. To make matters worse, half his crew deserted him.  Rick treads a troubled track; if he doesn’t turn a profit this year, his mining career is over. And he starts the season behind schedule with just two of his buddies to help him get started. But this time Rick will not let the challenges stop him from achieving success. With Karla and Kruse, he heads to new ground in the mountains above Keno – the land of massive nuggets – for his last shot at striking it rich in gold.

As millions of Americans face unemployment during COVID-19, special forces veteran and rookie miner Fred Lewis risks everything and heads to the mountains of Oregon looking for a gold mine of his own. With fellow veteran and experienced miner Kendell Madden, Fred leases a piece of ground with huge prospects. When his test run shows good gold, they assemble a band of down on their luck ex-servicemen and women eager to turn around their fortunes. Following in the footsteps of countless Americans who’ve sought their fortune in the wilderness, this band of brothers will be tested like never before on their quest to control their own destinies and hit the motherlode.

This season ofGold Rush is unmatched. Gold miners are essential workers, and as the four gold miners and their crews battle the time crunch and elements in the hope of finding millions of dollars in gold during a global pandemic, one thing is certain. Once gold fever strikes, these crews will never give up.

In addition to watching the series on Discovery, viewers can check out new episodes each week on DiscoveryGO.  Viewers can join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #GoldRush and follow Gold Rush on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter for the latest updates.

Gold Rush is produced for Discovery Channel by Raw Television, where Dimitri Doganis, James Bates, Mike Gamson, and Tom Sheahan are executive producers.  For Discovery Channel, Carter Figueroa is executive producer and Greg Wolf is coordinating producer

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