Gold Rush sneak peek: Tony Beets is ready to make it his best season ever
The King of the Klondike is ready to go all in.
In this exclusive sneak peek from Friday's season 12 premiere of Gold Rush on Discovery, Tony Beets shares his big goal with the family: mining 9,000 ounces in the Yukon, which is worth upwards of $16 million at today's prices. Is the old man out of his mind?
Phil Zimmerman/Discovery Channel 'Gold Rush' star Tony Beets
To find out for ourselves, we asked Beets a few questions before Friday's debut.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: That's a crazy amount of equipment you have. How much land has yet to be excavated for gold?
TONY BEETS: Oh, s---. We probably have 500 acres if not 1000 that hasn't been excavated. We drill and decide which places are worthwhile digging up. We approach it by digging for holes across the land and see if a pattern appears. If so, we start to dig and uncover all of the gold.
Do you really think there is still a lot of gold out there, given how much you have already dug up?
I think we have a lot of gold out there. As long as we have the water licenses to mine, we can keep on going. If so, we should be mining here for 30 years. There are 5,000 to 10,000 ounces out there easy.
What have you seen during the pandemic? Are amateurs coming out of the woodworks, thinking they can dig for gold just like you?
There are the odd ones showing up, but not that many amateurs are coming up to the Yukon. It costs so much money to get started these days. A small guy coming in will have a hard time getting started unless they have some cash. To be serious, you need to have $5 or $10 million bucks to make it happen. This isn't a hobby that you can just pick up.
Since you are such a big star, has anyone approached you about a Hollywood makeover that would include shaving that beard of yours?
A Hollywood makeover? If they paid me enough, any time!
When this show ever ends, are you planning to announce something like, "I never liked gold? Platinum was always my shiny metal of choice."
Nope. Gold is always my metal of choice. It's a lot easier to get ahold of gold than platinum. Platinum used to be higher in price than gold. But that's no longer the case. So I'm all for gold.
The 12th season of Gold Rush premieres Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery. Watch a sneak peek above.
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