By mid-season standards, this has not been the year Parker Schnabel expected.
Just one week into running Sulphur Creek’s pre-stripped ground, the operation was forced to pause, leaving his crew stretched thin and his ambitious gold forecast looking increasingly unrealistic. Time, as Schnabel himself admitted, was “not our friend this year”.
The young mine boss began the season with a 10,000-ounce target — a figure later revised to 8,000 ounces as setbacks mounted. Even then, progress lagged badly. With less than 3,500 ounces recovered at that point, the gap between expectation and reality had become uncomfortable.
The shutdown at Sulphur Creek left Schnabel relying solely on two wash plants at Dominion Creek, where the precise location of payable ground was still far from clear. It was there, however, that a decisive shift in strategy emerged.
A calculated move upstream
Attention turned to the southern end of Dominion Creek’s vast 114-acre bridge cut. After seven weeks sluicing the upper pay layer, Schnabel ordered his flagship wash plant, Big Red, to be moved half a mile upstream — a major logistical task — to target a little-tested layer of red gravel sitting between known pay zones.
To Schnabel’s knowledge, no one had previously run this material. Sixteen feet of overburden had already been stripped, revealing a 15-foot layer of red gravel, which was excavated and stockpiled for processing. Beneath it lay frozen white channel gravels, left to thaw for a future season.
Mechanical delays threatened to derail the plan before it began. A failed tail drum on the hopper feeder brought operations to a halt, costing two full days while a replacement was sourced and installed. Working against the clock, the crew hoisted the 200-pound drum into place and rushed Big Red back into service.
“We just have to make the best of the cards we were dealt,” Schnabel said at the time, acknowledging the mounting pressure.
Results that changed the mood
After four days of running the red gravel, the first gold weigh-in delivered a dramatic reversal in fortunes. Schnabel had hoped for 80 ounces from the bridge cut run. Instead, the scales climbed past expectations, stopping at 136.5 ounces — worth more than $340,000.
For a season that had struggled to find momentum, it was a crucial boost.
Encouragement came again from the neighbouring long cut, where the second wash plant delivered its strongest result of the year. A weekly total of 285.1 ounces, valued at over $700,000, suggested the crew may finally have located a productive stretch of ground.
Combined, the two operations produced 421.6 ounces for the week, lifting Schnabel’s season total to 3,867.8 ounces.
Still a long way to go
Despite the improved figures, the numbers underline how much ground remains to be covered. Even with the red gravel proving worthwhile, the season total still sits well short of revised targets, and every remaining week now carries added weight.
For Schnabel, the discovery has provided something just as important as gold: renewed confidence that Dominion Creek can still deliver. Whether it will be enough to transform a difficult season into a successful one remains uncertain — but for the first time in weeks, the operation is moving forward rather than standing still.
