Tony Beets already exceeded his 6,500-ounce goal, amassing $23 million in gold. Despite record-breaking numbers, the “King of the Klondike” shows no signs of stopping with more than a month left in the season. His eldest son Kevin certainly felt the second-year growing pains as a mine boss. He looks to turn things around, but continues to face personnel issues that slow down progress.
Life was good for Tony. Sluicing continued at Paradise Hill with Indian River’s Corner Cut running two wash plants day and night. One not to rest on his laurels, he looked at what’s next. And that was acquiring the Wounded Moose, which holds 213 claims, for a whopping $4 million. Tony saw this as an opportunity to set up two or three more generations. It was four miles east of Indian River and one mile south to where Kevin leases land from him. The turnkey operation includes excavators and an existing camp with the potential of delivering up to $200 million. Although it’s untested ground, Tony knew this was a deal he had to take advantage of quickly. “Without risk there is no gain either. If you don’t do something stupide, well you’re never gonna f*ck’in win now are you, right?”
His initial panning of the grounds revealed what he described as hitting the jackpot. Tony saw this as the opportunity his son Mike had wanted for so long. Much like Kevin, Mike would be a mine boss in charge with the deal being split 50/50. The first step was getting wash plant Harold over to its new home. Just as things were getting started, Tony’s wife Minnie received a devastating call. She brought the rest of the family in to break the bad news that they had no water license on the claim. They were under the impression the license was through 2027, but the paperwork wasn’t transferred to Tony. This meant the crews had to pivot and Mike’s dream suffered a major roadblock. Team Beets focused on the positive during the weigh-in. Sluice-a-Lot at the Corner Cut pulled 218.74 ounces. Find-a-Lot clocked in at 237.58 ounces while work at Paradise Hill generated 258.98 ounces. That is a $2.5 million week pushing them to nearly $26 million from 7,333 ounces of gold!
Kevin had secured $2.5 million in gold, but he needs to double that to reach his 2,000-ounce goal. He made one last ditch effort to get there. Not making things easier was Tayvin Peterson. The operator was told numerous times he was moving too fast and potentially damaging the loader. Kevin asked him to slow down. Tayvin didn’t think he was going too fast, but didn’t want to get fired again. Six weeks ago the worker was let go by Parker’s operation. Kevin and his partner Faith Teng decide to take him out of the loader and into a rock truck. Faith told Tayvin about the demotion and that he needed to learn from his f*ck ups.
Tayvin expressed his disgruntled feelings to foreman Buzz Legault over the walkie. He even talked trash about Faith, which as you’d expect, Faith hears. “Am I getting fired,” Tayvin asked when confronted by Faith. Surprisingly, Faith gave him one last chance or he was out. In reality, Kevin couldn’t afford any more hiccups or to lose a crew member. Faith and Kevin meet for the weigh-in, which was 222.85 ounces worth nearly $800,000. “Not great,” Faith concluded. They are just under 1,000 ounces at this point. “I’m wondering if 2,000 ounces was a bit much,” Kevin reacted. We’ll see in the coming weeks if he was right.
