The stars of “Gold Rush” are digging up more than just treasure this season.
With prices surging to $3,800 an ounce — and miners pulling in nearly $100 million this season alone — Parker Schnabel told Fox News Digital that the frenzy isn’t about luck — it’s about a national wake-up call.
Schnabel, 31, one of the franchise’s most successful young moguls, said the gold boom is a direct reflection of Americans losing faith in the U.S. dollar.
When asked what this gold rush says about today’s economy, Schnabel didn’t hold back. “About the American economy. I mean … it’s a direct vote against the people’s confidence in the U.S. dollar, right?” he said.
He pointed to Washington’s spending habits and lawmakers’ unwillingness to confront the country’s financial problems.
“You look at the amount of debt that the United States has and the complete lack of attention to it from anybody in Washington … there’s zero interest in dealing with the debt.”
Schnabel believes that the government is essentially backed into a corner. “Which means the only option is to inflate it away, right, and reduce the value of the U.S. dollar,” he continued, adding that a weaker dollar inevitably pushes investors toward safer assets.
“Which is going to make other assets go up, like gold being the number-one hedge against that.”
Schnabel said the shift isn’t temporary — it’s the beginning of a long-term structural trend. “And so I think that we’re going to see a lot of very big structural support for gold prices, both from institutional traders, retail traders and central banks.”
With gold surging year-over-year and miners racing to pull every ounce from the ground before winter shuts them down, Schnabel said the frenzy mirrors the original 19th-century boom — but with a modern twist.
When Fox News Digital asked if Americans still have the same hunger for risk and reward that fueled the first gold rush, he didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, totally. I don’t think that that’s ever gone away,” he said, noting that Americans have always chased the next big breakthrough.
He explained that while the tools and trends have shifted, the country’s appetite for high-stakes opportunity hasn’t changed. “I mean, you look at … the medium in which people pursue those kinds of things change, but that’s always been the backbone of America, right?”
Today, that pioneering spirit has simply moved from the mines to the tech world.
“I mean, right now … look at AI … look at the amount of money and talent that is going into … the next big thing,” he continued, pointing out how investors are pouring resources into whatever could reshape society.
According to Schnabel, every generation picks its own frontier.
“There’s always a huge amount of people and … capital that wants to go into whatever is a society-altering thing and 100 years ago that was … well, 150 years ago, like gold mining … the way to create wealth. And now it’s not,” he said.
Today’s gold rush looks different — but the ambition behind it hasn’t faded, the reality-TV miner added.
“Right now it is AI and robots … the medium changes, but the idea has stayed totally intact.”
As for the new season of the hit reality show, “Gold Rush” star Rick Ness told Fox News Digital it hits harder than ever because the stakes are brutal.
“After 16 seasons … there’s still things that we face that … are new,” he said. “People still think it’s amazing that … there is basically money in the dirt and you can dig it up but it’s yours … I still think that’s crazy.”
Schnabel noted that with gold prices exploding, every decision this year felt like life and death for their operations.
“It’s a very big season … we’re all dealing with this meteoric rise in gold prices … how much effort do you put into … short-term profit gain, right, with gold prices where they’re at?”
This year, the main operations collectively generated about $100 million in revenue — a jaw-dropping haul even by “Gold Rush” standards.
“That’s like changing money,” Schnabel told Fox News Digital, adding, “It’s a very good time to be a gold miner.”
The youngest miner — Schnabel — has grown up in front of the cameras. He took over his grandfather’s mining operation at just 16, and now, 15 years later, he’s still chasing gold — and bigger stakes than ever.
Heading into “Gold Rush” Season 16, the miners face the most brutal challenge yet.
Miners have only weeks to move dirt before winter shuts them down, alliances fracture, tempers explode and fortunes hang by a thread.
By the end of the season, the crews are set to pull in nearly $100 million — the biggest payday in franchise history.
Schnabel is burning $100,000 a day across a massive 60-machine operation to reclaim his massive prize while miner Tony Beets reels in $500,000 in a single week but battles family chaos and crew shake-ups.
Ness — starting with no license, no claim and half a crew — bets everything on a risky new claim that could either resurrect his career or bury him.
“Gold Rush” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on the Discovery Channel.
