At 64 years old, Tony Beets is not slowing down. The veteran gold miner, known for his years of tenacity in the Yukon, has kicked off the mining season two months early, eyeing an unprecedented gold haul of 9,000 ounces. Beets, renowned for his candid demeanor and competitive spirit, dismisses any talk of retirement with a chuckle, stating, “If I would retire, I’d be a corpse within a year.”
This year, Beets has ramped up his game by making his largest investment to date—a staggering $3.5 million on a new 125-ton D11 bulldozer. This state-of-the-art machinery is tailored to slice through the Yukon’s notoriously frozen ground, enhancing the efficiency of his operations at Paradise Hill. Designed to withstand the harsh Klondike conditions, this bulldozer is a centerpiece in Beets’ strategy to boost productivity and outpace his competition.
With a keen eye on modernization, Tony has also invested in a new 950 excavator earlier in the season, bringing his total expenditure to over $5 million—exceeding the budget set by his daughter and business manager, Minnie, by a cool million dollars. The arrival of the D11 on-site was a spectacle itself, involving the complex logistics of transporting and assembling such a massive piece of machinery due to weight restrictions on Yukon roads.
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Once reassembled, the bulldozer’s power was undeniable. With an 850 horsepower V12 engine and luxury features like a heated seat, Tony was eager to test its capabilities. As he took it for the first spin towards Paradise Hill, the bulldozer proved its worth by tearing through the frozen overburden with ease, setting the stage for an early start to gold mining and potentially one of the most lucrative seasons yet.
As Season 15 of “Gold Rush” gears up, all eyes are on Beets to see if his heavy investments and strategic choices will cement his legacy as one of the Klondike’s most formidable and successful miners. With his hands firmly on the new iron, Tony Beets is ready to chase after a record-breaking haul that could redefine his career and the gold mining industry.
