As Parker Schnabel told People, part of his need to grow his operation stems from the fact that said operation is costly to maintain. “We’re not a lean and mean little nimble crew or anything like that,” he quipped, adding, “We need a lot of ground, and we need a lot of ounces out of the ground to stay afloat.” Perhaps more importantly, Schnabel wanted to be certain he was able to keep his current crew of miners together, stating, “And my number one concern was, we built this really good crew and I didn’t want to have to break that up.”
But even Schnabel is uncertain if Dominion Creek will pay off as hoped. “As far as if it was worth it, we’ll see,” he told People, continuing, “We won’t really know if it’s worth it from a profit standpoint for a few years.” Taking into account the massive up-front investment required to claim Dominion Creek, the long-term aspect of Schnabel’s big gamble has already brought loads of drama to his storyline. And it will no doubt do so for years to come.
Even still, if the gamble does pay off, it’ll go down as the biggest win of “Gold Rush” star’s life. As noted in the People article, the Dominion Creek claim is that rare slice of untapped territory in the Yukon. If Schnabel and his crew can dig up all the gold stuff believed to be buried there, the payout could be upwards of $160 million. And with a return on investment like that, Schnabel would likely never have to think about downsizing again.
