The Big Risk Rick Ness Is Taking On This Season Of Gold Rush

There's always an inherent risk in gold mining. After all, there's no guarantee the spot you're digging will even have gold, so you have to be willing to invest time, money, and energy into an operation that may prove fruitless. Fortunately, the crews featured on Discovery's "Gold Rush" have always managed to find something out in the field, but despite success in the past, Season 12 could prove to be a make-or-break occasion for Rick Ness and his team.

We're halfway through the season, and Ness and his team are still well under their current goal. The plan announced at the top of the season was to uncover 2,000 ounces of gold. At this point, he's found just over 600 ounces, which is well below where he wants to be, so it's time to put the pedal to the metal. For Ness, that means taking a big swing that could result in riches or his downfall.

"Gold Rush" is halfway through Season 12, but Rick Ness is by no means halfway to meeting his goal of uncovering 2,000 ounces of gold. That's not a good position to be in, but based on the mid-season preview showcased by TV Shows Ace, it seems as though Ness is willing to go the extra mile to pick up the slack. Ness himself has gotten out in the fields to try to find more gold, and in the episode, he states, "That's pretty scary. I've never done anything like it. There's so much dirt that has to be moved here. If we move the wrong dirt and go all the way down in the wrong spot, I'm gonna go broke."

It's challenging work, as Ness goes on to say, "It's gonna cost pretty much everything I have, so the stakes here are massive, but the payoff at the bottom could be life-changing." Other teams don't have their backs against the wall as much as Ness, as Parker Schnabel's unit has already cleared over 2,800 ounces so far. It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication for Ness to catch up to Schnabel, but stranger things have happened on "Gold Rush."