Gold Rush's Parker Schnabel Has Good News For Newbies Interested In Gold Mining

Longtime fans of Discovery's "Gold Rush” have watched Parker Schnabel transform from a young, inexperienced gold miner into one of the most successful mine operators in the business. In the very first season of "Gold Rush," Schnabel was just a 16-year-old kid working for his grandfather John Schnabel — owner of the highly profitable Big Nugget Mine in Porcupine Creek, Alaska. Since then, he has mined over $67.8 million worth of gold, making him far and away the most successful miner in the entire series.

As such, it's no wonder that Discovery has made Parker Schnabel the face of the "Gold Rush" franchise — especially since Schnabel is one of the few success stories that the series has to offer. Gold mining is a tough, unforgiving business that is incredibly hard to make a career out of, but Schnabel proved to everyone that you can make a fortune as long as you work hard enough ... or in Schnabel's case, to be fair, if you happen to inherit an entire gold mine from your grandfather.

There's no doubt that Schnabel's unprecedented success within the series may have attracted the attention of a few would-be gold miners in the audience. Parker Schnabel himself actually gave some pretty useful advice for anyone wishing to enter the gold-mining business during his interview with The Malestrom.

In the interview, Schnabel was asked about what his advice would be to anyone out there who wanted to try their hand at gold mining. "I would recommend it, I think it's something worth trying," Parker responded. "I wouldn't pour your life savings into mining. But I think if you're getting a job doing it for the summer it's not that hard to do, there are a lot of jobs both in the Yukon and Alaska. So give it a shot. You've got nothing but some time to lose."

No doubt, Schnabel's encouragement should come as welcome news for anyone out there wishing to take a crack at gold mining –- though it's worth explaining exactly what kind of work that newcomers to the business might be doing. Parker recently clarified on Reddit that his starting employees work around 75 hours a week, making a median wage of around $34 per hour. Those employees will usually earn around $40,000 for driving a rock truck, which is a grueling, incredibly time-consuming profession. As such, it's no wonder that Schnabel said the only thing you've got to lose is time.

Still, any would-be gold miners ought to be elated that there seems to be so much work available, especially when that news is coming from a gold miner as accomplished as Schnabel.