Every season finale of "Gold Rush" on Discovery has been a thrill, but this one for the seventh season, titled, "Final Fury," was a little more special than previous incarnations. It was clear that, after a Hoffman Crew fight early into the episode, this finale wasn't going to be drama free. It's no secret Todd felt that this season he let every single one of his guys down. Those are pretty much is own words. What was special about this episode was that Todd Hoffman's comeback was admirable despite multiple near disasters this rough season. His heart was in the right place when his back was up against the wall.
Challenges for every crew this season
Parker faced steady but sparse cleanups until he kicked his operation into high gear by running two simultaneous wash plants on his claim. Without his grandfather, John Schnabel, and his guidance and wisdom, Parker misses the connection the two once shared. Parker inevitably faced many issues this season, including belt problems, water problems, mechanical problems with his new wash plant and issues with his new conveyor system. He manages to coordinate a profitable season for his crew despite all the setbacks.
Tony had power barge issues that he had to overcome before a frozen Yukon River ultimately slowed down his hopes of getting his second dredge moved and put in place so it can operate on his claim.
Tony was desperate to get his dredge off the property it sits on when Minnie brought bad news. Because he doesn't own the property and is without the proper permits he's not legally allowed to move the dredge or disturb the land it sits on. This renders all hope for the project dead this season without a land use permit. The risk for moving the dredge without a permit would be getting fined about double the price of the dredge.
Next year, with a land use permit, Tony can perhaps move the ancient hunk of metal back to his mine and make it dredge gold.
Todd struggles the most this year
Todd, with his mines at Sacramento and Fairplay, was still hoping for 1,000 ounce gold before the snow freezes his crew out of the mines this season. Sacramento struggles to keep up at the end of the season and Dave is depressed and frustrated about the situation.
Todd says his Fairplay mine is carrying the ball this season and Sacramento mine isn't paying up as he hoped. Under extreme pressure, Dave confesses that he thinks he's let his crew down.
One clear winner in the final gold tally
Parker Schnabel ends up with the most gold of any crew this season, exceeding his 4,000 ounce goal. At the start of the finale Parker had already mined 3,375 ounces worth over 4 million dollars. When he weighs his Slucifer cleanup he nets 496 ounces of gold and when he weighs gold from Big Red the mine boss gets an additional 440 ounces of gold. The season total is 4,311 ounces of gold worth over 5 million dollars. For anyone counting, that's 1 million dollars worth of gold more than last year.
Parker celebrated the season by opening a bottle of fine whiskey and toasts his crew and the memory of his grandpa.
Tony Beets and his family satisfy their goal and it's Monica's gold mine that produces the bulk of the final cleanup with Kevin's dredge only producing a final 44.1 ounces. With 13 more ounces needed to hit the 2,000 ounce goal Monica gets 188.96 ounces from her wash plant for a season total 2,176 ounces of gold worth 2.6 million dollars. Final words from Tony declare, "We did pretty darn good."
Todd Hoffman had a revised goal of 1,000 ounces this season. The mine boss had given up on the idea of profit just to send his crew home with gold. Todd begins his final clean up 90 ounces short of that goal.
The Fairplay mine weighs in at 57.02 ounces and Sacramento produces 133.65 ounces. Together the season goal is hit for a total of 1,100.77 ounces of gold worth 1.3 million dollars. Freddy and Todd passed around jars of gold to everyone, keeping the promise to send the crew home with the pay they deserved for the year.
