Who Is Parker Schnabel? Everything to know about the miner on Gold Rush

Parker Schnabel is one of the most known faces on Discovery’s Gold Rush. 

The young miner has been on the show since season 1. 

Gold Rush features mining journeys in family-run mining companies in areas like Yukon and Dawson City, Canada.  

According to his bio on Discovery, he started gold mining at the age of 5 on his grandpa John’s mine in Haines, Alaska.

The bio further states:

“ At 18, Parker left home and moved up to the Klondike and leased ground from the legendary Tony Beets. A prodigy in his own right, Parker has mined a total of over $13 million dollars worth of gold by the age of 24.” 

The 15-year-old was scouted by TV while he was working at his grandfather’s mine. 

An article in Money Week in 2019 talked about how his passion for discovering gold was the same as “most teenagers” who “discover booze and parties.” 

The article stated:

“ Once they'd started filming him, they didn't want to stop. He was naturally telegenic a teenager who had discovered gold in the way that most teenagers discover booze and parties."

Gold Rush star Parker Schnabel credits his family for his strong work ethic

Park Schnabel talked about his family and how his father is a big influence on him in an interview with PEOPLE in 2024. 

He said:

“ I grew up in a family where my great-grandpa came to Alaska, my grandma joined him in 1937, my dad was born up here and all three of them were carving a life from scratch. So that's what I grew up around. My dad is a very big influence in my life. He's 69. He still gets up and goes to work every morning at 4:30 in the morning.”

He also shared with PEOPLE how his father never discouraged him from going to mining even though it was not an “economically viable business.” 

Schnabel said:

“ I think it actually really bugged my dad that it was not an economically viable business that I was involved in as a teenager, but he never said anything. He just wanted me to be happy. That's the best thing you can do for a kid, in my opinion.”

But his love for mining seems to have paid off. 

According to Celebrity Net Worth, his net worth is $10 million. 

But mining is a costly business, and a huge amount of money goes into the job. 

Schnabel revealed in an interview with PEOPLE in November 2025:

“With all that stuff baked in, you're actually up in the probably $200,000 to $250,000 a day range.” 

He further continued that such high investment makes the “company thrive under pressure.” 

Parker stated:

“ I think that the whole company really thrives under that pressure, and we've attracted people and kept people on who deal with that kind of pressure very well and take that responsibility on as a personal challenge. So nobody really thinks about it. Even I don't really think about it too much apart from it's my job to make sure there's money in the bank accounts to pay bills. But I don't know. I really enjoy it.” 

But the job takes a toll on the dating life of the young miner. 

He talked about how his job makes dating difficult in an interview with PEOPLE in 2024. Parker remarked:

“I try to explain it in a way that doesn't sound like Mad Max. It's hard to explain that without it sounding like some dystopian insane world. I’m in the woods and you're living in a f**king bunker washing rocks, looking for little shiny rocks. Then it makes dating incredibly difficult,” he adds. “They're like, ‘What do you do?’ I'm like, ‘I don't know.’”

But he is thankful for the life and talked about how he would do it again in a heartbeat. 

Schnabel said (via TV Insider):

“I got extremely lucky a whole bunch of times. I’m very grateful for that because there is a lot of opportunity for it to go wrong. It has been a lot of fun. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.” 

Stay tuned for more such updates.