'Gold Rush': Tony Beets Makes Major Find From the Pioneer Days in Exclusive Clip as Discovery Show Hits No. 1 in Ratings

Gold Rush's Tony Beets has come across a major mineshaft find that could be the secret to making his fortune this season. As the Discovery series brings home some serious ratings in the month of October, PopCulture.com has an exclusive sneak peek of Friday's all-new episode, which promises to be a doozy on the Beets claim.

As Tony works with sons Mike and Kevin to help them become more independent in the mining business, the Beets miners come across a 100-year-old mine shaft, which despite Tony's characterization as a "s— hole," could be a major clue about the ground Kevin is looking to mine.

At 40-feet deep, the mine shaft is a clear indicator that the pioneers making their claim in this area found good gold, as it would have taken months to dig it out using rudimentary tools like picks and shovels.

"Can you imagine having to dig all this f—ing gravel just so to find out what is underneath it?" Tony asks. "One hundred years ago, some (expletive) did not do that for his good health."

As Mike brings in an excavator to dig down into the shaft to see if there's pay dirt beneath, Tony seems hopeful: "I mean, those old timers didn't dig a shaft that deep to come up with nothing. There's definitely gotta be gold down there."

Friday's nail-biter of an episode comes on the heels of an incredibly strong month in viewership for Gold Rush, with Nielsen ratings putting it at the number one unscripted series on all of cable (excluding news and sports) for the month of October for men 25-54 and men 18-49. Gold Rush also finished October as the number one series on all of TV Friday nights (except sports) for the male 18-49 demographic, making it Discovery's number-one-rated show with more than 3 million people tuning in each week between the second and third week since its Oct. 11 season premiere.

No matter how successful the show or how big the gold haul, however, Tony told PopCulture.com's Anna Rumer on her trip to the Yukon ahead of the season premiere that he has no intention of ever leaving the gold miner's life behind.

"As for retirement, I think that's not going to happen," he explained. "We live a perfect life here. We work seven months out of the year and then we go on holidays for five, and that's enough retirement for me, more than enough."

He added: "Why would you sit beside the pool and have a beer if you can enjoy gold mining here in the Yukon?"

Gold Rush airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.

Photo credit: Discovery