'Gold Rush' Star Tony Beets Says Era of Gold Mining Is 'Coming to an End' in the Yukon (Exclusive)

It's the end of an era when it comes to the fortune to be found in the ground of the Yukon, at least as far as Gold Rush veteran miner Tony Beets is concerned.

Ahead of the Season 10 premiere of the hit Discovery show on Oct. 11, PopCulture.com's Anna Rumer traveled to the Yukon to try her hand at gold mining and get the inside scoop on the Beets family's 2019 season, during which the younger generation is being asked to step up and take the reigns on the Beets claims.

"They f—ing well better come into their own... they're all their mid twenties or early thirties, so if they're not f—ing grown up by now, it ain't never going to happen is it?" Beets told PopCulture.com, noting, "The only way that part is really going to work is when it's going to be their own money."

If they succeed, Beets is convinced that Kevin, Monica and Mike will be "probably one of the last generations of miners coming up around here."

"Good grounds is getting pretty hard to come by," he explained. "Nobody around here is going to lease out good ground at today's prices, and there's just no new ground out there. We've been mining here for the last hundred some plus years. We're coming to the end, they're going to come to the end of that."

"So it would be my kids and guys like Parker [Schnabel]," he said. "That'd be pretty much the last part of it, I think."

It seems like a bittersweet moment for the lifelong miner, but Beets isn't reflecting on sentiment as he ponders the end of an era.

"Everything comes to a f—ing end," he said. "I mean, we are very fortunate. My kids are going to have enough ground to mine for the rest of their days if they choose to do so, and I see this, the next generation will go figure it out themselves. Right? That's not really my problem."

He continued of his priorities, "Long as I can set up my kids, and my kids can set up their kids, I think that's how it's supposed to work."

Will Beets be able to secure that future for his kids, however?

Don't miss the return of Gold Rush Season 10, coming to Discovery Friday, Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Photo credit: Discovery