Gold mining is the latest chapter in the winding career of San Jose native Sean Tucker. A fast talker with enviable confidence in whatever he chooses to put his energy into, Tucker began investing in gold in 2004, largely in the form of rare coins. The former professional cyclist had already remade himself from a dot-com ads salesperson to a treasure hunter in Colombia when the entrepreneurial chameleon decided he’d try to capitalize on some mining claims he’d invested in years ago in California.
Today, Tucker owns 2,600 acres of Mojave desert mining claims he plans to excavate, mostly for gold but also for silver. And he’s sunk about $6 million, between himself and some investors, into a new venture called Persistence Mine.
He estimates there are at least 500,000 ounces of undiscovered gold on the property — which would net more than $2 billion at current prices. That’s once it’s all mined, of course, a process that could take 15 years, he said. His company, Gold Discovery Group, would employ as many as 70 people when fully up and running, a veritable boom for a rural area once known for mining but now mostly blanketed in off-road trails and near ghost towns.
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Sean Tucker in front of his mining land in California’s Mojave Desert.
Sean Tucker in front of his mining land in California’s Mojave Desert.Courtesy of Sean Tucker
It could be a good time to bet on gold. Prices hit a record high earlier this year, and the Trump administration issued an executive order in 2025 to increase critical mineral production, plucking gold and other mining out of long-term decline.
The problem is no one’s actually making any money yet.
California makes succeeding in the industry that put it on the map incredibly difficult. Best-case scenario, Tucker’s new mining operation in the desert is going full speed with 16 employees by the end of the year. But he’s spent six years waiting on permits, and environmental surveys have already cost him tens of thousands of dollars. Combine the startup costs with the fact that outside groups are ready to protest mining efforts at a moment’s notice, and the operation still sounds like a long shot.
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Still, a handful of large-scale mining operations are on the brink of production in the state, and small companies and hobby prospectors have jumped on the trend, enough to make him a part of a new California gold rush.
‘Chasing gold’
Tucker made his first investment of $25,000 in gold in 2004. If it had been pure gold, and he sold it this year, it would be worth nearly $250,000, a return of around 900%. When Tucker decided to get into the gold mining business in 2020, he crafted a plan based on the current price at the time. Gold’s value fluctuates, but nearly six years later, it’s risen more than 100%, a lucky break he credits with just that, luck. “I've always been chasing gold, chasing treasure,” he said. “I just think that I’m in a situation where the clock is right, you know, one time a day, and I think it’s my time right now.”
Sean Tucker’s Macon SD-600 wash plant, used for large-scale gold mining, sits on his land.
Sean Tucker’s Macon SD-600 wash plant, used for large-scale gold mining, sits on his land.Courtesy of Sean Tucker
Trump’s election as president in 2024 was Tucker’s next lucky break, speeding up the permitting process exponentially as the government elevated the importance of mining in the name of greater national security and job creation. It’s helped his plan go full speed ahead, even if it has been slower, more expensive and exponentially more difficult than he expected. “It is not easy doing any type of business in California, and it’s doubly not easy doing mining,” Tucker said.
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“If you can get through the hurdles which we have, I think there’s money to be made for sure,” he continued.
He’s hardly the only one to think that.
Nearby in the historic Rand Mining District, B&N Mining has begun exploratory drilling and is pursuing mining for gold, tungsten and silver across nearly 6,000 acres. Former San Francisco 49er Robert Binkele founded the company in 2023 after spending years in investment banking. In 2025, during a conference, he said, “this might be crazy, but it made a lot of sense” given the prices of gold and tungsten. He explained there could be 11 million ounces of gold on his land, plus silver and tungsten. All told, it would be worth nearly $46 billion once extracted.
A view of a stamp mill outside Keane Wonder gold mine in California’s Death Valley National Park.
A view of a stamp mill outside Keane Wonder gold mine in California’s Death Valley National Park.UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty
Other mining companies are restarting production after decades of inactivity. Castle Mountain Mine, near the Nevada border, closed down in the early 2000s when gold prices were low. With the recent historic rise in prices, there are now plans to expand its existing footprint more than four times and could be in production as early as 2027.
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Farther south, the Colosseum Mine site in the Mojave National Preserve was shuttered in 1993. Last year, after a battle with the National Park Service, the mine restarted and, in addition to gold mining, will expand into rare earths.
Even though many mines closed during dips in the marketplace for precious metals, California’s rich mining tradition has never gone away. In San Bernardino County alone, around 90 active mines are extracting everything from gold to limestone to sand and gravel. The oldest gold mine in the state, the Original Sixteen to One Mine in Alleghany, a town of fewer than 50 residents in the heart of Sierra County, has operated continuously since 1896.
But whether it’s a new effort or a restart, it could take these companies years before they’re profitable.
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‘Pure speculation’
The people making money are likely not the ones mining the gold at all. Real estate agent David Treadwell started selling properties around Hemet in 2018, and one of his first listings just happened to include a mining claim. Gold prices were much lower then, and Treadwell said it took a long time to find the right buyer. But “when it rains, it pours,” he said.
FILE: Gold mining supplies on display at Gold Prospecting Adventures in Jamestown, Calif.
FILE: Gold mining supplies on display at Gold Prospecting Adventures in Jamestown, Calif.David Paul Morris/Getty Images
The neighboring property owner saw that the land had sold, so he enlisted Treadwell to sell his.
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As he advertised in mining journals and got leads by word of mouth, “it kind of snowballed. It was 100% by accident,” Treadwell said.
He’s happy about “the little boom that we’re experiencing,” which he attributes to higher gold prices and outsized media attention.
After each news story, Treadwell said, he gets a “flood” of callers, mostly from California residents who have been holding on to properties with mining claims for generations. Most never thought much about them until they heard a news story and often come to him with unrealistic expectations, especially if they know little about the property itself.
It’s impossible to know how much gold is in the ground without extensive and expensive surveying, which almost no one opts to complete. “You could have one acre that’s super rich, or you could have 20 acres that’s super lean. It just really depends,” Treadwell said.
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That testing is so pricey — tens of thousands of dollars depending on the acreage — and requires so much time and permitting that he’s had only two sellers opt for it. The rest bet on historical sales in the area to price the land. “It’s pure speculation,” and pricing can be “just a shot in the dark,” he said.
Most of the buyers, meanwhile, want to diversify their investments, he said, or have some experience mining and want to get in on the current boom. He worries, though, about what will happen when the price of gold drops. “That would be like buying a house in 2006 or 2007 at the height of the market, and yeah, that’s not good,” Treadwell said.
FILE: A customer shops for panning supplies at Pioneer Motherlode Mining Supply in Auburn, Calif.
FILE: A customer shops for panning supplies at Pioneer Motherlode Mining Supply in Auburn, Calif.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Samuel Brannan, California’s first millionaire, arrived in the state in 1846. After word of the Gold Rush had spread, Brannan made his fortune not by digging for gold but by selling tools and supplies to miners. Today, many companies that sell gold mining equipment report that sales are up.
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It’s all enough to make waves in both the media and local conversation. The show “Gold Rush” on the Discovery Channel is one of the network’s top-rated and most watched programs after more than a decade of seasons. In the struggling town of Randsburg, talk of a mining revival could mean an uptick in local business. Employee housing in nearby Johannesburg could mean residents aren’t commuting in from Ridgecrest. More construction jobs mean opportunities for unemployed residents.
Those positive outcomes of a new California gold rush are frequently touted by those involved, but the boom also comes with serious environmental consequences, including the enormous use of water resources and the byproducts, like toxic metals, left behind in the ground. It also threatens local wildlife and sensitive plant species. One large proposed mining development near Death Valley National Park is at the heart of a local fight, building on sacred cultural sites of Indigenous people.
‘All the easy gold is gone’
Since the 1850s, Californians seeking gold have hoped to strike it rich. Gary Noy, a historian and author who has written extensively about the California Gold Rush, said this current gold rush isn’t surprising. “This resurgence happens,” he said.
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He explains that there will always be people searching for gold in California, especially during periods of inflation or economic uncertainty. It happened in 2011 on the heels of the Great Recession, and most of the ambitious upstarts didn’t pan out. He doesn’t think there could ever be a real gold rush again in California, since it’s so expensive and the regulations have become prohibitive. Today, Nevada produces far more gold than California, with Alaska usually second in mineral extraction.
“There’s a famous truism for the California Gold Rush that the only people who made money were the people who mined the miners,” Noy said.
FILE: An aerial view of a decaying and collapsing mineshaft is seen at an abandoned mine on March 27, 2026, near Inyokern, Calif.
FILE: An aerial view of a decaying and collapsing mineshaft is seen at an abandoned mine on March 27, 2026, near Inyokern, Calif.David McNew/Getty Images
California was built on a dream of gold and prosperity. And perhaps the most realistic keepers of this tradition are hobby gold prospecting clubs that have been around for decades, evangelizing the historic industry.
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Many such groups have gotten a recent bump in membership as gold prices have continued to climb.
Donald Perez, 50, president of the Hi-Desert Gold Diggers, a nonprofit gold mining organization headquartered in Apple Valley, California, said they’ve had more “greenhorns” join in recent years than is typical — and “a lot of them feel like you can just go out there on a claim and pick up nuggets left and right and you’re gonna become rich,” Perez said.
He tells them right away that’s not the case. “All the easy gold is gone,” he said.
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The club was founded in 1982, and it has 10 mining claims in the high desert, near Barstow and Randsburg. It has about 140 members currently, paying about $48 per year for access to the club’s claims. “If you're getting into it for the monetary value, I think you’re gonna be disappointed,” Perez said. “You definitely gotta be in it just for the fun of it.”
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He said the club is about being out in nature, meeting people, “and the gold is the icing on the cake.” Perez got into it when he was about 19 years old, when he was hiking around with friends and a friend did some panning. “I thought it was the most relaxing thing,” he said. Some do actually find enough to make it worth their while. He said recently a member found enough to melt together to make himself a gold bar, roughly about $15,000 worth of gold.
Perez didn’t find gold for years, but once he did, “you get that gold bug and it’s like a sickness. You just gotta go out there and get more and more,” he said.
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