Explanation on the Jig and Sluice Box

There are a lot of questions as to the validity of the problems that we encountered at the mine. Yes, the shaker was a real piece of work! The incompetence of the engineers who decided to modify that shaker speaks for itself. The engineering of the entire washplant was a lack of planning from the beginning. It is very important when setting up any wash plant to make sure that where the ore that you are classifying and separating has enough drop to allow for the slurry to move through the plant without clogging up at any point yet also moving at the correct velocity to separate the gold. This is achieved by a simple plan which includes setting up constant variables that are outlined in the most basic of mining engineering books.

The wash plant was held up at several points because there was not one plan drawn up before they set the machines in place. The sluice box was not wide enough to allow for the rate of material that was being dropped into it from the beginning. We spent days adding water hoses to blast the material and even had a man standing there to power wash the material through the sluice box. My opinion was to just leave out the expanded metal section (which is what made it a sluice in the first place) since we had a 42? duplex pan american jig at the end of the line anyway. If that Jig was setup correctly there should be no reason to use a sluice before the jig. Removing the miners moss and the number 3 expanded metal (that wasn’t working due to water starvation) was an easy solution at the time.

The jig had the same problem as you can see above in the clip as Thurber was cleaning the clogged sand out of the diaphragm for the tenth time. After spending a couple days finding small flakes in the jig tailings I called the jig manufacturer and spoke with the inventor (AAA Manufacturing). He explained in five minutes three major mistakes we were making when setting up the jig. Number one, we didn’t have enough volume going to the hutch water which is what the diaphragm pumps up and down to separate the higher specific gravity ore (gold and magnetite) from the gangue material. Number two, we needed a check valve so when the diaphragm pumped down it would not change the pressure in the hutch. And three, the pressure hose was not large enough to create the right head pressure. Also, there was not a constant cross flow that was measurable as far as slurry ratio but that is one variable that is really hard to keep consistent. You at least need the other variables somewhat dialed to catch the majority of the gold.

The jig concentrates flowed down into two 3/8? openings which are really just a pee stream into a open pipe…YES an open pipe which can BE CUT (1/2 pipe) to create a channel. Boneheads!  I needed a 1/12 pitch to clear that drain pipe which we were at 1 inch for every 2 feet when I decided to cut that pipe to fit.  I would have either jacked up the jig or dug out underneath of it if anyone would have given me a hand.  Undermining a 4000 lb jig is not a smart idea.  Especially when you paid only half of $7000.00 for it (not 30K like the program says) and it is full of 1/4 inch steel shot that can spill out if it were to tip over.  They are worth more than the jig itself!

View the original article here

Who built the house?

I got an interesting phone call today. A man called me about his mill he saw on our program that was unauthorized to cut lumber for private parties. He called to ask me about what I knew about the use of the band saw as his company is the owner of that entire lumber mill and truck that delivered all of the trees that someone cut down on Ray Kreig’s and State land that built Greg’s house? What???

When we reached the mine in early May there was fresh trees that were cut down by a man who had supposedly attained permission from Earle Foster. But they were laying all over where we were to set up our camp and mining operation. It was the US Forest service inspector that came to investigate the illegally cut trees on state land that brought the State Fish and Game biologist who eventually turned us in for illegally digging the water channel. Man, what a mess all of this was!

I received permission to drive the logging truck as help to Greg (my cabin/tent had been finished for a week before he even started his custom home.) Now I was legal to drive the truck as I have my Alaskan Class A CDL with double and triple endorsements. So being LEGAL I thought it just seemed right that I would be the one to drive the logs out. I realized that something was wrong when the man commissioned by Earle said those were his logs. Greg and I had a falling out as he was trying to tell me how to back a truck he didn’t own through willow trees to get the “alleged stolen” logs (HE DOES NOT HAVE A CDL and had never been to truck driving school) SO I said F it. The logs were questionable and the truck is questionable as to the legality of insurance. Little did I know not only was the truck not the mill owners the mill itself was not the “mill owners.” Ray Krieg found out that some of his trees were cut down.

Ok, so let me get this straight for all of you Gold Rush Fans. Greg built his house from stolen logs (which later he ended up purchasing from the logger), hauled them without a License, drove a dump truck with logs which is illegal even if you had a license, made a deal with a mill owner who had a mill that was not authorized for personal use and then hauled the lumber back to Porcupine to build a house on private property that he did not own for a family that spent a total of four weeks in the place.

I wish that people would understand that not doing things correctly causes more problems than it avoids. Yes, this is coming from Dorsey who is a Oregon State Licensed Principal Broker, Class A CDL holder with ALL ENDORSEMENTS, Concealed Handgun Permit Holder, MSHA approved miner, fully certified and insured snowboard and kiteboard instructor, ETC. ETC. ETC. I pay thousands a year to keep up with all of this crap and I keep going deeper. Right now I am working on jumping through all of the hoops to start my own mining operation which seems to take an act of congress. I am taking classes and purchasing magazines for explosives to acquire my ATF blasting license. The list is endless. Call me hazardous if you want but at the end of the day I would have taken out a permit to legally poop on the Hoffman’s operation… after all who built the outhouse?

View the original article here

Comment on Ten Facts about Gold Rush Alaska by Stephen

1. My hospital bills at the Haines clinic for X-Rays, Giardia, and treatment for broken ribs that Greg broke.
2. Discovery channel never gave Jimmy Dorsey a red cent! And we are still broke albeit for door to door and some real estate sales!
3. My frustration and foul mouth. I honestly repent to all of the miners for my lack of self control.
4. A lot of what you see on screen is re enactments or “pickups” that help explain what really happened
5. The bear was shot legally and not because he was eating our food.
6. Todd told me to leave the mine.
7. The tension was always real between us mostly because of camera jealousy.
8. The small flakes of gold that Todd carries around in his pocket or the lack of nuggets that aren’t in the gravels at Porcupine.
9. The fact that I am actually going Gold Mining again next summer.
10. I am going to get more GOLD than Todd next season!

View the original article here

Reply to Tom re: Explanation on Jig and Sluice

Sometimes people don’t read the responses to the comments and I think there are a lot of production nuggets of information in there. This is a response to a viewer named Tom, Thanks for watching Tom.

Tom Asked
“Jimmy, If I understand your explanation correctly, and I’m seeing the before and after photos clearly, you cut the pipe to gain enough clearance to get the pitch you felt you needed. If the Hoffmans used to do sewer work, wouldn’t this have been obvious to them? Too little pitch means nothing moves. Too much pitch and solids are left behind.
Was it just a problem because you did it without consulting anybody?
Seems to me that your modification was a quick fix to the clogged pipe problem.”

My Response:
“When you buy the ABS pipe or any materials to fix the plant it is my right to fix as I see fit. They don’t explain that those were my supplies that fixed that Jig, sluice and wave table! I spent over $300 on parts that the crew wouldn’t buy. So I could give a damn about how they wanted to fix it, those were my parts! The fact is it wasn’t working. Why would I spend all that time trying to fix something that wasn’t broke? It just worked better for TV to edit in the “professionals” bitch about the fact that the cameras were on me fixing it for an hour. That was the real problem most of the time. They were getting paid a whole lot more money than I was to be on a TV show (since they had construction experience) so they thought they were supposed to be filmed more.
Jack said that I was like a child but the truth is everyone was acting like a child who needed more attention. Makes for good viewing though! Got to love them ratings!” Jimmy Dorsey

View the original article here

Dorsey’s attempt to explain the Wave Table

I had the privilege of using the Action Mining Wave Table this summer at the mine. This is a highly effective but extremely touchy tool! Its effectiveness can not be matched when all the variables are right but this can be quite problematic in the Alaskan outback. It would work better in a lab environment.

Here is how it works… The table is a tray that has a precisely engineered weights and springs to create a bump back and forth that creates small waves on the table. These waves as they pass over the ore (sand) actually fluff the material and separate the heavies (black sand or magnetite and gold flake) in a principle called the standing wave. The gold sinks to the bottom of the table and actually walks up the opposite way of the slurry flow (water and tailing material) by a process called skin effect. The ore must be first classified by size to be effective and the better job of classification (separating by particle size) By the way all of gravity separated systems work best when you classify by size and is the first thing you do when even panning.

From what I can recall writing this blog there are several factors that you must consider when running a wave table.
1. Size of ore (not less than 1/20th of an inch) so THAT IS WHY THE NUGGET WENT in the RERUN tailing pile that Jack called the ground! It was screened by my own hands and actually never was on the table. Also, I cannot recall ever seeing a flake that size while I worked at porcupine! This could have been a “pick up” which I will talk about in a later blog!
2. Amount of ore, you must feed the table at a constant rate or risk of “packing” this is when the sand is not in “suspension” which is where the ore is fluffed in the water. To check this you just put your finger down in it. You can feel packing.
3. The ratio of ore to water or slurry ratio.
4. Angle of table
5. Bump rate (bpm for all you DJ’s out there)
6. Bump velocity (this might be wrong but I don’t know how to word it, you add weight which makes it bump harder
7. Water quality, Alaska has a high amount of organics which is I guess not good. It is best to have clean water.
8. Ratio of black sands to gold. Constantly pulling out the magnetics is important to prevent packing and keep the table from flushing all the floatable gold because of steep table angle(yes I have seen the small stuff float to the surface)
9. There is probably three more variables I am missing. You need a vacuum cleaner that will suck the gold off of the table but lets not even get into that…

I read the manual about 15 times to internalize the information, watched the dvd five times and had a lesson at John Schnables by the inventor Mike. He even showed up at our claim which no one would give him five minutes to teach them how to run the table but me.

Why didn’t ours work for us? First we needed a auger to lay down the material consistently and we did not have a constant feed of water with the correct volume. We really needed 20 gpm in my opinion and it was recycled poorly which had pipe clogging clay in it. Also we had issues with the bolts that were cemented in the ground. They were a new design which just didn’t give the table a solid footing. The table must be dead weighted S-O-L-I-D! If you have any sway or movement in the foundation of the table the waves do not work correctly. I suggest some type of square tubing straight into concrete or something. I never had a chance to solve this one without someone screwing with it. The guys in the video above I think will have the same problem by bolting the table to wood like they did. That just isn’t going to work with anything but a hand fed small amount of gold bearing material.

A word about the Hoffman’s. They did not read the manual or really have any idea behind WHY the machine works. You must understand principles of why it works to understand how to manipulate the variables to get even satisfactory results. Nothing works perfectly in Gold Mining unless you have millions to spend on equipment but for $7000 I am going to use one on my next gold mine this summer. I am just going to have the auger this time!

View the original article here

Why did Todd bring Dorsey?

A lot of you are asking why Todd Hoffman would bring someone like myself to Alaska? I don’t have years of construction experience just a commercial drivers license. I don’t have years of welding just a semester in high school of metal class. I don’t have an engineering degree. The reason is that Todd Hoffman wanted to start a Rock Band! Yes, he talked with me at length about starting a band and playing in Haines during the filming of the show. The problem was that none of the other miners were musicians. Of course I could play electric bass in a Christian Alternative Rock band but I did that in the mid 90's. I am from Portlandia people! I have been playing standup, doghouse, double, gut bucket, slap our bass like a fine woman rockabilly and country and don’t forget the western for years.

But let me throw the gauntlet right here and right now. Of course we will be competing next year for who gets the gold but if for any reason we should have to meet in a more civilized venue lets have a battle of the bands because my crew is going to be able to do some pickin and a grinnin’ and yehawww we can go hardcore if we need to.

I am a very different person than these men. I know that to tell a good story different characters need to be juxtaposed against each other to create a dynamic stage. I was a producer of Gold Rush Alaska from the beginning. I allowed them to make a fool out of me which seems to work for the show but it didn’t ultimately work for my family. I was the sole cameraman on the reenactment of the bear shooting and also it was my idea to cross the river… My apologies to the liberal audience. It was my idea to bring the wave table (thanks to Mike Halstead for buying it) and the fishing boat, building my house and many other concepts.

View the original article here

Ella Dorsey

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my little girl! I am just trying to give her the best life I know how.

View the original article here

Comment on Jimmy Dorsey Original Design Gold Rush Alaska by michael phelps

Here is the video for the house that I built for my family on the Porcupine Mine. I built this myself in five days just before the weather took a turn. God blessed me with a nice week of sunshine! It featured a wood stove and canvas roof with a visqueen layer to keep the rain out. Kept us dry and warm the entire summer. Cost $1400 total.

Jimmy Dorsey, Realtor at John L Scott in Sandy.  Back in the business of buying and selling homes.  I appreciate your referrals!  cell phone 503.407.5130

View the original article here

GOLD RUSH SEASON 2

Yes a spin off is not only possible but Discovery and Raw TV had edited my character (from about episode 2) to be a second crew. They were talking to me about running my own plant on B channel as early as June last summer. I can’t say who will get the spin off show but I really am not concerned about that right now. I am working on learning to extract gold from rock, learning leach processes, floatation cells and new types of gravity circuits not to mention explosives and core sample drilling. I am in talks with investors to make my show work and set myself up to get the gold.

What ever I have set myself to doing I have had some success in my life. I have made a GOOD living selling homes, snowboarding, playing bass and even kiteboarding. I have yet to make a living from television and gold mining but it is on my bucket list and what ever I set my mind to usually happens. I can tell you that my first couple months picking up the upright bass I didn’t get a gig that paid for it. When I was 11 and learned to snowboard I wasn’t receiving free boards at the age of 13. Kiteboarding was different for some reason. I was teaching while I was learning how to do it myself because they had just been invented. I had even worked a full year and 1/2 in Real Estate, spent over $2000 in training and was licensed in two states (Colorado and Oregon) before I made a house sale! Success happens over a long period of time all at once. That is when I hit the mother Lode! Here is some kiteboarding that was a much needed break from the monotony of the mining adventure I went on this summer.

View the original article here