Mercury/Gold amalgam at Oallen Forde...

[phantomnosepicker]

Mod edit: Have split the mercury/gold amalgam discussion from the thread below to keep things on topic.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/threads/gold-replenished-at-oallen-forde.39698/
cool...I work upstream from the madding mob.....just wondering if the bridge downstream crew are coming across heaps of mercury...cause i am..to the extent that im going to build a retort

 

[WalnLiz]

Mercury doesn't seem a real problem from the fellows I've talked to but a lot was used by the old timers because of the fine nature of the gold...some really good reports coming from the bedrock bars a few hundred metres downstream from the last big sandy pool.

 

[phantomnosepicker]

it never was a problem when i first started at the place.... but as soon as i started scraping the bedrock i was getting covered flakes then i found a big boil hole and started getting it in liquid form..about a bit less than half a teaspoon....wasnt getting it 2yrs ago but now in the same spot..here we are.....wondering if there was a collapse upstream at one of the old mines n released some of the old sluice plates in one of the last floods............... got get my bum up to that mine..but have had conflicting opinions on how to get there

 

[Ubutey45]

it never was a problem when i first started at the place.... but as soon as i started scraping the bedrock i was getting covered flakes then i found a big boil hole and started getting it in liquid form..about a bit less than half a teaspoon....wasnt getting it 2yrs ago but now in the same spot..here we are.....wondering if there was a collapse upstream at one of the old mines n released some of the old sluice plates in one of the last floods............... got get my bum up to that mine..but have had conflicting opinions on how to get there

Been getting mercury down there on rocks along the edges for the 20 odd years that I’ve been going down there, and just think the nsw goverment under bob carr were going to,pump the water from there for the people of sydney

 

[WalnLiz]

it never was a problem when i first started at the place.... but as soon as i started scraping the bedrock i was getting covered flakes then i found a big boil hole and started getting it in liquid form..about a bit less than half a teaspoon....wasnt getting it 2yrs ago but now in the same spot..here we are.....wondering if there was a collapse upstream at one of the old mines n released some of the old sluice plates in one of the last floods............... got get my bum up to that mine..but have had conflicting opinions on how to get there

A lot of the floods ripped down to bedrock exposing the mercury and several of the old dredges working the pools upstream had mercury plates incorporated into their bucket dredge setups...they didn't worry much about mercury 100 years ago...

 

[user 4386]

Been getting mercury down there on rocks along the edges for the 20 odd years that I’ve been going down there, and just think the nsw goverment under bob carr were going to,pump the water from there for the people of sydney

Almost certainly not a problem - plenty of mercury in Victoria's water supply catchments (900 tonnes lost in Victorian streams) but it does not readily dissolve. More of an issue if you eat the fish.....

 

[user 4386]

cool...I work upstream from the madding mob.....just wondering if the bridge downstream crew are coming across heaps of mercury...cause i am..to the extent that im going to build a retort

The old timers just used a potato

 

[WalnLiz]

The old timers just used a potato

Just don't eat the potato after it comes out of the fire...

 

[user 4386]

Just don't eat the potato after it comes out of the fire...

Correct! It would waste all the liquid mercury in the flesh that they would break up and recover.....Mercury was not cheap.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

Wouldn't the heat just vaporize the mercury goldierocks?

 

[grubstake]

Wouldn't the heat just vaporize the mercury goldierocks?

It does, but I believe the mercury condenses in the potato flesh.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

Won't be eating that spud.
A trap for young players.

 

[grubstake]

Yep, never eat the heavy, silver spuds!

 

[user 4386]

It does, but I believe the mercury condenses in the potato flesh.

Correct grubstake. They would cut the potato in half and put amalgam in a hole in the centre and re-join the halves with wire. Then into the coals. The mercury separates as vapour into the spud, but they would pull it out and put it in a goldpan with water, Open the potato and take out the gold in the Centre. Then mash the spud up in the water and the mercury would collect in the gold pan. Not hot enough to completeley drive the mercury vapour out of the spud (but they could always have used alfoil )

When I was a teenager I used to pan a lot and use mercury and I stored the amalgam (which would crystallize). I then left home, worked throughout Australia for years, then a year in Asia and Europe, then 11 years in central Africa, then a few years in the USA and Canada. I came home when my parents died and cleared out the house and found all this strange crystalline material that I could not identify. So I chucked it in the bin.....