Mercury Use and Recovering Gold from Amalgam information and questions

[dwt]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...ages/428/1393563036_trommel_306-optimized.jpg

hi guys after reading this post prompted me to ask this question the picture is of a silver looking substance ive been recovering with trace amounts of gold and black sands ive tried burning it with a butane torch and melting it with no change to its appearence any ideas on what it is ?

It's not mercury if not affected by heat. Smelting is the only way to tell for sure, use the mapp ( methyl acetylene ) gas cannisters , they are yellow. The blue butane/propane torches won't get hot enough.

DD

will do thanks DD

 

[KarlS]

In no way I try to say or promote handling of potencialy dangerous substances as safe. Sometimes I may not express myself that well. So if you don't know what are you doing, leave it alone. What made me to write to this topic is my desperation about green propaganda that leads people to believe that unless they eat raw carrots, ride pushbike and power their house by solar power they will bring about end of the world or die of one poisoning or other. I'm pushing seventy and I have worked with mercury, smelting lead, cyanide, gelignate, nitrophil and probably other potencialy dangerous stuff I may not remember. I have always learn about the stuff, either in the class or more often, from the books. In the years gone by you have to buy the book or go to the library and wade through many pages before you found the information you were looking for. To day it is so much easier to find information about almost anything. So if you don't want to research and learn about handling potencialy dangers substances, then leave them alone. That way no harm can come to you. MEMENTO MORI!
Karl

 

[Gumshoe]

They use to let you dip your fingers in the stuff in high-school science class back in the old days.
Seriously 0000.1 of a gram of mercury vapor ain't going to hurt you.
I'd still avoid breathing it in when burning it off though.

 

[Guest]

Restricted hazardous chemicals/dangerous goods use or discussion isn't endorsed by Forum Management. Individuals using any hazardous chemicals/dangerous goods do so at their own risk/s and need to ensure their own legislative compliance.

My local creek has some patches just full of it other patches produce none, check out the pic from today most of the gold has a little on it.

 

[Nugget]

Bugger mate, how do you plan on removing it?

I've heard that if you store mercury covered gold with your clean gold, it'll infect the clean gold also. Do you know if this is actually true?

 

[Guest]

Bugger mate, how do you plan on removing it?

I've heard that if you store mercury covered gold with your clean gold, it'll infect the clean gold also. Do you know if this is actually true?

Hasn't with mine, I don't really worry about it. I have gold in the jar for a few years and it hasn't grabbed on. "If" I ever sell it I imagine the smelting would just burn it off, (to anyone that feels like a mercury is deadly rant, its been gone over on here before ) Trippy how it is concentrated in some spots and not others.

 

[Piep]

Mercury is (the only metallic) element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. Meaning that it is liquid at room temperature. It can and will migrate and cling/cover to whatever it touches.

 

[Piep]

And that's the surprising thing about these pics I see here of mercury in/on the gold. The mercury is never liquid, but it should be. Sooooo, are you all sure it's mercury? Has anyone had it tested? Can anyone think of a reason why the mercury isn't liquid?

 

[Guest]

Mercury is (the only metallic) element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. Meaning that it is liquid at room temperature. It can and will migrate and cling/cover to whatever it touches.

Hmm, this is solid just like the gold? Its stuck fast?

 

[Guest]

I just got told by the old timers that its mercury, took it on face value.

 

[Wally69]

Good problem to have there Balx

As a guess and to start conversation........mercury is lost out of prospectors pan or larger scale processor and rolls down stream to a natural riffle, flooding action rolls around sediments until it finds a partner. I am thinking you are working shallow crevices????

Alternatively, water pump rate was too high and some poor group of prospectors lost a heap of mercury and small gold by having a poorly designed gold recovery kit. I am thinking you are working gravel bars under this scenario???

Otherwise you have a great highbanker recovery technique and location and you are recovering both independently and the coating is fresh???

Can't think of anyway to determine which scenario is the right one.

 

[Guest]

Good problem to have there Balx

As a guess and to start conversation........mercury is lost out of prospectors pan or larger scale processor and rolls down stream to a natural riffle, flooding action rolls around sediments until it finds a partner. I am thinking you are working shallow crevices????

Alternatively, water pump rate was too high and some poor group of prospectors lost a heap of mercury and small gold by having a poorly designed gold recovery kit. I am thinking you are working gravel bars under this scenario???

Otherwise you have a great highbanker recovery technique and location and you are recovering both independently and the coating is fresh???

Can't think of anyway to determine which scenario is the right one.

Yeah I got told its left over from the old timers using it around the creeks.

 

[Piep]

Yeah, I took it on face value from the pics at first as well. Then I remembered playing with mercury during science classes and learning about it's properties. Remember those old glass thermometers? If you broke one and tried cleaning up whilst wearing gold rings, you'd have a hard time finding someone that could clean up that mess. The stuff would just migrate onto the whole ring and spread out very evenly to cover every bit of gold.

Looking at your pic, my guess is you could have lead in your pan, or the mercury has fully covered that flake in the middle and is now so spread out and thin that it appears solid.

 

[Nugget]

Mercury is (the only metallic) element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. Meaning that it is liquid at room temperature. It can and will migrate and cling/cover to whatever it touches.

It appears to react with gold to form it's solid state. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it.

Mercury dissolves many other metals such as gold and silver to form amalgams

An amalgam is a substance formed by the reaction of mercury with another metal

Large amounts of mercury were used in placer mining, where deposits composed largely of decomposed granite slurry were separated in long runs of "riffle boxes", with mercury dumped in at the head of the run. The amalgam formed is a heavy solid mass of dull gray color. (The use of mercury in 19th century placer mining in California, now prohibited, has caused extensive pollution problems in riverine and estuarine environments, ongoing to this day.) Sometimes substantial slugs of amalgam are found in downstream river and creek bottoms by amateur wet-suited miners seeking gold nuggets with the aid of an engine-powered water vacuum mounted on a float.

I would say it's almost definitely mercury, so don't eat it Balx :lol:

 

[Piep]

Anyway, it vaporises very easily under a torch. Just put it on a heatproof pad (OUTSIDE for goodness sake! ) and aim a torch long enough to vaporise the mercury, but not so long the gold melts. Put a fan beside you to direct airflow away from your face and you're all good.

How did the old timers seperate the gold from the amalgam? Did they use heat? Chemicals? Voodoo?

 

[Guest]

Yeah it isn't lead that's for sure, pull enough of that out to know the difference, i reckon its amalgam too. Those old timers are rarely wrong. Well they where wrong to use mercury so close to creeks i guess, hahaha

 

[Guest]

Anyway, it vaporises very easily under a torch. Just put it on a heatproof pad (OUTSIDE for goodness sake! ) and aim a torch long enough to vaporise the mercury, but not so long the gold melts. Put a fan beside you to direct airflow away from your face and you're all good.

Piep, you trying to start a riot? search the old post on burning Mercury people lost there minds, haha

 

[Piep]

Convinced on the mercury now as well. Didn't think about amalgam forming straight away. Just the great science toy that was liquid mercury.

 

[Nugget]

Have you heard about the potato method of ridding mercury from gold, Balx? It basically involves stuffing a potato with the infected gold and cooking it in an open fire, the mercury heats up and absorbs into the spud.

 

[Piep]

Piep, you trying to start a riot? search the old post on burning Mercury people lost there minds, haha

Loosing minds on mercury, that explains! haha.
I've done it as a kid in school, perhaps one too many times?