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Gold Prospecting
Alluvial Gold Prospecting
Mercury Use and Recovering Gold from Amalgam information and questions
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<blockquote data-quote="XLOOX" data-source="post: 553612" data-attributes="member: 16174"><p>I had the dubious pleasure of working in one of the last active major gold mines that still used mercury amalgam - Peko Wallsend Warrego, near Tennant Creek. I worked in the Gold Room from a couple of months over the 1987 Uni Xmas Holidays. </p><p></p><p>The walls had a garden retic drip system cascading a film of water down them, the floor was permanently flooded with 15mm water, there was a huge extraction fan and we used to use 70kg buckets of mercury ( about the size of a normal household bucket but solid stainless plate, with an inch of water on top, that we manually tipped into rotating drums of strake table cons. We used these green mercury proof heavy rubber gloves and it was fun shoving your hand in a bucket of mercury and have it snap back at the wrist due to the high flotation force ( 13 x water). We used to get a blood test every 3 weeks & in my short time there 2 ops had to "have a rest" from the gold room for a while. No doubt that if I had stayed longer I would also have "had a rest"".</p><p></p><p>The retorting room was medieval - it was set partially underground, had iron barred windows & was low & dark and smoky as it also had the diesel fired bar smelting furnace. </p><p></p><p>Before retorting we used to press the amalgam sponge in a lever pipe press and the free mercury would run out the bottom into a bowl. leaving a grey crumbly cylinder of amalgam. The retort itself was pretty simple - another bit of pipe with a threaded cap. The pressed cylinder was loaded into the pipe & the cap screwed on. There was a a narrow pipe than ran from the cap into a bucket of water on the floor and the mercury just collected under the water in the bucket. Once the retort cooled it was uncapped & the gold powder ( which looked like brass due to high Ag content) was tipped out then smelted into a bar.</p><p></p><p>Ahh those were the days ! </p><p></p><p> Not sure if any of that actually helps anyone but hopefully someone finds it interesting <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="XLOOX, post: 553612, member: 16174"] I had the dubious pleasure of working in one of the last active major gold mines that still used mercury amalgam - Peko Wallsend Warrego, near Tennant Creek. I worked in the Gold Room from a couple of months over the 1987 Uni Xmas Holidays. The walls had a garden retic drip system cascading a film of water down them, the floor was permanently flooded with 15mm water, there was a huge extraction fan and we used to use 70kg buckets of mercury ( about the size of a normal household bucket but solid stainless plate, with an inch of water on top, that we manually tipped into rotating drums of strake table cons. We used these green mercury proof heavy rubber gloves and it was fun shoving your hand in a bucket of mercury and have it snap back at the wrist due to the high flotation force ( 13 x water). We used to get a blood test every 3 weeks & in my short time there 2 ops had to "have a rest" from the gold room for a while. No doubt that if I had stayed longer I would also have "had a rest"". The retorting room was medieval - it was set partially underground, had iron barred windows & was low & dark and smoky as it also had the diesel fired bar smelting furnace. Before retorting we used to press the amalgam sponge in a lever pipe press and the free mercury would run out the bottom into a bowl. leaving a grey crumbly cylinder of amalgam. The retort itself was pretty simple - another bit of pipe with a threaded cap. The pressed cylinder was loaded into the pipe & the cap screwed on. There was a a narrow pipe than ran from the cap into a bucket of water on the floor and the mercury just collected under the water in the bucket. Once the retort cooled it was uncapped & the gold powder ( which looked like brass due to high Ag content) was tipped out then smelted into a bar. Ahh those were the days ! Not sure if any of that actually helps anyone but hopefully someone finds it interesting :) [/QUOTE]
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Gold Prospecting
Alluvial Gold Prospecting
Mercury Use and Recovering Gold from Amalgam information and questions
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