Mercury and Gold Extraction Process: Dangerous?

[Atticus Finch]

Extracting Gold Using Mercury
Taken from Gold Prospector magazine March, 1995

"I think that if you follow this step by step process, you will find, as many prospectors have, that this is a proven, profitable method for extracting fine gold from concentrates.

Whether you use a gold dredge, sluice box, dry washer, rocker box or most any other type of gold getting apparatus, the concentrates you accumulate in the field should be dumped into five-gallon buckets. Of course, you should pick out all the visible gold then and there.

You should dump the remaining material into the five-gallon buckets and bring them home with you. Even if you have a month to work, don't attempt to set up an operation for cleaning concentrates in the field. Once you get the concentrates home, run them through a poop tube, spinner or wheel, concentrating a five-gallon bucket down to an amount about the size of a quart fruit jar or a three-pound coffee can.

You then put that material into the rock tumbler with some caustic soda (Sodium Hydroxide) and run it for about two or three hours. Add mercury, run another two to three hours. Run the concentrates back through the poop tube, wheel or spinner. Lift out the mercury by inserting a large glob of mercury. Put this into your syringe or your mercury press and squeeze through pure cotton to recover ninety percent of the mercury at this stage.

Deposit the compressed ball of mercury containing your gold into nitric acid in a Pyrex beaker over a hot plate. Let it boil for fifteen minutes. Do this OUTSIDE in a well ventilated area. Be sure you DO NOT BREATHE any of the vapors. Dump that material off into a water-baking soda solution, rinse with clean water and remove the fine gold. Insert a copper rod overnight in the acid waste before disposing of the solution.

This, my friend, is a method for making money each and every time you go out."



BE CAREFUL!! I have found that a 50/50 acid and water solution works well and makes it more cost effective.
Start out with a cold acid solution with the cotton ball in it. Then bring it to a boil. Wear rubber gloves when handling mercury and do not smoke.

After you have experimented with this method, the most cost effective way to use the mercury is to run large quantities of concentrates at one time.

You can also run small amounts and put the mercury back in a used mercury container until the mercury is full of gold. Mercury amalgam will hold two to three times its weight in gold. When the mercury is full of gold, it will look thick and dull in luster.




The following was taken from Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia Sixth Edition

 

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[sniffer]

just to let you know, mercury is a very dangerous metal, that can be absorbed through the skin.
once it's in your body it cannot be removed. high enough concentrations can kill you.
I know commercial gold operations can get it, I don't know if private individuals can though

 

[Atticus Finch]

just to let you know, mercury is a very dangerous metal, that can be absorbed through the skin.
once it's in your body it cannot be removed. high enough concentrations can kill you.
I know commercial gold operations can get it, I don't know if private individuals can though

Thanks.
HH

 

[Hoser John]

Mercury is removed thru CHELATION THERAPY-been through it a couple a times. No big deal-bloodtest twice a week and EDTA injections to cleanse the body of all contaminents. YES mercury can kill-but STUPIDITY will kill you too. Done absolutely right---no big deal. Problem is--when you do anything long enough you get lax-just as Butler Lab owner in CostaMesa many years ago-fan stopped he died--or the idjet at Union flats burning off a tablespoon on the stove in a camper--killed wife,kids and his dumb @$$ self-Tons a au 2u 2-John

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Gentlemen: vit "C" will also eliminate heavy metals from your system. I used it to remove arsenic successfully.
As for mercury, yes, always take max precautions. I am pasting a few posts on my experience with it .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will shift a bit tonight, It reminds me of the time that I flew up to our mercury mine in the Sierras, unannounced. Naturally there was no-one waiting to meet me, so I shouldered my bag and set off for the mine some 12 miles away.

. When I arrived, there was still no one around, so after eating a bit and drinking "my" EXCELLENT coffee, I decided to put my sleeping bag next to the Mercury retort oven. We had three 6" tubes working.

it was nice and warm, so I quickly drifted off to sleep, I was partially awakened about 3 in the morning as one of the dogs was snuggling up between me and the oven for warmth. I like doggies and they help keeping one warm at night in the bush.

The next morning I rolled over to see which of the dogs had used me for a sleeping partner, only to go nose to snout of one of the biggest Piggies that I have ever seen. He must have weighed close to 1000 lbs and had absolutely no odor whatsoever. He was toasty warm, sign. We eyed each other for a few moments then I had to roll back and go get something to eat. Guess who followed me around for the rest of the day.?

I suppose that since we had slept together we were sorta engaged sigh.

Don Jose de La Mancha
~~~~~

Don Jose... I think one would worry more about sleeping next to a mercury retort oven than sleeping with a pig. I mean, in my experiences, I... well... what is a mercury retort oven again
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good evening WXSb: These were 3 sealed 6" tubes with exit set up so that they couldn't suck bk water, yet prevented any escape of the Mercury, effectively a closed circuit.

I have been exposed to Hg since I was a Little kiddie bk in 1823, used to make silver pennies and during WW-2 sheesh. I was a Bomb sight mech. and Master Horizontal Bombardier. We had to work in sealed Quonset huts, metal huts, with no windows. since the Nordan Bombsight was still considered top secret.

As a result the interior in the tropics ran around 120 - 130 F. We washed the parts in Carbon Tetrachloride, now considered an extremely toxic Carcinogen We also used pools of open Mercury as gravity leveled mirrors to adjust the sights. In between times, we squirted mercury with hypodermic needles at the flies.

In other words, the interior of the hut was a saturated pool of presently untouchable chemicals, metals,and the concentrated vapors and skin contact of both. Yet, despite my wife's fondest belief, I am not an idiot, since I easily qualified for Mensa.

Frankly, I know of none of my fellow men, that had any complications from the exposure. Sometimes it makes me a bit suspicious that we are being over protected.

Under the circumstance, I had no qualms about sleeping by the Retorts with my intended, the piggie, for the next few nights.. It was cooooold up there.

Don Jose de La Mancha
~~~~~~~~~~
I too was exposed to mercury repeatedly as a child, mostly making it stick to coins and then probably putting them in my mouth. But as for sleeping with pigs, I'm hesitant to discuss that. At least most of them were cute, as I remember.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So gentlemen, just be careful, used properly it has no effective danger, like anything else, even my addiction, COFFEE.

Don Jose de La Mancha .

 

[russau]

i agree that mercury can be a miners best friend for people that know what they are doing and the risks of it,but there are people that "think" they know and understand about handeling mercury when infact they know VERY little. those are the people im afraid to tell anything about mercury and advise them to NOT use it. one person i know still uses it wrong and keeps saying "i dont understand what im doing wrong!"she has all the paper work about mercury but she still continues to try something else.

 

[sniffer]

chelation therapy has not been proven to reduce or reverse mercury contamination, EDTA injections have not been approved by the FDA. besides, why would you want to risk your death on someones opinion??
If in doubt, ask your doctor.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I watched a show about the gold rush in the Amazon. These guys filled a 55 gal platic barrel with mud. The guy then pours I believe two ounces of mercury. He jumps in the barrel and stomps (like grapes) for an hour. Then apparently just poured the now three times as heavy mercury into a can. Dumps this on to an iron? hot plate and torches the mix. Bingo. A plate of gold about the size of a coffee plate. $1800. worth!

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI Atticus my friend: That is simply a variation of the old Spanish patio process. They sread out the finely ground ore, sprinkled mercury, salt, sulphides, etc in it then proceeded to have Burros continuously walk around in it mixing it.. However, after losing too many burros by having their hoofs rot off , they turned to Indians to stomp around,.It was more cost effective

Don Jose de La Mancha .

 

[aarthrj3811]

I use a blue bowl to get all the visible gold out. I then take my tailings and crush them. Then screen them to 50 and 100 mesh. Then process them in a tumbler and mercury. .I then run then through the blue bowl again and collect the mercury gold concentration. Used to make a bunch of money when I had a lot of dredger concentration that I used a concrete mixer instead of a tumbler……Art

 

[hmgrn1]

After you burn off the mercury in nitric acid you can recover the mercury from the acid by dissolving aluminum foil or beer cans in the acid.
Cliff

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Hi hmgrn: Don't forget to burn off the laquer and paint in / on the beer or soft drink can first. The Foil is better/

Don Jose de La Manha

 

[Shnick]

Considering the dangers of Mercury, has anyone used electroplating to recover flour gold from black sands??

With me being a beginner, I'm not sure if the finer gold is "bonded" to the sand or other material for that matter. if it is, then i see the sensiblity in wanting to separate it without damaging the gold sample, but wouldnt it be feasible to put it in a somewhat safer medium and expose it to a little -/+ dc current?? keep adding concentrates, and let it sit... hang a few copper wires (real fine like the diameter of a hair) in the solution and the gold will "gravitate" with the DC current...

i dunno, it just makes sense to me... if im completely off my rocker, please advise...

Happy Hunting...

Shnick

 

[beaks]

you dont boil nitric acid because it the nitrates will boil off and it will stop working, you can heat it below boiling without a losing much(do it outside unless you want to die)

the best way to recover mercury from nitric is to add a copper plate which will collect the mercury then all you do is scrape it off for later use.(dont heat the mercury without a retort and never do it inside. unless you want to die)

keep your mercury covered with some water because it will evaporate and contaminate the area. and wear gloves

 

[AnIrishBear]

My father was an amateur prospector and processed a lot of his "tailings" in a special shed setup for it. He used mercury for it and never had any problems. He was a very careful person, well versed on the techniques and only processed with mercury in his specially designed "processing shed." He NEVER took it into the field with him.

In fact, I have 28 pounds of 99.99% pure medical instrument grade mercury from his estate that was still in the manufacturers flask, and I need to sell it. Anyone know where and how to get to the audience to sell this? I don't want it to fall into the hands of some idiot that is either going to kill/injure themselves with it or use it on site and get it into the environment. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Kelly

 

[beaks]

let me know what you want for it and i will see what i can do.

 

[kuger]

Probably %50 of the gold I dredge already has mercury on it,it is not that big of a process (is dangerous in vapor)to remove it(although I dont like how shiny gold is after it has been subjected to acid)I either retort it or use nitric,no need to heat it,the hardest part for me is cleaning the dull gray off the gold after the process....I use vinegar and salt and shake it and shake it until the gold comes clean,I am sure there is an easier way.

 

[patches63]

15 years ago,before i could afford a vibrating tumbler,had good success placing my nitric acid discolored gold in a pan covered with red vineagar on top of my clothes dryer.the combination of heat/vibration worked perfectly.as far as mercury goes,whether burning it off with nitric, or otherwise,your essentially turning liquid metal into a GAS, makes a little green cloud,beware that, if you dont have a good breeze outdoors,consider using a fan. and there shouldnt be anyone downwind.including pets,livestock etc.nitric itself is also dangerous.

 

[beaks]

yep you are 100% correct

forgot to add that you can recover your mercury from nitric with a piece of copper plate.

 

[kuger]

15 years ago,before i could afford a vibrating tumbler,had good success placing my nitric acid discolored gold in a pan covered with red vineagar on top of my clothes dryer.the combination of heat/vibration worked perfectly.as far as mercury goes,whether burning it off with nitric, or otherwise,your essentially turning liquid metal into a GAS, makes a little green cloud,beware that, if you dont have a good breeze outdoors,consider using a fan. and there shouldnt be anyone downwind.including pets,livestock etc.nitric itself is also dangerous.

I'll be darn?I will try that!I have two shell casing tumblers that I have used to amalgamate with,but how do you use one to clean your gold?