Mercury coated gold

[The Gilded Lens]

What do I do with it? I don't want to toss it back into the river, burning it off is a huge no-no and it doesn't play nice with my uncoated gold.
Is is ruined if it's coated? What do you do with yours?
Thanks all.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

If your gold is just slightly discolored with mercury it can be cleaned off with dilute nitric acid, yes the same acid that comes in the gold testing kit,(14k and lower) a little baking soda will neutralize it, after you pull the gold out the liquid is put in a jar with a strip of copper hanging over the edge and the mercury will settle to the bottom. . Mercury will not stick to oxidized copper. if you dont know what your doing, DONT!!! .

This is a good method. A piece of copper pipe (plumbing supplies) will work for precipitation too if you polish it up real good with sandpaper first.

 

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[The Gilded Lens]

I'll take that nasty stuff off your hands lol

I bet you would! I don't know where Goldtopia, CA is so I can't give it to you

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Thanks for the wisdom everyone. When we first found the stuff we weren't sure if it was lead and (gasp) tried to melt it to see if it was and when it "turned" to gold we realized the oops we had made. Hopefully we don't go nutters. Since then we have found a bit more and keep it in a separate vial with water. I don't think I want to mess with a retouch myself (although my husband may want to learn) but I also don't wanna get half the price of the gold because it has koodies.

 

[Oakview2]

It takes prolonged exposure, what little you guys came into contact with, is no problem. Could be much worse and broke one of those toxic mercury laden curly bulbs. Legacy minning mercury is nothing compared to what is migrating into the west from China and India...

 

[DDancer]

*smiles* Well I got what I hoped for No I don't advocate the potato method. Good ideas and techniques

 

[Hoser John]

Hahahah what ya retorted has absolutely no bearing on how much is in a bulb as a few micrograms will cover MUCH gold-comparing apples to oranges in quanity comparison to your personal situation has no bearing on the real question. How much is too much. USE COMMON SENSE as have camped next to idjet on the Yuba who killed his whole family,including himself,in a camper and experienced chemist (Butler Labs) who dies also from mercury fumes BUT also conversely I've known many 1,000s of miners who have never in their aged lives ever had a single problem from many 10,000s a uses. Hysteria OMG killer mercury is no big deal-read Consumers reports on the fish ya eat and THEN ya got something to be scared about-John.

 

[rodoconnor]

I have known beginning dredgers that refused to work a particular stretch a river because of the amalgam sitting on bedrock. That stuff wasn't there too long after I found out . I did my civic duty and cleaned the eco-system

 

[57chevy]

I would try the potato route. Dave is correct. Definitly keep it under water. I mentioned using a retort to a local geologist. He said those are a waste of time as they leak.

 

[enamel7]

I would try the potato route. Dave is correct. Definitly keep it under water. I mentioned using a retort to a local geologist. He said those are a waste of time as they leak.

Don't use the potato. The geologist is wrong also. You'll get better info here than anywhere else.

 

[Bonaro]

Back in the day they used to force feed the hound dogs a plug of chewing tobacco to de-worm them. It kinda worked at purging the worms because nicotine is a potent insecticide and if you were lucky the dog only puked for a few hours and hated you forever, not so lucky and the dog died. There are better ways....

The point here is: Using a potato is an outdated and irresponsible method. It is only a somewhat effective method of burning the amalgam off gold but it offers up the same same risks of just burning it off in open air. You cannot stand downwind or you will inhale HG fumes and everything in the near vicinity will have HG contamination. You can never use the pan for anything else ever again (Are you confident you can ensure that happens, forever?) because it is also contaminated. And you have a full helping of toxic fried potatoes you have to deal with. What are you going to do with that? garbage can, bury it?.. no way

I would bet that most if not all of the people advocating a potato method have only read about it in a book and it sounded easy so they regurgitate the method to others. but they have never tried it themselves, at all.

DO NOT use any device, container or method that contains any copper or aluminum. If you build a copper retort, corrosion or not, there will be mercury coated to the inside of it after the first use. Some of that mercury will fall out when you shake the deivce but much of the mercury is amalgamated to the copper and can not be rinsed off. The only way to remove it is by the same methods used for the gold. If you store that contraption in the shed for 5, 10, 15 years, it is still just as contaminated as the day you stored it.
Aluminum is readily attacked by HG and you can get a violent reaction. This is why HG cannot be shipped airmail.

Mercury is not plutonium but it must be respected...learn about it before you do anything

 

[goldenIrishman]

I would try the potato route. Dave is correct. Definitly keep it under water. I mentioned using a retort to a local geologist. He said those are a waste of time as they leak.

Easy to tell he's a geologist instead of a chemist. A PROPERLY made retort will not leak and is one of if not the safest way to reclaim Mercury. Sure, many a HOMEMADE retort has been fabricated in such a way that it leaks but any of them made by a company that specializes in chemical handling gear won't leak for a couple of reason. First is the problem of product liability. These people do not want to be sued. Secondly is that if they did leak, word would soon get out and they wouldn't be able to give them away. As in all things that are lab related, be sure you understand how the equipment works!!!

EDIT: This is one case that you want to be sure you don't use this piece of gear as a hammer.... Keep it to Mercury recovery only!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Easy to tell he's a geologist instead of a chemist. A PROPERLY made retort will not leak and is one of if not the safest way to reclaim Mercury. Sure, many a HOMEMADE retort has been fabricated in such a way that it leaks but any of them made by a company that specializes in chemical handling gear won't leak for a couple of reason. First is the problem of product liability. These people do not want to be sued. Secondly is that if they did leak, word would soon get out and they wouldn't be able to give them away. As in all things that are lab related, be sure you understand how the equipment works!!!

EDIT: This is one case that you want to be sure you don't use this piece of gear as a hammer.... Keep it to Mercury recovery only!

Gotta love your lead-in; sometimes I wish I were a geologist instead of a chemist, but then I would not be able to teach at the Air Force Academy; we don't teach geology here.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Hahahah what ya retorted has absolutely no bearing on how much is in a bulb as a few micrograms will cover MUCH gold-comparing apples to oranges in quanity comparison to your personal situation has no bearing on the real question. How much is too much. USE COMMON SENSE as have camped next to idjet on the Yuba who killed his whole family,including himself,in a camper and experienced chemist (Butler Labs) who dies also from mercury fumes BUT also conversely I've known many 1,000s of miners who have never in their aged lives ever had a single problem from many 10,000s a uses. Hysteria OMG killer mercury is no big deal-read Consumers reports on the fish ya eat and THEN ya got something to be scared about-John.

You've got me intrigued about what happened with the idjet family on the Yuba. I've gotten some of my mercury gold from the Yuba. What did he do? Throw it over a cam fire or something?

 

[KevinInColorado]

Easy to tell he's a geologist instead of a chemist. A PROPERLY made retort will not leak and is one of if not the safest way to reclaim Mercury. Sure, many a HOMEMADE retort has been fabricated in such a way that it leaks but any of them made by a company that specializes in chemical handling gear won't leak for a couple of reason. First is the problem of product liability. These people do not want to be sued. Secondly is that if they did leak, word would soon get out and they wouldn't be able to give them away. As in all things that are lab related, be sure you understand how the equipment works!!! EDIT: This is one case that you want to be sure you don't use this piece of gear as a hammer.... Keep it to Mercury recovery only!

...well said!

......and nice hammer redux humor!!

 

[DDancer]

Back in the day they used to force feed the hound dogs a plug of chewing tobacco to de-worm them. It kinda worked at purging the worms because nicotine is a potent insecticide and if you were lucky the dog only puked for a few hours and hated you forever, not so lucky and the dog died. There are better ways....

The point here is: Using a potato is an outdated and irresponsible method. It is only a somewhat effective method of burning the amalgam off gold but it offers up the same same risks of just burning it off in open air. You cannot stand downwind or you will inhale HG fumes and everything in the near vicinity will have HG contamination. You can never use the pan for anything else ever again (Are you confident you can ensure that happens, forever?) because it is also contaminated. And you have a full helping of toxic fried potatoes you have to deal with. What are you going to do with that? garbage can, bury it?.. no way

I would bet that most if not all of the people advocating a potato method have only read about it in a book and it sounded easy so they regurgitate the method to others. but they have never tried it themselves, at all.

DO NOT use any device, container or method that contains any copper or aluminum. If you build a copper retort, corrosion or not, there will be mercury coated to the inside of it after the first use. Some of that mercury will fall out when you shake the deivce but much of the mercury is amalgamated to the copper and can not be rinsed off. The only way to remove it is by the same methods used for the gold. If you store that contraption in the shed for 5, 10, 15 years, it is still just as contaminated as the day you stored it.
Aluminum is readily attacked by HG and you can get a violent reaction. This is why HG cannot be shipped airmail.

Mercury is not plutonium but it must be respected...learn about it before you do anything

Actually I have used the potato method when I was just a youth as an experiment to see if it really worked. And it does but you aren't left with much for dinner afterward I also disposed of the potatoes responsibly neutralizing them.
No don't use a potato~ hehh.

 

[fowledup]

You've got me intrigued about what happened with the idjet family on the Yuba. I've gotten some of my mercury gold from the Yuba. What did he do? Throw it over a cam fire or something?

Sounds like he cooked off the mercury in his enclosed camper/trailer. Perfect example of doing what you heard worked without thoroughly educating/understanding how it worked.
Mercury is a very misunderstood issue that is consistently used against us. Im in no way a forum monitor or directing my comment to any one single post. I simply want to encourage folks to censor themselves when commenting about Mercury if they are not 100% sure of their statements and do not have experience with it. Not only does the opposition to mining monitor these forums so do impressionable young "chemist" / miners. Again HoserJohns post is a perfect example of thinking you know but don't have a clue.

 

[fowledup]

If you have merc coated gold- save it. Put it in a separate vile and keep adding to it. No need to process it everytime one gets it. I have a pretty decent size container of Mercury, I dont mess with it I keep adding gold to it. Like the Black sands I dump in the flowerbeds I view this as a savings account. Someday I'll process it or if it's econimically feasible i'll have it processed. No reason to mess with it. Processing it for a few grains or grams is very inefficient and an un-necessary risk for possible danger.

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you have merc coated gold- save it. Put it in a separate vile and keep adding to it. No need to process it everytime one gets it. I have a pretty decent size container of Mercury, I dont mess with it I keep adding gold to it. Like the Black sands I dump in the flowerbeds I view this as a savings account. Someday I'll process it or if it's econimically feasible i'll have it processed. No reason to mess with it. Processing it for a few grains or grams is very inefficient and an un-necessary risk for possible danger.

Well said sir!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Has anyone mentioned the use of Nitric acid Ed T

Yes, if you read the thread from the start you will find that set of comments.

...which brings a question to mind: if you made a retort out of copper, couldn't you clean it by rinsing it inside and out with nitric acid?

 

[DDancer]

Please do not try to clean copper with nitric acid. It reacts badly and produces a poisonous gas. A quick google will show you the results.

A copper retort will work but you will also coat it with mercury~ there is no good way to clean it up. Properly stored there's no problem just leaving
it dirty~ you wont loose much mercury. Just remember to knock it out or use a pipe cleaner *with gloves* to remove the excess in the condenser tube and cap it after use.