Mercury Pic

[Bodfish Mike]

Mercury started showing in my drywash cons in a gulch I was working last fall and this is what I ended up with.
It swallow a lot of my fine gold to the point it would not any hold more.
What I found interesting is that it has hardened, if I shake it in vial it acts solid. It was not like this a 2600 feet above sea level but now that I'm in the SF bay area at 26'feet it's hardened.
I have not opened the vial at 26' yet to see what would happen.
Not sure if it would decompress like a plastic bottle.
The stuff in the back ground is silt dirt not gold.
I enjoy looking at it and feel good about taking it out of the environment.

 

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[fowledup]

Very cool, you have officially passed up the Sierra Fund as Californias top Mercury remediator, lol! Looks pretty loaded up, ask your local gold shop if they have access to a retort.

 

[2cmorau]

ya just removed enough merc equal to 1000 discarded CFLs,

 

[KevinInColorado]

The elevation is not relevant for how hard it is. What happens is the gold sort of dissolves into the mercury very slowly. As that happens the little tiny bits of gold form ionic bonds making the ball go from mushy to more firm. If you retort the Mercury out at that point (like now in your case) you end up with a fairly fragile solid piece of gold called sponge. Very cool!

Is there any free gold left in the vial? If so then I agree the amalgam is saturated but that seems unlikely.

 

[Bodfish Mike]

The elevation is not relevant for how hard it is. What happens is the gold sort of dissolves into the mercury very slowly. As that happens the little tiny bits of gold form ionic bonds making the ball go from mushy to more firm. If you retort the Mercury out at that point (like now in your case) you end up with a fairly fragile solid piece of gold called sponge. Very cool!

Is there any free gold left in the vial? If so then I agree the amalgam is saturated but that seems unlikely.

Thanks Kevin I thought someone would know what happened. My thought was it was acting like a Mercury barometer with the change in altitude.

found this youtube vid of gold being dissolved by mercury or vise a versa.
fascinating stuff the way it bonds.

 

[Dig'em]

I've been told to soak it in Muriatic acid. It reacts with anything but silver and gold, eating it away and being left with just the precious metals. Nice find and good job getting it out of the environment, take that enviros!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Muratic acid (a street name for hydrochloric acid really) will not dissolve mercury. Nitric will but is also quite hazardous for humans...be careful. Of course once the Mercury is dissolved in Nitric acid, you have created a toxic and hazardous substance...can't just dump that down the drain!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Muratic acid (a street name for hydrochloric acid really) will not dissolve mercury. Nitric will but is also quite hazardous for humans...be careful. Of course once the Mercury is dissolved in Nitric acid, you have created a toxic and hazardous substance...can't just dump that down the drain!

Yes, basically you cannot dispose of mercury solutions anywhere--not without special help, though you can put copper in it and get the mercury liquid back as the copper dissolves. Still dangerous stuff. As KevinInColorado said, retort the mercury amalgam, recover the mercury and you get gold sponge.

 

[KevinInColorado]

...just guessing here but I'm sure you could find someone at your local prospecting club or maybe store who would take any mercury you don't want. They may also have a retort you can use on your amalgam.

PS aluminum partially submerged in the Nitric will also cause the Mercury to drop out of solution. This produces stuff which also should not be dumped down the sewer. Stick with a retort.

 

[Dig'em]

Thanks for clearing that up Kevin. It was info from someone who I thought was a seasoned gold vet. I've heard the nitric acid thing before but never hydrochloric acid being used. And good point about the toxic cocktail!

 

[Bodfish Mike]

Well today I opened the vial and put it in a pan and to see what would happen ---- put in clean water and back in vial.
It is now in a liquid state and not hard -- so the altitude had something to do with it acting hard at 26 feet when
I drove it from 2600 feet to 26 feet in a closed vial.---- interesting.
I may take it with me next time from 26 feet to 2600 feet to see what happens

 

[KevinInColorado]

I promise, it was not the altitude. Interesting tho.

 

[ratled]

Muratic acid (a street name for hydrochloric acid really) will not dissolve mercury. Nitric will but is also quite hazardous for humans...be careful. Of course once the Mercury is dissolved in Nitric acid, you have created a toxic and hazardous substance...can't just dump that down the drain!

Put the Hg tainted nitric in a glass jar with a scrap piece of copper. The merc will come out of solution and attach to the copper for reuse. You now have what I call "dead" nitric. Always remember "do what you oughta put acid in watta" when working with any acid to make it less potent

ratled

 

[Lanny in AB]

It's always interesting when you find a ball of mercury.

I found quite a large puddle of it this past summer in a bedrock crack. There was a lot of good gold in the crack, and there was a lot of gold amalgamated with the mercury as well.

Nicely done, and thanks for posting the picture.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[goldog]

I agree on the be careful advise. I think the altitude could have caused pressure in the vial to make the amalgam firm.

 

[Armchair prospector]

I posted this on my facebook page as to why the dredging ban needs to be overturned. This explains it in under 2 minutes.

 

[2cmorau]

if your going to use Nitric acid, neutralize with baking soda, keep adding til it stops fizzying, but as mentioned retort is best,