Question about mercury processing.

[mytimetoshine]

First off let me make it clear. I do not and have no intention of using mercury. I'm just curious and want to know how it works.

So Ive gathered from reading posts and articles that gold basically dissolves and bonds to liquid mercury? But what I don't understand is what happens to the black sands. So you have a bunch of gold bearing black sand and your mixing it with liquid mercury.The gold becomes mercury amalgam, but dothe blacks sand not stick?

Maybe the problem is I'm imagining mercury amalgam as being sort of thick. I guess if it is as "thin" as water the sand would just fall out. Is that what happens? Some one please enlighten me. I keep reading articles on it being used but nothing really explaining the details of the process.

I know Tnet will provide my education. Love this forum!

 

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[enamel7]

You've got it all wrong. Gold doesn't melt into the mercury. The mercury sticks to the gold. This forms an amalgam. Mercury doesn't form an amalgam with iron so the black sand doesn't get coated.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well you're kind of on the right track. You just have a few misconceptions is all.

first off... The Mercury does not dissolve the gold. It bonds with/to it. It will also bond to copper quite well. This is why the old timers (and some of us modern prospectors) will have a copper pan in our tools. You coat the copper pan with Mercury and it will help catch micro gold and form a layer of amalgam on the bottom of the pan which can be scraped off.

secondly... The Mercury doesn't effect the black sands because it doesn't bond with them like it does with gold and copper. Unless you happen to get some black sands in the storage vial by accident when you suck up the mercury, you shouldn't see any B.S. in your Mercury.

Next off... How that amalgam looks is going to depend on several things like the size of the gold it has picked up, the amount of gold etc. What I do is as I draw the Mercury out of my "working vial" I keep an eye on it and anything that won't go into the pipette because of too much gold in it goes into the amalgam vial. Once i have enough of it built up I run it through a retort to remove the Mercury and give me a "sponge".

I have no fear of Mercury, but I do maintain a healthy respect for it. As a qualified industrial lab tech, I've had to work with substances that were a lot more dangerous. If you follow proper handling rules it can be a great tool.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Ok. So if the mercury sticks to the gold then how does mercury sticking to a piece of micron gold make it easier to recover?

Let's say you have a pan of bs and micron gold. You dump some mercury into. You stir it all together and then what? How do you separate the mercury amalgam from the bs?

 

[fowledup]

The micron gold becomes easier to pick up because it becomes part of the mercury mass which is much larger and easier to handle. Here's a little bit of Mercury and gold, look close and you can see the gold. No need to get rid of the Merc. just keep adding gold, it's a savings account. -------Can't resist- this is still more Mercry recovered than TSF has recovered in six years.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Lol...so ok. Then the mercury must "stick" to itself?

So the Pan of bs,micron gold and mercury. You just pour off the mercury and no black sand? I feel like I'm not getting it.

 

[fowledup]

give this a whirl and see if it helps---

 

[KevinInColorado]

Gold does dissolve into mercury...very slowly. Read more here, the dissolving is described in the paragraph "How Amalgamation Works" http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/docs/mercury.htm

There's a lot of good into on this page and the rest of this website...enjoy!

 

[Hoser John]

OMG Kens site is till up RIP dear friend. Good to see his legacy carried forth. One big problem with mercury is it must be clean or it just goes into a zillion litte dirty balls and doesn't want to stick to much of anything. A retort or a good filter removes contaminents and good to go. Respect it and it's your friend. Don't well being mad as a hatter ,fingernails rotten along with teeth is not a pretty sight...or if your a real fool instant death-John

 

[mytimetoshine]

That video does help to understand the way mercury behaves. Thanks fowledup.

In the video, when he does the "copper" penny test, shouldn't all the pennies be pre 82' ? The penny minted after that are only copper plated.. zinc cores.

 

[enamel7]

It sticks to the copper plating. It doesn't come in contact with the zinc core. And you would use a retort to separate the gold from the mercury.

 

[Bonaro]

To help understand.... When water contacts metal it sticks due to surface tension. When water contacts paper is actually soaks into the surface forming a mechanical bond on the molecular level. This is similar(kinda) to what happens to gold when mercury sticks to it. I believe that over time the HG will actually begin to dissolve the AU especially if it is fine enough.
Mercury will amalgamate to many metals both ferrous and non ferrous. HG will attach to gold, silver copper and zinc readily. It will attach to steel with a little help from chemicals. HG will adhere to sulfur and lead but weakly. It will actually react with aluminum.