Jacob Waltz / prospector

Apr 17, 2014
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Tartarus Dorsa mountains
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wrmickel1

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Nov 7, 2011
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Good questions given how it likes to evaporate and is somewhat water soluble in various forms

ConceptualizedNetherlandr

Not to much in this form already been refined by man or nature. Its been in a heat source greater then a 1000 f. Its what you'll find near a mine like the one Waltz described. Now the elevated mercury air levels in boulder canyon. Comes from a very different form that evaporates and is soluble, a more unstable form.

Now to find out if it was found in the bedrock in a stream bed or up higher to get a clue on how it traveled to its resting place to narrow down the search area.

Wrmickel1
 

gollum

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Jan 2, 2006
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Just a quick note:

I passed by a yard sale today and saw this sticking out:

LDMWalterBrennan.jpg

.99 cents had to get it! When all else fails, Walter can tell you where the LDM is!

Mike
 

John_Arizona

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Jan 30, 2013
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I passed by a yard sale today and saw this sticking out:

View attachment 1058664

.99 cents had to get it! When all else fails, Walter can tell you where the LDM is!

Mike

...theories about the ldm:

“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills,
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
 

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gollum

Gold Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Arizona Vagrant
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Minelab SD2200D (Modded)/ Whites GMT 24k / Fisher FX-3 / Fisher Gold Bug II / Fisher Gemini / Schiebel MIMID / Falcon MD-20
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...theories about the ldm:

“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills,
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Darkness
 

audigger53

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Mar 27, 2004
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One way the old prospectors would convert gold dust in to solid piece was to take a potato, cut it in half. Hollow out both pieces and put the Gold Mercury mix in the bottom and then force the over half on top. Put it in the fire and "cook" it.
The mercury would burn off and get trapped in the top half. they would then knock them apart and put the top half into water to cool. That would allow them to recover a lot of the Mercury for next time.
Don't remember where I read that years ago, but it makes sense to me. They would also use wet leather bags and put the mix in the bag and twist it down to make the Mercury come out through the bag leaving the gold mercury mix in the bag, harder to loose that the gold dust.
 

Nov 8, 2004
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Ok time to put in my 2 cents. First to detect Hg make an fluoresce screen. coat a plane surface with a florescencent materiell then illuminate it with an ultraviolet source. Place the suspected Hg containing materiel between the emitter and the screen, The hg fumes will block the ultra violet source and you will see the fumes in the form of shadows, like smoke.. Very simple. Of course if you had access to a AA machine it it much simpler and quantitative measurable.

Remember it is the 'organic' Hg that is most dangerous.

Side issue, I think that it is vastly overrated. As an example, during wwII,i I was a master horizontal bombardier and Nordan Bombsight mech. On Guadalcanal, we worked in a closed Quonset hut with no windows or any kind of air conditioning, it was still considered top secret. We were supposed to commit suicide rather than to be captured -- yeah,I was about to commit suicide for something that was compromised in 1935 ???

Anway we worked with open pools of mercury as a self leveling mirror to establish true vert on the sight.

Naturally we also killed flies and skeeters with liquid mercury squirted out of hypodermic needles and worked with open
containers of Carbon tetrachloride, now considered a positive cancer causing agent among other things.

In other words a environmentalist would have 'hysterics' today, yet none of us, that I could ever find, had any troubles. Perhaps it shows up later in life, but so far it hasn't with me and I am only 91 ---- hesh oro, or no coffee.

Our lil mercury mine in the sierras. This is our retort.

Mercury mine retort..jpg .Mercury.jpg
 

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wrmickel1

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Nov 7, 2011
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Jamestown ND
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My bedrock was a dry stream bed. I have not been schooled in what native mercury looks like, so it all is miners mercury to me.

Well you've found the best kind, Liquid! Now trace it back up stream
To the heat source that changed it to a liquid' that will lead you to a mine like the Dutchman described,

And may luck be with you

Wrmickel1
.
 

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