What does a puddle of mercury register as on your MDs?

[Fullpan]

When I prospected gulches and overflow gulleys years ago in ca. around hydraulic diggings, I would often get mercury blobs in my
pan. I wonder how tough it is to detect in those locations, and what the MD tries to tell you?

 

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[Critical Recovery]

BLOBS of mercury?

Buddy, if I was getting blobs of mercury in my pan the LAST thing I would be thinking about would be a metal detector.

Mercury will give you funny looking kids.

 

[Fullpan]

According to the USGS, about 8 million lbs of merc was "lost" during Hydraulic operations in the 1850's. The guess is about 1 million lbs remain.

 

[Critical Recovery]

According to the USGS, about 8 million lbs of merc was "lost" during Hydraulic operations in the 1850's. The guess is about 1 million lbs remain.

Wow.

 

[Jason in Enid]

BLOBS of mercury?

Buddy, if I was getting blobs of mercury in my pan the LAST thing I would be thinking about would be a metal detector.

Mercury will give you funny looking kids.

Mercury won't harm you if you know what you are doing with it.

You know, in 30 years of detecting I think this is the first time I have ever come across this question! I'm curious about the results too. If you are finding mercury you will be finding gold too.

 

[kuger]

I was going to say the same thing!Never thought about it,but pull on average 15 lbs of Mercury every season.Thats what irks me,people dont realize how much of it is in all of our waterways in gold country....naturally occuring as well,and that suction dredging is the only way to remove it

 

[maipenrai]

So what do you do with it, is there a market for it? I really loved playing with it, when I was a kid. Made nice shiny dimes!

 

[Calvin.Coin]

I was just reading last night in a book (The Disappearing Spoon/Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean) about how one of the men associated with the Declaration of Independence would prescribe solutions of Mercury-Chloride. Apparently they were able to locate Lewis and Clark camps by deposits left behind by sick party members.

Here's an excerpt:

[...]Lewis and Clark had trekked through South Dakota and the rest of the Louisiana Territory with a microscope, compasses, sextants, three mercury thermometers, and other instruments. What I didn’t know at first is that they also carried with them six hundred mercury laxatives, each four times the size of an aspirin. The laxatives were called Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills, after Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a medical hero for bravely staying in Philadelphia during a yellow fever epidemic in 1793. His pet treatment, for any disease, was a mercury-chloride sludge administered orally. Despite the progress medicine made overall between 1400 and 1800, doctors in that era remained closer to medicine men than medical men. With a sort of sympathetic magic, they figured that beautiful, alluring mercury could cure patients by bringing them to an ugly crisis—poison fighting poison. Dr. Rush made patients ingest the solution until they drooled, and often people’s teeth and hair fell out after weeks or months of continuous treatment. His “cure” no doubt poisoned or outright killed swaths of people whom yellow fever might have spared. Even so, having perfected his treatment in Philadelphia, ten years later he sent Meriwether and William off with some prepackaged samples. As a handy side effect, Dr. Rush’s pills have enabled modern archaeologists to track down campsites used by the explorers. With the weird food and questionable water they encountered in the wild, someone in their party was always queasy, and to this day, mercury deposits dot the soil many places where the gang dug a latrine, perhaps after one of Dr. Rush’s “Thunderclappers” had worked a little too well. [...]

treasure is where you find it,
cc

 

[Fullpan]

Thanks, CC, I knew of mad hatters syndrome, and of course mercury amalgam used in dentistry, but not what you described about Lewis and Clark. Learn
something new everyday!

maipenrai, there is a market, but an individual has a LL of a time complying with Hazmat restrictions on shipping, securing, etc.
Just too much hassle involved. Interesting note; the state of calif. in 2005, I think, set up a program where dredgers and miners
were encouraged to turn in their recovered mercury to the Dept. of Toxic Susbstance Control. I don't know why it was discontinued, but since then the dredgers have slowly become demonized(read enviro influence) so the result of which has been
tons of liquid mercury lays in calif. waterways, waiting for next big storm to flow down to intakes for drinking water.

 

[kuger]

Great point CC,even in the Gold Rush Mercury was in ones medical chest and taken in great doses in the cholera epidemic of '53

I used to stockpile my Merc unti it became a liability to have around.I dont like using it for anything so now pass it on to a large Mine outfit here local

 

[TerryC]

If you want to know what a blob of mercury registers on your MD, hurry down to the Miner's Creek in Wickeburg, AZ. A certain "person" dropped a jar of it as he was pulling the jar off the shelf. I don't know what amount is labled a hazardous spill so that's all I'll say. TTC

 

[nuggetshooter323]

Actually, per the EPA, any amount of Mercury hitting the ground is reportable. That includes those stupid CFL lights that the goverment says we have to switch over to, because they have mercury in them.

 

[jeff of pa]

BLOBS of mercury?

Buddy, if I was getting blobs of mercury in my pan the LAST thing I would be thinking about would be a metal detector.

Mercury will give you funny looking kids.

You mean I can start my own Circus act ?
coool



maybe cause your detector to grow an extra coil


now that would be a circus act



Seriously http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070928030339AAbX6nV

sorry, can't help on it's place on the scale

 

[NeoTokyo]

A fellow prospector buddy of mine has a huge glob of it in a vial, I will visit him tomorrow and take a video of what my GB Pro says.

It may have gold in it too, he never tried to get anything out of it but he sucked it all up while dredging here in Northern California years ago.

 

[Jason in Enid]

If you have several detectors, see what all of them register it as.

 

[Lanny in AB]

I've learned some interesting facts about the historical, medicinal uses of mercury from this thread. As for its electronic signature on a MD--post the results when you find out--I'm interested to see what happens.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[kuger]

From memory I knew it had something to do with a "Blue Pill",but didnt want to post in haste as to have it confused with another "Blue Pill",but here is a little to add to it.
Blue Mass - Everything2.com

 

[NeoTokyo]

He wasnt home today but I will try again tomorrow, also I only have the GB Pro for now.

 

[Hoser John]

EZ and simple answer. Mercury is a non ferrous metal ,even though a liquid. It rings loud and clean on any detector if the concentration is big enough as extremely conductive. Any bfo,tr,vlf,or pulse will sounf off loud and clear. I worked the Carson River east of Carson City in the mid to late 80's and there were immense pools with many dozens of pounds. As a board member of the state Haz Mat it was reported. We dredged a couple of dozen holes from brunswick canyon to lake Lahonton and turned up hundreds of pounds of mercury,just loaded with gold which I kept!!YAHOO. Thats why to this day there are warnings all over the river and lakes-do not eat the fish and for many years do not enter the water even!! Treated with respect no big deal but if ya don't ,you too can be mad as a old english hatter with green teeth,no fingernails and looney as a jay bird. John

 

[Hefty1]

From memory I knew it had something to do with a "Blue Pill",but didnt want to post in haste as to have it confused with another "Blue Pill",but here is a little to add to it.
Blue Mass - Everything2.com

LOL yea Kuger you dont want to get those "Blue Pills" mixed up. As both can be "Dangerous".