Would Mercury be present in raw Gold

[Dave45]

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I don't think so, but I'm not certain. I know mercury was used in huge amounts by the Spanish in refining gold from ores, but I don't think they run together.

[buscadero]

Dave: What do you mean by Raw Gold? I know I've Panned & Dredged Gold Coated with Merc. Is that what you mean?

HH Joe

[privet12]

Yes gold can have mercury on it but it will not mix with it when heated the mercury will boil off of the gold. But if you happen to have some of it with mercury on it don't try to get rid of it if you don't know how, it could kill you. Very dangerous to breath the vapors of mercury. Also if it has mercury on it you will know it because it will be silver colored.

[snakejim]

The only way mercury would be with gold is if the oldtimers spilled it in the creek.
They used it to get the flour sized gold out of the black sand.

[Jeffro]

Mercury and gold do not form together, if thats what you mean. Gold occurs in veins usually associated with quartz and mercury comes from Cinnabar.

[Nitro 54]

Around my area we have natual mercury in the ground and it finds its way into the streams and some gold gets coated. If you find gold with mercury attached do not mix it with your clean gold as some of the mercury will get on your clean gold and make a mess for you to clean up. The less mercury coated gold, the better.

[Dave45]

Thanks for the replys
Thats what I wanted to know if mercury would be present in gold viens,I pretty much figured youd find it in placer gold,also wound'nt it be present in spanish dores.
Well maybe not since it would go through the smelter.

[Functional]

Here in British Columbia we have small amounts of mercury naturally occuring in plants and in the soil. Other sources of mercury come from deposits along the west coast and from hot springs. And with a history of mining and the gold rush of 150 or so years ago, I'm certain there were spills of mercury in the past. Most fish have mercury to some degree also.

Quote from:
http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/vchemlib/mol/glossary/
"Liquid mercury has the ability to dissolve other metals to produce alloys and these alloys are called amalgams. Amalgam examples are gold/mercury, silver/mercury and copper/mercury all of which are used in dentistry."

If you run across lumpy greyish stuff in the bottom of your gold pan and you suspect its an amalgam, there are ways of separating the metal from the mercury. Most of which can be dangerous to the novice. In the old days and even to some degree today also, people used mercury retorts, (or the somewhat feared potato method). If you don't have the skills to do this yourself, don't attempt it. Hire someone skilled in doing it, to do it for you and learn from them if you choose. I don't have any specific recomendations here, as I do my own dirtywork and don't like to suggest that an unskilled person attempt this sort of thing.

F.

[Ant]

This is an intrestring related link to the topic. Basement Chemistry For The Prospector:

http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/bcftp.htm

(RIP A.K. Williams)

[Functional]

This is an intrestring related link to the topic. Basement Chemistry For The Prospector:

http://webpages.charter.net/kwilliams00/bcftp/bcftp.htm

(RIP A.K. Williams)

Good link. I had mentioned the gold found in black sands in a post to one of these forums and it took looking at that website to remember tellurides. I think I've been housebound too long. Sure glad spring will be on its way soon.

A few other links along the same theme are:
http://doccopper.tripod.com/gold/advanced.html
http://www.nuggethunters.org/
http://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/goprti.html
http://frost.bbboy.net/thenew49ers
http://www.geologynet.com/gpros.htm

I just like the design of the "grizzly" gold pan at the top of this page:
http://www.prostockdetectors.com/grizzly.html

Enjoy!

F.