Mercury Sluice

[Sunwell]

I’m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. I’ve started plans for a mercury sluice to run around 400 lbs of mercury in a iron tank that will have a recirculating all plastic pump that helps move material over the surface into a skimming tank. While all being ran underwater with a 10% surfactant solution.

I’ll then pull off test material from the skimming tank with a dewatering screw.

My theory behind building the mercury sluice is that lighter material should float off and any metallic impurities imbedded in any fine sands should amalgam out and sink the the bottom.

There’s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

I’ll then store the tailings in 50 gal plastic barrels and roast them later to distill any leftover mercury back into my supply.

Beyond the chemical worries, and mercloric oxide inhalation (Should be solved by water submersion what are some recovery concerns as this method to me should yield a high recovery rate regardless of ore type.

 

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[crashbandicoot]

Gold plated fingers from ram, first layer is copper which is then plated over with nickle to keep the gold plating from migrating into the copper.

Gold is a soft metal, tumble the fingers in a small tumbler no additional abrasives needed.

Couple of hours the gold will have been abraded free from the fingers, rinse the fingers into a filter.

Smelt the chocklet colored powder along with the filter with either bismuth or lead then cupel.

Thank you alloy!

 

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[crashbandicoot]

Sulfuric acid is far worse than nitric acid as the former is attracted to water. So it makes very deep burns coming into contact with the human body.

Sulfuric acid 96% is very heavy and thick like an oil in old texts it's referred to as oil of vitriol.

Thank you for that too,alloy!

 

[alloy_II]

I’m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. I’ve started plans for a mercury sluice to run around 400 lbs of mercury in a iron tank that will have a recirculating all plastic pump that helps move material over the surface into a skimming tank. While all being ran underwater with a 10% surfactant solution.

I’ll then pull off test material from the skimming tank with a dewatering screw.

My theory behind building the mercury sluice is that lighter material should float off and any metallic impurities imbedded in any fine sands should amalgam out and sink the the bottom.

There’s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

I’ll then store the tailings in 50 gal plastic barrels and roast them later to distill any leftover mercury back into my supply.

Beyond the chemical worries, and mercloric oxide inhalation (Should be solved by water submersion what are some recovery concerns as this method to me should yield a high recovery rate regardless of ore type.

Source,
Mercury will form amalgams with almost all metals except Iron and Aluminum.

A sluice with mercury as you describe it is not how it was done, the gold dredges plying the rivers used copper plate covered with mercury applied as you would paint.

Once the mercury became fully saturated it was scraped off, with new mercury applied.

IMO you would be better off applying yourself to the study of using cyanide it is far more economical and much safer to use then mercury.

Ammen's, book on refining precious metals touches base on the use of cyanide.

 

[alloy_II]

Attached file, Cyanide Leaching

Credits, Dr. A.K. Williams, Ph.D

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mercury is sold by the "Flask" unit.

Each Mercury flask weighs 76 pounds and has about 2.5 liters by volume (2/3 gallon).

A gallon of Mercury weighs 113 pounds.

400 pounds of Mercury is less than 4 gallons.

For any significant quantity of Mercury you will need to ship by ground transport in a DOT approved flask.

For 400 pounds of 95% mercury your cost before shipping and hazmat insurance would be about $25,000.

Be sure to add several hundred pounds of sodium hydroxide to your order and of course a large retort, mixing vats and a fume recovery high volume vent system to go with your approved safety breathing masks and clothing for two.

Don't forget signage and a nice stash of cash to fend off your neighbor's lawyers when they sue you for contaminating their homes/children/pets. They probably won't "win" the suit but you still gotta pay those lawyers right?

Altogether I'm guessing the mercury supply part of your experiment will probably be less than $100,000.

Or you could take the advice of experienced miners that have over the last few thousand years found just a few grams of mercury in a pan to work just dandy.

Heavy Pans

 

[Sunwell]

Mercury is sold by the "Flask" unit.

Each Mercury flask weighs 76 pounds and has about 2.5 liters by volume (2/3 gallon).

A gallon of Mercury weighs 113 pounds.

400 pounds of Mercury is less than 4 gallons.

For any significant quantity of Mercury you will need to ship by ground transport in a DOT approved flask.

For 400 pounds of 95% mercury your cost before shipping and hazmat insurance would be about $25,000.

Be sure to add several hundred pounds of sodium hydroxide to your order and of course a large retort, mixing vats and a fume recovery high volume vent system to go with your approved safety breathing masks and clothing for two.

Don't forget signage and a nice stash of cash to fend off your neighbor's lawyers when they sue you for contaminating their homes/children/pets. They probably won't "win" the suit but you still gotta pay those lawyers right?

Altogether I'm guessing the mercury supply part of your experiment will probably be less than $100,000.

Or you could take the advice of experienced miners that have over the last few thousand years found just a few grams of mercury in a pan to work just dandy.

Heavy Pans

I have a separate location I mine the mercury and distill it down in an air tight retort.

Most of this is for experiment purposes only and the mercury should be fully submerged The whole time.

The plan is to circulate the water over the top of the mercury and any metals should amalgam out of their host particles.

I should be able to run a significant amount of tonnage over the mercury before it gets dirty enough to need to be distilled again.

The mercury in theory should act like a screen based on specific gravity.

I’m hoping to shaker table the tailings to see if anything got missed.

 

[gold tramp]

I have a separate location I mine the mercury and distill it down in an air tight retort.

Most of this is for experiment purposes only and the mercury should be fully submerged The whole time.

The plan is to circulate the water over the top of the mercury and any metals should amalgam out of their host particles.

I should be able to run a significant amount of tonnage over the mercury before it gets dirty enough to need to be distilled again.

The mercury in theory should act like a screen based on specific gravity.

I’m hoping to shaker table the tailings to see if anything got missed.

Why not just use a shaker table make concentrates from you ore then build an use amalgamator.
I would think it would work better than trying to run tonnage of pulp (ore) over the Mercury hoping to capture values I might be wrong, seems to me it probably won't work.. sure you'll capture some values I think. Just never heard of it done in this manner..
If you don't mind showin the results when you are finished..
I would also like to see your Mercury sluice, again if you don't mind showing....
Gt.....

 

[alloy_II]

I’m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. I’ve started plans for a mercury sluice to run around 400 lbs of mercury in a iron tank that will have a recirculating all plastic pump that helps move material over the surface into a skimming tank. While all being ran underwater with a 10% surfactant solution.

I’ll then pull off test material from the skimming tank with a dewatering screw.

My theory behind building the mercury sluice is that lighter material should float off and any metallic impurities imbedded in any fine sands should amalgam out and sink the the bottom.

There’s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

I’ll then store the tailings in 50 gal plastic barrels and roast them later to distill any leftover mercury back into my supply.

Beyond the chemical worries, and mercloric oxide inhalation (Should be solved by water submersion what are some recovery concerns as this method to me should yield a high recovery rate regardless of ore type.

From my observations you need to do more research on mercury before you accidentally make an explosive.

Source. Mercury fulminate

Mercury fulminate, or Hg₂, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators.

 

[crashbandicoot]

From my observations you need to do more research on mercury before you accidentally make an explosive.

Source. Mercury fulminate

Mercury fulminate, or Hg₂, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators.

Mercury Fulminate! Yikes!

 

[russau]

From my observations you need to do more research on mercury before you accidentally make an explosive.

Source. Mercury fulminate

Mercury fulminate, or Hg₂, is a primary explosive. It is highly sensitive to friction, heat and shock and is mainly used as a trigger for other explosives in percussion caps and detonators.

Probley NOT A GOOD IDEA to show this on any network for people that are unstable to see and copy!

 

[crashbandicoot]

Probley NOT A GOOD IDEA to show this on any network for people that are unstable to see and copy!

True,but you can find it on the net through a simple search or perusal of an old time chemistry book,formula is right there.Luckily,in any quantity it,s so unstable that a would be bomber is most likely to score an own goal before he or she manages to blow anything else up.I think I,m right on that. Many more safe and more stable explosives,formulas to be found right now on the web and various books to include Army Field manuals available at surplus dealers.That Genie,s out of the bottle,and has been for like 50+ years,no putting it back now.I might add that it,s illegal for the average citizen to manufacture explosives.That,s not going to stop the suicide bombers and the like.Besides all that if you have the money you can easily buy military grade Semtex or C-4 on the black market. Highly illegal but it happens.Luckily even the unstable are not so stupid as to try and mix up a batch of home made boom goo and lack the money to illegally buy the real deal.Your fears are largely unwarranted.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Don't forget to charge your merc before trying to paint with it -
Here's a copy of Ken's "Basement Chemistry for the prospector"
It completely explains charging your mercury.

Basement Chemistry for the Prospector