Mercury!!!

[strickman]

I have never heard of one either .thanks for the answer nuggy.

 

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[EagleDown]

Thanks Nuggy. Now I really feel stupid!!

The "Lost Mine" I told about in an ealier story had 3 of these mounted in a row. (Or as I thought, in series.) When I later asked a knowledgable person about them, (after describing them,) he called them Pelton Wheels. But, he also said pretty much the same thing as you about usage. I'm not concerned about the local usage of terminology, but with all of the gold I took out of the old flotation tank (and left there,) I now feel I was stupid for not looking in the cast iron Bernans. Now, I HAVE to get back up there to check it out, since obviously the mill shut down while still in full operation.

Eagle

 

[nuggy]

Thanks Nuggy. Now I really feel stupid!!

The "Lost Mine" I told about in an ealier story had 3 of these mounted in a row. (Or as I thought, in series.) When I later asked a knowledgable person about them, (after describing them,) he called them Pelton Wheels. But, he also said pretty much the same thing as you about usage. I'm not concerned about the local usage of terminology, but with all of the gold I took out of the old flotation tank (and left there,) I now feel I was stupid for not looking in the cast iron Bernans. Now, I HAVE to get back up there to check it out, since obviously the mill shut down while still in full operation.

Eagle

Hi Eagle, thanks. You have probably already done this sort of thing, but if so others may be able to use this knowledge. If no one else has done a thorough clean up of the mill site you mention, you could be onto a really good thing. There was a lot of amalgam lost around the old batteries; mercury splashes from the stamper box and careless handling of amalgam when scraping plates.
Also try to find where they smelted the gold and did their retorting, there will be a lot of ash residue and burnt rubbish. I have found old broken crucibles with visible gold adhering to them, prills of gold from molds that spat because they weren't warm enough, careless pouring of molten gold and lots of borax slag also with visible gold, I dolly this up and pan it. Around the feed area for the stampers is always a great spot to look for gold in quartz specimens too.
I would shovel up all around the battery down at least six inches into a wheelbarrow if possible, wheel it to somewhere you can set up a pump and highbanker and put it through gently. do the same with all around the smelting area, you will end up with some ugly looking slag-gold etc some of it will need to be crushed, dollied, retorted and melted but it sounds like you are well able and equipped to do that.
Some guys who did this in Australia got some great results, unfortunately all the known sites in this part of the world were done many years ago, but if not done really well there will still be gold there. Nuggy

 

[EagleDown]

Thanks Nuggy.

Hopefully, I can put this information to good use. I don't really know that much about hard-rock mining so I wasn't even aware of these possibilities. I'm going to copy and paste your post and put a paper copy in with my metal detector manual. I'm sure it will come in handy.

Thanks again!!

Eagle

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi guys, I have been a bit, lot, slack lately, Thanks Nuggy you answered that really well. Not much I can add to that except maybe a few pics to show an old derelict stamper set up that was powered by a pelton wheel, thing in the metal housing below the berdan, that drove the main cam shaft via a large belt from the pelton wheel on to a large steel fly wheel pully. On the other end of the main cam shaft was another pully, wooden, with a belt that went to the berdan, sitting in the wooden frame struture, to power & rotate it. Photo also shows the wooden table where the crushed ore passed over the table that would have had the mercury copper plates on it. From there fines where put into the berdan which as has been said had mercury in & was ground finer by a shoe or drag that was inside the berdan. Some times a large steel ball that would sit in the bottom end of the tilted bedan & just rotate & roll on the spot doing the grinding.

Here we have a berdan showing the shoe or drag sitting inside it

Here is a working example

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/west-coast-region/9/3

Happy hunting & a very merry xmas to you all

JW

 

[EagleDown]

Halito my Friend Kiwi,

Hey, great to have you back! You've been so "slack", I was beginning to think you had hit the big one and forgot about us peons here in Tn.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing them with me. Oh, you were sharing them with all of us?? Oh well, maybe I saw them first.

I discovered one thing in the pictures; the Berdans shown here, show very little resemblance to the ones in the old mill I found. Well, I'll have to wait until the snow melts, but if the mill is still sitting, unused, I'll get back up there to take some picts and maybe salvage some ore out of the old bins.

Again, thanks for the pictures!!

Eagle

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi there Eagle, I have hit the big one

I havnt been out much since being back from the south island but I have had the dredge out a couple of times. Found 18 grams all up including the specimen bits. The big brown one to the right I found with my detector. The rest with my 4" dredge. Pretty ugly gold though. Very rough & not water worn. Hasnt traveled very far. Has a high silver content. The surrounding country is having the pine tree plantation cut down & when done will be good to go over the ground with the detector as in the early days a lot of rich specimen stone was found that lead the old timers to a few rich pockets of ore. There will have to be some specimens that they didnt find. So I cant wait until the forestry guys have been through. They are cutting roads in as I tap the keys.

Close up of the specimen found with the detector

Other speci's

Oddly though I found no mercury.

Hope you have a great xmas

JW

 

[EagleDown]

Yikes!! Beautiful specimens! A couple of them would have to suffer my eternal infernal(?) experimenting though. As I looked at them, I couldn't help but wonder what they would look like if I immersed them in Hydrofloric acid and dissolved the quartz. Of course, it would be hard to say if it would increase the value of the gold as a specimen or not, until the deed was done.

Thanks for the pictures my Friend! So nice to see on a Christmas Eve morning.

Happy holidays to you!!

Eagle

 

[bill-costa rica]

i look at the bergan and it reminds me of the electric arrastra they use here in costa rica for the grinding and recovery using mercury

 

[bill-costa rica]

an other one, these are spread all around the hard rock mining areas

 

[bill-costa rica]

 

[2cmorau]

hope i get to dredge this year so i can use my retort on the amalgam i find <- chk spl

 

[Hoser John]

Always use caution with retorts as they make retards--- John

 

[HgMan]

Mercury!!! Condensing


Hello, I am new to this page. Your comments on Mercury drew me in. I have been working with mercury for many years now. Allot of information is out there, much seems to contradic itself. I am looking for the temperature that mercury starts to condense. I know that it vaporizes between 18-22c or room temperature. But I have seen it condense at much higher temperature. Would any of you know at what temperature the vapor can start condensing?

Thank you

 

[2cmorau]

Hoser
maybe that explains why i continue to dredge
i have to be a retard to put up with the BS of environmentalist, bad science, politicians, and the media

elemental mercury is no more dangerous then gun powder, its when you have a flame next to em that you need to be concern, Both will vaporize and kill
I was always baffled when the media and environmentalist were touting how environmetal friendly these CFLs curly bulbs are, ( at the same time screaming how deadly mercury was for the planet & people) the same goes for electric cars. Both have mercury in some amount. so if mercury and gun powder are responsible for the deaths of people know that it took a person, human involvement to kill these people

so don't use it, if your guessing, beside's thhiere a lot of fine gold recovery types of equipment at low cost

 

[kuger]

Always use caution with retorts as they make retards--- John

What if yer born that way??

 

[2cmorau]

guess there are a lot of forest gumps in california

 

[kuger]

guess there are a lot of forest gumps in california

Yea,there is,just trying to find excuses for them!!!

 

[Hefty1]

Yup, Yup, Yup
They keep them at the capital

 

[EagleDown]

Yup, Yup, Yup
They keep them at the capital

Eapecially since they closed the State Mental Institutions.