Gold with Mercury?

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Hello folks! One simple question. Why am I finding gold mixed with mercury? When I first found those pickers and flakes they just had a hint of mercury on a corner. I put them on my guzzler and when I got home and took them out of the guzzler and put them on my pan they all looked now lime if they where soaked in mercury? Why am I seeing mercury on my gold? Is this normal?

 

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[Goodyguy]

What's a guzzler?

If there is a source of mercury in the stream and gold comes in contact with it the mercury will adhere to the gold.
A tiny bit of mercury goes a long way when coating gold.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

The plastic gold sniffer bottle, jejeje sorry.

 

[Goodyguy]

You can burn the mercury off your gold, do it out doors and don't breath the toxic fumes.

GG~

 

[russau]

I think its better to use a retort or keep it in solution with using acid to remove the mercury. Burning it off puts the mercury into a vapor and once it goes up into air it will condense and come back to the ground and contaminate the soil , If Im not mistaken! But there again I don't use any of these ideas myself !! What little gold I get ,I usually end up giving it to someone for their help!

 

[Goodyguy]

I think its better to use a retort or keep it in solution with using acid to remove the mercury. Burning it off puts the mercury into a vapor and once it goes up into air it will condense and come back to the ground and contaminate the soil , If Im not mistaken! But there again I don't use any of these ideas myself !! What little gold I get ,I usually end up giving it to someone for their help!

Good point Russ,

A retort allows you to safely remove the mercury from the gold and reclaim the mercury for repeated use.
Personally I do/did use a retort. I recently sold it along with all of my mercury.

If it was just those three little flakes shown above then burning off that small bit of coating would not necessarily justify the expense of purchasing a retort.
However if removing mercury becomes a habit I would definitely recommend the purchase and use of a retort.
Especially when using a ball of mercury to absorb your fine and micro gold from pans of concentrate.


GG~

 

[Shankersbend]

Cut a potato in half, scoop out a small amount of spud, put gold/mercury in spud, put spud back together, wrap in foil, put in a fire, bake spud, when cool take out gold.
Mercury will burn off and go into spud, turning it black. Gold will be cleaned.

 

[russau]

The only trouble I see in using a retort is that some people just don't know how to use one safely! it could explode if you don't know how-2- use it! Or about keeping your mercury under water and double them up in plastic viles . and putting them into plastic zip lock bags. Double up or even triple the need to protect the viles!!

 

[Goodyguy]

The only trouble I see in using a retort is that some people just don't know how to use one safely! it could explode if you don't know how-2- use it! Or about keeping your mercury under water and double them up in plastic viles . and putting them into plastic zip lock bags. Double up or even triple the need to protect the viles!!

I stored my mercury (5 lbs worth) inside a sealed bottle inside a zip lock bag inside a gallon jug of water inside a Tupperware container.

GG~

 

[Iron Buzz]

Cut a potato in half, scoop out a small amount of spud, put gold/mercury in spud, put spud back together, wrap in foil, put in a fire, bake spud, when cool take out gold.
Mercury will burn off and go into spud, turning it black. Gold will be cleaned.

That is how they did it in the old days, but I wouldn't recommend it. How are you going to safely dispose of the potato afterwards?

 

[goldog]

If you're in an area like yours. Bring an extra bottle for the mercury. Grab up those little balls before they get your gold. Any you see that's NOT in a ball already has the gold. So more of a clean gold &
merc/gold bottle.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

you mean like this days cleanup from north carolina?, in two days it went from 90 percent gold to 90 percent mercury. ill put it in the retort when i get more

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Whoa and I thought I found a lot of gold with merc!

 

[njcommercialdiver]

it was only on some of the gold but spread since i put it all together in one vial. im one property downstream from a "processing plant" from back in the 1800 and early 1900s. they used longtoms and a crusher with mercury slick plates at the ends of the sluice. i have a nugget that one side is mercury and the other is gold. it mustve bounced out the end and across the slick plate. i also occasionally get small puddles of mercury in my sluice.

 

[Goldwasher]

a tiny spot even if not covering a flake or picker you find, even if a partial covering, will migrate to other gold in your vial. Even more so if its a good covering or amalgam.

Try to keep it separated. Though not everyone carries two snuffers.

The worst situation is to let fine gold in with any amalgam any gold that can will become part of it.

Dealing with flakes pickers and a little color is one thing. You can burn it off with a torch, tater, retort or in a cast iron pot with some sand in it over a hot bed of coals.
All of that is to be done carefully and in a well ventilated area. DO NOT heat fine gold in stainless steel.

If you have amalgam and heat it you are going to get a sponge of gold as all the gold is going to stick together as the merc. cooks off. Breaking it down is a process not for those just getting into dealing with mercury.

 

[augoldminer]

Put the gold with mercury on it in a small amount of nitric acid.
The acid will not touch the gold but dissolves the mercury

 

[Ragnor]

Hello folks! One simple question. Why am I finding gold mixed with mercury? When I first found those pickers and flakes they just had a hint of mercury on a corner. I put them on my guzzler and when I got home and took them out of the guzzler and put them on my pan they all looked now lime if they where soaked in mercury? Why am I seeing mercury on my gold? Is this normal? View attachment 1422877

Old timers used mercury on copper slick plates to catch fine gold, they lost quite allot of it. There are also places with free mercury naturally occurring. As stated above a little mercury goes a long ways and it will contaminate any other gold in contact with it. I view mercury as a valuable commodity and would definitely use a distillation apparatus to capture and collect it. Even a couple of test tubes and a glass tube connecting them would work as a retort for small batches.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I have always read not to use glass for a mercury retort, not sure why. I would be really careful trying to jury rig somthing with test tubes and glass tubing.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

ive seen one made with a black pipe cap and a j shaped piece of 1/4 or 3/8" copper tube with a brass fitting that screwed into the cap. the open end of the tube dripped the mercury into a catch container

 

[mendoAu]

...how come my teeth are falling out...ate to many burnt potatos..but here is a link you should read... Basement Chemistry for the Prospector