Mercury coated gold

[The Gilded Lens]

What do I do with it? I don't want to toss it back into the river, burning it off is a huge no-no and it doesn't play nice with my uncoated gold.
Is is ruined if it's coated? What do you do with yours?
Thanks all.

 

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[DDancer]

You can try cooking it in a potato if you don't want to go thru the effort of building a retort or find someone with a retort in a local club.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Keep it separated until you find someone with a mercury retort. Keep it under water also. HTH.

 

[winners58]

simple retort for small amounts has a small slit at the bottom of the copper tube
put cold water into a jar but don’t cover the slit that to release pressure
it condenses on the inside of the copper.
heat 5min. more will make the gold stick together too much
I would still do it out side.

 

[Aufisher]

I'll take that nasty stuff off your hands lol

 

[NeoTokyo]

Some places will buy it like that, the last time I decided to sell like that I got 50% spot but now I just use a retort.

 

[KevinInColorado]

simple retort for small amounts has a small slit at the bottom of the copper tube put cold water into a jar but don’t cover the slit that to release pressure it condenses on the inside of the copper. heat 5min. more will make the gold stick together too much I would still do it out side. <img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1073586"/>

Nice simple design

Once the retort has been used you have to store it in water, in a sealed container, as it will be contaminated with mercury on the inside. Storing it in water ensures the merc does not evaporate. Oh, and the slit is not to release pressure, it's to let air in as the air in the tube starts to cool, otherwise the retort will suck up water which could then flash boil...explosively...messy or dangerous. Learn the principles of using the retort before you try using one on your own.

Please, folks, do NOT use the potato method as that eventually releases all the merc into the environment...and wastes perfectly good merc you could reuse to capture fine gold...and then retort again. Also a waste of a perfectly good potato! LoL!

Start by storing your merc coated gold in a water filled vial. Do a bunch more reading on safe handling and retorting of mercury before you try to process it. Merc vapors can kill you or at least do serious brain damage, no joke. Ideally find someone with experience at this to do it with you the first time. Local clubs will have learned to deal with this...you are not the first newbie to run into mercury coated gold in your area!

PS No such thing as "ruined gold"

 

[Hoser John]

them squiggly enviromental bulbs have more mercury than your gold and it's vaporized and enclosed in a fragile glass container. A simple silver color is no bfd but a drop is yet another deal. Retort when possible when in any quanitiy otherwise outdoors burnoff is no bfd-John

 

[chlsbrns]

I don't think copper should be used for a retort. The mercury will stick to it.

 

[Aufisher]

 

[Aufisher]

 

[Aufisher]

 

[Aufisher]

 

[KevinInColorado]

them squiggly enviromental bulbs have more mercury than your gold and it's vaporized and enclosed in a fragile glass container. A simple silver color is no bfd but a drop is yet another deal. Retort when possible when in any quanitiy otherwise outdoors burnoff is no bfd-John

Not true sir. A compact florescent light bulb contains 4-5 milligrams (thousandths of a gram). The last time I retorted my merc covered gold I ended up with 1/3 gram of mercury...that's about 70 lightbulbs worth! So save up your merc covered gold until you have enough to be worth retorting and then recover and reuse it properly. Other approaches are traditional but we know better now so let's do better.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I don't think copper should be used for a retort. The mercury will stick to it.

Right, that's why with this design it's very important to store it in water as I mentioned. An all steel design eliminates the problem but even then some merc ends up on the tubing so it's always best to store a retort in water or at least outside your living quarters.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of using tools like merc properly, I do it myself. At the same time, use each tool properly...you wouldn't use a wrench as a hammer would you? Or put it away dirty?

 

[goldenIrishman]

I have to agree with Kevin on this one. Use the proper methods when dealing with Mercury. In many areas, a LOT of Mercury was misused by miners and that's one reason we are still finding it in our streams today. Back in the old days we didn't know about the hazards that Mercury poses so it was freely used by many a miner. Today we know better and hopefully everyone will take the time to learn how to retort and recycle it in the correct way using proper safety gear. It's really not hard to learn the correct methods and it could save your health or the health of someone you care about. If you are unwilling to learn how to recover the Mercury in a safe manner, then you should take your covered gold to someone that knows what they're doing.

While quite a bit of Mercury was mishandled in the past, miners are NOT the cause of all of it that's free in the environment. Many areas in our country have a mineral called Cinnabar which is a natural ore of Mercury. So even if if there was some way to recover every drop of Mercury lost due to mishandling/misuse by miners, there would still be a lot of it left in the environment thanks to Mother Nature. This was one of the many pieces of FALSE SCIENCE used by the "Greenies" to get dredging shut down in California. They tried to blame the miners of years past for ALL of the Mercury when Mother Nature put much of it out there herself. Dredgers do everyone a service by removing much of it from the streams and it doesn't matter if it's from mining or Mother Nature.

A proper retort can be bought for about $120.00 at many a prospecting supply. The ones like the one pictured above may work, but they are very lacking when it comes to being safe to use. As Kevin stated, they are know to suck in water and flash boil it with explosive results. Cutting a slit above the water line also serves to negate the safety by releasing Mercury vapor which is much more dangerous to your health than the liquid form.

...And Kev.... I've been known to use a wrench as a hammer at times. Depends on the type of wrench and how much hammering ya have to do. I'd be willing to bet that almost everyone here has too.

 

[winners58]

If your gold is just slightly discolored with mercury it can be cleaned off with dilute nitric acid,
yes the same acid that comes in the gold testing kit,(14k and lower) a little baking soda will neutralize it,
after you pull the gold out the liquid is put in a jar with a strip of copper hanging over the edge
and the mercury will settle to the bottom.
.
Mercury will not stick to oxidized copper.

if you dont know what your doing, DONT!!!
.

 

[NeoTokyo]

you wouldn't use a wrench as a hammer would you?

Then you haven't seen my wrench! lol

 

[NeoTokyo]

Golden: Exactly, Cinnabar is all over.

If you are ever mining on lower Clear Creek in Shasta County there are Cinnabar outcroppings just below Need Camp (Below Whiskeytown Dam) and much of the mercury found in lower Clear Creek is because of that Cinnabar outcropping.

 

[Bonaro]

I personally would not use the copper contraption and never use a potato.
The copper thing will become amalgamated with HG and contaminated after its first use and forever...presuming it does not explode. Then what happens to it when your wife accidentally sells it in a garage sale or your neighbor borrows it to fix his sink?
The potato is just a bad idea. A obsolete and dangerous practice used on the frontier when mercury toxicity was not understood and proper tools were not available.
Buy a real retort or learn how to dissolve and precipitate with acid. If you dont understand these two procedures completely and expertly then find someone who does

For small quantities I use acid and precipitate. For larger quantities or if I need to clean my HG I use a retort.