Mercury Sluice

Sunwell

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Mar 12, 2022
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Iā€™m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. Iā€™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.

Iā€™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.

Thereā€™s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

Iā€™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

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Iā€™m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. Iā€™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.

Iā€™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.

Thereā€™s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

Iā€™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.
Welcome to Tnet Sunwell.Sounds like a good way to do harm to yourself,but it,s your life man.
 

traveller777

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I think there are better ways to do amalgamations, I've never heard of this method 400 lbs Hg, lot of room for a mistake by spillage.
Like to see some pics of you op.
Gt....
Good points, gold. Is that not a permitting issue with that much mercury? I do not know, just a question.
 

gold tramp

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Good points, gold. Is that not a permitting issue with that much mercury? I do not know, just a question.
Just trying to wrangle buckets of Mercury is a task, ever try pouring the stuff without spilling, 400 lbs, isn't that like 2 five gallon buckets of the stuff? Don't know about permitting ? I only use like a lb at a time even that is a pain in butt to keep a handle on without spillage.
Gt...
 

traveller777

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Just trying to wrangle buckets of Mercury is a task, ever try pouring the stuff without spilling, 400 lbs, isn't that like 2 five gallon buckets of the stuff? Don't know about permitting ? I only use like a lb at a time even that is a pain in butt to keep a handle on without spillage.
Gt...
I think it weighs 112 pounds per gallon. That stuff would be hard to handle.
 

gold tramp

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I used i guess about 10 lb charge at a friends mill and pouring that out of a bucket was a learned experience.
That came with much contamination to the surrounding area, before i learned how to work safely with this beast.
Gt...
 

crashbandicoot

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I used i guess about 10 lb charge at a friends mill and pouring that out of a bucket was a learned experience.
That came with much contamination to the surrounding area, before i learned how to work safely with this beast.
Gt...
I,ll never presume to tell anyone else what to do,but I,ll work with Nitric Acid before I work with Mercury.And I ain,t working with Nitric Acid!
 

crashbandicoot

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Not my forte but I have watched your answers elsewhere and you seem pretty knowledgeable.
I know just enough to leave that stuff alone.Both of em.I,m still trying to figure out how to get some gold out of e-scrap.Studied it a lot. Havn,t got the gold yet,but got a bunch of gold plated material.I,m looking at reverse electrolysis but that uses Sulfuric,almost as bad as Nitric.Damn gold doesn,t want to give up easy!:laughing7:
 

alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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Iā€™m wondering if anyone has experience with density separation with mercury. Iā€™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.

Iā€™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.

Thereā€™s a lot of magnesium in my ore so sulfuric acid soaks just dissolve the gold since the magnesium oxidation.

Iā€™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.
Sulfuric acid will not dissolve gold.

Attached file, Hokes Refining Precious Metals Wastes.
 

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alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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I know just enough to leave that stuff alone.Both of em.I,m still trying to figure out how to get some gold out of e-scrap.Studied it a lot. Havn,t got the gold yet,but got a bunch of gold plated material.I,m looking at reverse electrolysis but that uses Sulfuric,almost as bad as Nitric.Damn gold doesn,t want to give up easy!:laughing7:
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.
 

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alloy_II

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Dec 24, 2021
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I know just enough to leave that stuff alone.Both of em.I,m still trying to figure out how to get some gold out of e-scrap.Studied it a lot. Havn,t got the gold yet,but got a bunch of gold plated material.I,m looking at reverse electrolysis but that uses Sulfuric,almost as bad as Nitric.Damn gold doesn,t want to give up easy!:laughing7:
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.
 

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