Using borax instead of mercury for fine gold

firebird · Feb 5, 2020

What do you think of this method? It looks a lot safer than amalgamating mercury that other miners do. Is there a reason why this isn't more common? Borax is cheaper than mercury too.

N-Lionberger · Feb 5, 2020

Borax is a flux this isn't anything new. Borax isn't a replacement for mercury. The recovery medium is the carpets in their sluice.

KevinInColorado · Feb 6, 2020

N-Lionberger said:
Borax is a flux this isn't anything new. Borax isn't a replacement for mercury. The recovery medium is the carpets in their sluice.

The video is old news.

I’ve used both mercury and borax.

In a way borax is a substitute for mercury. If you are trying to get fine gold out of your heavies in a hurry you can either mix with mercury and amalgamate OR melt with some borax to create a gold button. Both methods work fairly well.

Goldwasher · Feb 6, 2020

Thats smelting not recovery

Clay Diggins · Feb 6, 2020

Is Borax Toxic?

A much better and less expensive solution would be to teach miners to recycle their mercury. A simple retort used properly will be much more healthy and much less expensive.

This isn't rocket science. Fluxes and retorts have been used for thousands of years. They each have their place in recovering gold.

Heavy Pans

N-Lionberger · Feb 6, 2020

Borax works well for athletes foot.

Bejay · Feb 6, 2020

Being a small scale placer miner for many years I had never heard of using borax for gold extraction. That said: I have been using borax to cure my salmon eggs (roe) for fish bait for 50 plus years. It toughens the skeen (membrane & eggs skin)...and I have never known of any adverse health effects....I have gone through a lot of boxes of borax over the years.

Bejay

Reed Lukens · Feb 6, 2020

Bejay said:
Being a small scale placer miner for many years I had never heard of using borax for gold extraction. That said: I have been using borax to cure my salmon eggs (roe) for fish bait for 50 plus years. It toughens the skeen (membrane & eggs skin)...and I have never known of any adverse health effects....I have gone through a lot of boxes of borax over the years.

Bejay

yup, borax and brown sugar makes great bait.