Gold covered in mercury

mu50stang

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Mar 2, 2011
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Hey mu50stang...

If the lead looking balls are hard to the touch, it probably is lead.... Mercury balls with gold in them will be mushy and will usually change shape easily...even though the gold may not be visible...if the mercury is really saturated with gold.. it will be very lumpy..rather than uniformly round and solid like lead would be...

Klondike
 

Yeah, Ole Ike is kinda like an Airdale Dog, smarter than he looks. :thumbsup:

Ike, when you find Mercury, how do you handle it and how do you separate the Mercury from Gold? I know some people have different theories on this subject but I would like to know your approach. :icon_scratch:
 

Sure GC...

Let me say one thing first.... Do you know what the letters of the word LUCK actually mean??? After reading this posting, you may have some "good luck".....and not having "LUCK" in your life may not be fun.. but disastrous...

L...Living

U..Under

C...Correct

K...Knowledge

It's been years, .....many, MANY... years since I have handled Mercury....with newer and newer technology, has come new ways to separate really fine gold from black sands....

But when I did use mercury..I nearly always used a retort.....

A retort consist of an Iron sealed container... an Aluminum tube/pipe... going from the iron pot through a sealed water jacket with slowly moving, cool FLOWING water...the remainder of the Aluminum tube comes out the other end of the sealed water chamber into a bowl used as a catch basin for the liquid mercury...

NEVER...NEVER..NEVER ... I SAY AGAIN...NEVER....ALLOW THE ALUMINUM TUBE END GOING TO THE CATCH BASIN FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE COOL WATER JACKET TO BE PLACED OR ALLOWED TO BE UNDER WATER...UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES...

Why you ask...??? It only takes a small reduction in the heat source to the iron pot to create a SUCTION... and have the water in the catch basin be drawn up into the iron pot.... once the cooler water reaches the boiling pot of mercury...the cool water will cause an explosion of the mercury and could be fatal...certainly harmful...

A retort is closed circuit way to heat the mercury into a vapor (which is extremely dangerous state for humans concerning mercury)...but within the closed circuit ...the vapor rises and goes through a water chamber where the mercury vapor is cooled and comes out of the closed circuit as liquid mercury....and in the chamber where you originally placed the mercury saturated with gold/silver/and the platinum group metals...will be a small button of melted metal containing all, the metals that mercury absorbs....

From this point, one would need to "refine" the button to separate the different metals...

Below is a diagram of a retort... they are actually easy to build and use.. just use a lot of common sense... take it slow and easy and always have a breeze, either naturally or artificially at your back with the retort in front of you..and always use outside.. never inside....

Here is a good website that shows all the things about mercury and how to use mercury in collecting fine gold...as well as how to use a retort..

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Reference_pages/Amalgamation.htm

DISCLAIMER******
This posting is not at all intended as for advise in how to use mercury and THE collecting fine gold and retorting the mercury.... if you. after reading this posting and you choose to use mercury and or a retort, and something goes wrong... I have stated this disclaimer and will be held harmless in all ways, cases and uses of mercury and a retort in any form or fashion...and you are openly and seriously advised to seek the help of a professional smelter or refinery company... as I am neither....

PROCEED WITHIN YOUR OWN RISK.!!!!..AND SERVE YOUR OWN CONSEQUENCES...!!!

Today... I recommend you use a RP-4 from Global Mining Solutions www.globalminingsolutions.com

It handles like around 600 pounds an hour of black sand concentrates....captures down to -1 micon ..actually it is better than that... and with a couple of runs... you can really capture most of the really fine gold free milling gold from the black sands....the rest of the black sand will still have some Nobel metals, just keep once you have large drum of them, have them refined or smelted some day....the ICMJ has several advertisements from professional companies...

The RP-4 sells around $2,500 retail...plus shipping... and it ships real easy... very light weight, but sturdy...

For my money.... I'd rather use something as simple as the RP-4..... than run the chance to become very ill or dead using mercury..... and at $1500 plus an ounce... just 1 1/2 ounces gets your investment back.... possibly within your first outing, wether you are dry washing.. high banking or dredging...

Just makes sense to me...

Good luck to all...happy gold prospecting....


Klondike
 

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Thanks Ike for the reply. No, I do not plan to use Mercury for gold recovery. Only issue is dredging gold with Mercury attached. Just don't like the stuff at all, but I do want the gold. :thumbsup:
 

Thanks GC...

The kind of commercial mining I do ... I rarely see any mercury combined with gold...

But if you accumulate a good amount of mercury while dredging.. use the process in my last post to remove the mercury...get your gold..and collect the mercury and resell the mercury to others who have a use for it...

OR.. you could just come to work for me and you'd eliminate that ugly shinny stuff from your life.... get paid in gold .. not mercury...lol

I could use someone of your expertise and character on my team in Arizona....


Klondike...
 

Here is some I got last year.
 

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Never know what the future holds Ike, time will tell. :thumbsup:
Nice photo Jog, do you use the same method as Ike laid out? :icon_scratch: :dontknow:
 

prospecting for gold and silver , author Savage, publisher McGraw-Hill , first edition 1934
there is no ISBN #
 

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