Mercury in the sluicebox?

[Quinc]

Anyone have any ideas how the old timers used mercury in there sluice boxes? Been finding a lot of it lately and curious how they did it and why they lost so much of it.

 

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[southfork]

Anyone have any ideas how the old timers used mercury in there sluice boxes? Been finding a lot of it lately and curious how they did it and why they lost so much of it.

Sometimes a slick plate made of copper was rubbed with mercury or a catch filled with mercury. But running too fast gold along with the mercury ended up back where it came from. Easy to clean with a little Nitric but stay upwind.

 

[russau]

Yep I forgot about that way and also the men that were using stamp mills also used the Mercury covered Copper plates to capture fine gold.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

If Mercury is showing up in your sluice or pan it might contain gold.

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