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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[Quinc]

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

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It does for sure. I save it all in a separate jar and burn it with a torch at the end of the year. *Up wind.

 

[southfork]

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.

Some of the big bucket line dredges used mercury plates also here in California. All of the methods had losses of mercury covered gold.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Some old timers would fill riffles with mercury. I have a book somewhere that describes the practice.