Mercury poisoning

[Fullpan]

I watched a national news story tonight about a man who was diagnosed with mercury poisoning. Wasn't enough info, but the guy
was a credible business exective type. He said he ate at least two meals of fish per day (ocean varieties) because he heard fish was healthy.
His main symptom was loss of balance. After treatments?, he said he was about 75% recovered, but probably be never 100%
again.

 

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[Oakview2]

Very well stated Pville....great to point out the natural occuring Hg. I spoke of is miniscule and not what we encounter in our waterways.I forget the exact numbers now,but in the late 1860's-70's,there were hundreds of thousands of pounds of Merc being used in the state.....by 1880,1/8 of that was accounted for......................I will say again....I hate it,it turns your gold gray,which you then have to clean and then its bright fake looking yellow........and it poisonous

Kuger if you use a retort or acid are you saying the finished product, gold, is poisionous?

 

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[kuger]

Kuger if you use a retort or acid are you saying the finished product, gold, is poisionous?

.....oops,...no...Fumes from the retort or the use of acid are toxic...the finished product from the retort,or acid,has a gray dull stain to it....not toxic(I dont think )but a pain,and ugly IMHO As said thogh,there is no getting around it,its there and it used to be good to be able to get it out of out waterways

 

[spillercanyon]

People don't realize that a lot of the mercury in our waterways was mercury that found it's way into the rivers because of fires. In the day, there were lots of fires (most of the gold towns have been re-built several times). During these fires, the mills would burn along with everything else. The mills, usually located near water, would spill the mercury straight into the rivers. Why we miners are not seen as helping to clean the environment is beyond me. I don't think the greenies ever get past the fact that the mercury was introduced because of mining and thus, all mining is bad. Somehow, we need to change the perception of what modern day mining can do to HELP the environment.

 

[kuger]

Kuger if you use a retort or acid are you saying the finished product, gold, is poisionous?

Oak.......you got me thinkin....thats bad!!!!The fumes can cause a toxic residue that can be absorbed so I am sure there would be that on the gold....you handle the gold......?

 

[Fullpan]

For those who want to read a little more about mercury in the Mother Lode waterways
Mercury Contamination from Historical Gold Mining in California
This is a USGS pub. and the statistics are generally not disputed by the miners. If you're in a hurry, scroll down to USE AND LOSS OF MERCURY

 

[Goldwasher]

I would figure it would take several passes for it to be totally "Clean"...even then just because you cant see it doesnt mean its not there.....don't burn off your cons on your bbq or burner outside then even consider using again for food....it vaporizes fast and recondenses fast also...I.E. on a cold day...I hate how when you have to burn off an amalgam...the fines turn into spongey stuck together pieces hate it....I want my dust Man....also the Main indroduction to the waterways was from Huge sluicing operations...the force of water through their huge undereffective sluices is caused loss if fine gold and mercury was an attempt at increasing recovery....well guess what happens when you pour heavy metal liquid into a leaky sluice...add that to the amount blown out of the ends...so much was lost I may be wrong but, I remember the Flask sizes were 70lbs....and they shipped thousands of those flasks from the Coast Ranges to the Goldfields...As far as fires in the mills losing the gold it happened....other then that the mills were better at reusung their mercury.

 

[kuger]

exactly on the first part and yes,the sluices were the one used in the hydraulic mining,there was no way to control the water current so they needed merc. to hold the gold,as said sluices leaked,rocks crushed sluices,massive influx of water washed Merc(and gold)out....etc....

...I will say it again....I HATE it too....LOL!!!

 

[spillercanyon]

The Carson River is so bad, they say you can fish it (I think they may even stock it?) but warn you don't eat the fish. Did they use a lot of mercury running sluices at non-hydraulic mines? Sure seems to be a lot of mercury in creeks and rivers that weren't near any hydraulic mines.

 

[kuger]

The Carson is extremely contaminated!!!No hydraulicalling there....supposedly from Virginia City.That is a good point Spiller,I know of several remote spots that I have hit puddles of merc and no hydroing....I reckon some did use it in sluices but in all the Gold Rush Journals I have read,the only mention I can recall is of a "Mercury machine",this wasnt a "sluice",though?

 

[gold tramp]

I appoligize if i offended anyone with my take on the Hg subject.
Astobouncer it was very rude of you to have ignored my repeated attempts to see if you recieved the info i emailed you.

info that you asked me for.
I gave you the courtesy to reply to your email. you could of gave me the same.

 

[spillercanyon]

The Carson is extremely contaminated!!!No hydraulicalling there....supposedly from Virginia City.That is a good point Spiller,I know of several remote spots that I have hit puddles of merc and no hydroing....I reckon some did use it in sluices but in all the Gold Rush Journals I have read,the only mention I can recall is of a "Mercury machine",this wasnt a "sluice",though?

Hey Kuger, Virginia City would have been my guess. Do you know if they used mercury to process silver or was it used to capture the gold, a by-product of the Comstock Lode?

 

[kuger]

Hey Kuger, Virginia City would have been my guess. Do you know if they used mercury to process silver or was it used to capture the gold, a by-product of the Comstock Lode?

.............lol!Another great question!!!

 

[Oakview2]

Oak.......you got me thinkin....thats bad!!!!The fumes can cause a toxic residue that can be absorbed so I am sure there would be that on the gold....you handle the gold......?

Kuger

If you need to get rid of any of that gold that is too shiney or dangerous, I always here for you

 

[kuger]

Kuger

If you need to get rid of any of that gold that is too shiney or dangerous, I always here for you

...what gold?I have no gold....or guns

 

[Astrobouncer]

Sorry in advance to deviate from the thread but I have to address this.

I appoligize if i offended anyone with my take on the Hg subject.
Astobouncer it was very rude of you to have ignored my repeated attempts to see if you recieved the info i emailed you.

info that you asked me for.
I gave you the courtesy to reply to your email. you could of gave me the same.

You're right I probably should have replied and I do apologize. I was not aware of any multiple attempts to contact me, but I do appreciate the info you gave me on the ore you are selling and the mill pics. There were many reasons I did not reply. First off, I thought it was a business email quoting prices, and it asked for no reply so I did not even consider one. Secondly, I work full time most of the time, and run a rescue dog shelter by myself with over 12 dogs that have immediate needs when I am home so free time isn't something I usually have a lot of. Thirdly, I get over 100 emails a day as well so yours got buried under the others days ago and was almost forgotten (but it wasnt). And finally, the main reason I hadn't replied was I hadn't made up my mind on if I was going to buy any ore so I did not reply yet. I was still debating buying some but I think I will pass now. I still think it would have made a killer video though to go with my crushing quartz video series and gotten you some great advertising for your company for free but I really dont want to buy any after all this. But good luck and I hope you hit a good pocket regardless.

 

[Fullpan]

AB - you ever consider being a family counselor or Life Coach? You've got the smoothest, most soothing narration voice on utube, no kidding!

 

[Goldwasher]

AB - you ever consider being a family counselor or Life Coach? You've got the smoothest, most soothing narration voice on utube, no kidding!

Lmao He had me at dog shelter, man i would volunteer for you Astro if i was on the east coast just so you could sit have a beer and talk about Aurgonautical Endeavors while I shovel poo...at least for an afternoon you need a break man !!

 

[Reed Lukens]

I actually have that movie as a stand alone in my playlists on YouTube. It is the best video on Mercury hands down. What hit me the most with it when I watched it last year was that 53% of the methyl mercury in our atmosphere here in the United States is blown in from China. Remember mercury is a Naturally occurring element. Mercury City here in California does still have a spigot that you can turn on & fill your buckets for free with all of the mercury you will ever need. If you couple this video with the Hydraulic Mining series that I made, you will have full knowledge of the mercury here in California. Yes, the hydraulic miners caused a lot of damage but Japan still wins overall with the most deaths caused by industrial mercury poisoning from the worst planned mercury spill in history. There is a Mercury mine downstream of the Empire mine. It was discovered in the 1800's and it was already in the water. A lot of our mercury here in our rivers is natural but most of it on the rivers where hydraulic mining was used was washed down by floods that many people have forgotten about. Many times entire operations were washed into the rivers during the winter flood season when they were in high production. Many people washed into the rivers and drowned with these floods. I've written so many articles on this subject that it makes my head spin but most of it is in the series and everything that you want to know about mercury is in that video.
Hydraulic Gold Mining - YouTube

 

[Lanny in AB]

Here's some guys playing with mercury. I don't think personal safety is high on the priority list in their working world.



All the best,

Lanny

 

[gold tramp]

A better way ?

Not trying to make you look bad to others.
but if you have an easer faster and cheaper way to recover number 45 screen flour gold.

Please let me know, i wiil send you a ground sample of the ores free of charge, that way you can see and get some hands on.
I dont think you can recover this type of gold in a dredge or sluice it would blow right on out.

I have looked at other ways to recover my values but all were to exspensive. $3000 or more for $1000 in gold.
I dont know how you could get flour gold out of concentrate, I cant do it without Hg.

If you got a better way by all means pleases share with me.
I have bought pounds of reading material on this subject, but none has an affordable or safer way than using Hg, for the small miner to still make proffitt.

Thanks