Mercury!!!

[strickman]

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging. We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally. We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury. Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek. Still have some of it. But most of it pops sold it off to various people.

thats a lot!was this in virginia?

 

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[montgomeryjrm]

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging. We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally. We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury. Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek. Still have some of it. But most of it pops sold it off to various people.

thats a lot!was this in virginia?

Good ol' homestate of GA.

 

[Hoser John]

Thanks for the heads up Don---never had a problem yet--but---why chance it?? When in Grass Valley did ya get into gold as a kid?? Can't think of a better place than SF Yuba-purdone crossing to Edwards--righteous--simply righteous river of gold river crossing!! tons a au 2 u 2 -John

 

[strickman]

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging. We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally. We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury. Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek. Still have some of it. But most of it pops sold it off to various people.

thats a lot!was this in virginia?

i would love to hit that creek!

 

[montgomeryjrm]

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging. We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally. We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury. Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek. Still have some of it. But most of it pops sold it off to various people.

thats a lot!was this in virginia?

i would love to hit that creek!

Hell I am trying to get back there one day. There is a lot more there I am sure of it.

 

[goldfever1978]

Hopefully my new 4" dredge will be ready this week, so if anyone needs/wants help with that creek let me know!
We'll go clean it out!

 

[kuger]

Hopefully my new 4" dredge will be ready this week, so if anyone needs/wants help with that creek let me know!
We'll go clean it out!

If only it was that easy!!Trust me you are going to want a 5 or 6 next!

 

[buckyboy]

One of the comments in this topic was "Danger of Mercury way overstated". In the early sixties my Uncle's owned a mine in Fallon, Nevada. They were going to corner the quicksilver market, brought home incredible amounts of it and stored it underneath their house in Central California. Withing two years, my uncle died of Melanoma, 8 months later my aunt died of Melanoma, both of my cousins have had testicular cancer.

I am in gold country and am fortunate I have a couple of old timers that help me out. Don't listen to idiots who say the dangers of mercury are overstated.

 

[homefires]

One of the comments in this topic was "Danger of Mercury way overstated". In the early sixties my Uncle's owned a mine in Fallon, Nevada. They were going to corner the quicksilver market, brought home incredible amounts of it and stored it underneath their house in Central California. Withing two years, my uncle died of Melanoma, 8 months later my aunt died of Melanoma, both of my cousins have had testicular cancer.

I am in gold country and am fortunate I have a couple of old timers that help me out. Don't listen to idiots who say the dangers of mercury are overstated.

That's a New One!

Mercury linked to Cancer!

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI: To a point you are correct Bucky boy. I was 17 and was exposed daily to saturated Mercury and Carbon tetrachloride air and physical contact for months. The Ctet is now considered as very carcinogenic. Yet here I am at 86 and still kicking. I can also guarantee that many others in here in their 70's also played with raw Mercury, coating pennies etc and just playing with it.

Mercury's effect, if it is in a certain chemical state, generally not raw Mercury, is primarily in your brain. In it's metallic state it is not in itself normally cancerous / carcinogenic. But then everything today is considered carcinogenic, including, horrors SEX! sigh.

Mercury's primary effect lies in children, they are extremely susceptible to many chemical effects.

I can only guess that one of the myriads of other factors effected the family. Nevada sun for the parents, diet or uncertain habits for the sons shall we say canned soft drinks in aluminum cans exposed to Nevada's summer climate...

I rate equate it to Global Warning. hmmmm


Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[nuggy]

Regarding water receptacle at discharge end of retort. As long as discharge pipe runs downhill from retort on a good angle, and volume of water in receptacle only ever equals half the volume of the pipe to retort ( just half of the pipe volume not not not including retort ) it cannot be sucked back into retort as it cools, as there is not enough water to reach it. I used this method with no incidents.
However giving advice on such volatile substances to some of the walking accidents that don't bother to fully read and research things worries me. Every year people use a propane gas stove in an unventilated area and expire, walk into a mine and get gassed or walk just out of sight of their car and get hopelessly lost needing to be found and rescued. Don't know why these fools don't just stick to their usual occupations in gov'ment and politics and leave mining the LL alone.

 

[EagleDown]

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

 

[homefires]

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

LOL!



Were all going to die from the Fluorescent Bulbs there selling us too.

 

[kuger]

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

Yep,I use the Nitric too......and I can tell ya what vaporized Merc smells like Burnt almonds!I know I know,but even being cautious do it enough,....and you go blind...oops different ailment,sorry!I did get scared a couple years ago,started suffering extreme joint pain(still have it)and my hair did fall out,but that was when I was 24,so I got all the Heavy metals testing.........nothing notta....so still dont know what the joint pain is from but Merc hasnt got me yet!

 

[EagleDown]

The reason they made it manditory that we switch to fluorescent lights. You'll go blind, if the mercury doesn't kill you first. Population reduction??

Yeah, right, I still have a full head of hair. And, if you look real close, some of it is still dark.

Eagle

 

[Lanny in AB]

Quite a discussion here--most interesting. Thanks to all,

Lanny

 

[EagleDown]

I wonder how much mercury ended up in our landfills.

Frankly, I wonder if it really matters. Cinnabar (mercury ore) occurs throughout the world. There have even been stories of finds in the U.S. where pure mercury was running down the side of a vein when the sun/rock temperature was hot enough to vaporize the mercury in the ore. I believe the explanation was; "The intense heat of the sun on the cinnabar caused the mercury to vaporize. As the vapor leaves the ore body proper, it immediately cools and condenses back, but into a pure state i.e.; liquid mercury.

Now surely, since this has been occurring over the past several millions of years, don't you think the planet Earth should be in its "Death Throws".

Hmmm, come to think of it, with all that's going on worldwide, maybe it is.

Eagle...........................(I'd rather joke than cry:-)

 

[kiwi jw]

Hi guys, Great thread this one & I would have to say that most people who play with finding gold will also at some stage play with mercury. I wont add any more to the warnings that have already been gone over here. But on a lighter & good humour note.....Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp (bloody hell thats a handful) you say you are now 86 tears of age & still fighting fit & dangerous after all your exposer to mercury & other nasties through out your life.....didnt some one say in an earlier post on here that mercury was used as a preserative......... You are doing very well & thank you for your comments.
I have myself come across mercury coated gold & amalgam lost in the streams from old processing plants & in abandond berdans. I think most dredgers will come across this at some stage.

I cleaned out 1.5 oz's of amalgam from this berdan

JW

 

[Lanny in AB]

JW--you've got me on this one--what's a berdan?

All the best,

Lanny

 

[nuggy]

Hi Lanny, I'm jumping in on the question you asked JW here, but he might be busy and I can't stand seeing it going unanswered, LOL.
A Berdan panner is a cast iron or steel? rotating bowl that has water running into it and usually a "shoe" or adjustable for clearance, grinding iron matching the internal profile of the Berdan. They were used here in hard rock operations in conjunction with a stamping battery.
The battery had mercury tables, and a trap or several riffles, corduroy etc, after the mercury coated copper plates, which caught a mixture of amalgam and incompletely crushed ore, usually sulphides containing au, as well floured mercury and partially amalgamated gold etc. All of this, and any slime from stamper box etc was processed in the Berdan. The processed ore is flushed out by incoming water as it becomes more finely ground, while heavies stay in the bottom of bowl. Basically a Blue Bowl and a rock grinder in one, the grinding helps amalgamation occur in the Berdan bowl.
The local ones are heavy cast items, the whole assembly of a small one must be around a ton, danged if I know how they got them into some of the out of the way, isolated spots I used to see them.
I have seen one in operation, the owner processed a whole lot of accumulated old broken crucibles, floured mercury and "might be gold in it's" that I had stored up. I was impressed by it's ability to deal with all this stuff, but not so much with the small amount of gold we got out of my collection. Hope that's a good enough answer. Nuggy