# Burning mercury off in nitric?



## yvonbug (May 4, 2008)

My husband just tried to burn some mercury off of some gold he had with nitric acid, undiluted. Some kind of white salt formed. What is that? Thanks for any help, Yvonne


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## Rag and Bone (May 4, 2008)

Umm, cease all refining activity until you know and understand what you're doing. 

Also, read and ponder your tag line.


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## yvonbug (May 4, 2008)

If I could delete this post, I would.


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## Rag and Bone (May 4, 2008)

Why? It could be very educational.


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## yvonbug (May 4, 2008)

Cuz I noticed same question was asked by needles. Is that why you said I should ponder my own tagline? Or was it the possibility of my husband blowing himself up?


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## Rag and Bone (May 4, 2008)

The technical details of your question are beyond my understanding. That said, I have no business addressing it. My concern lies with the hazardous materials mentioned and the seeming lack of knowledge in their use/disposal. 

Ask the question and know what you are doing before you start.


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## yvonbug (May 4, 2008)

Are u still up? I just wanted to say that most of the time I know what I'm doing. My husband, on the otherhand, doesn't. Myself, I never mess with mercury, I don't see why anyone would want to coat their nice gold with something you really need a retort to remove it with. I'm strickly an aqua-regia person. Unfortunatly, I sometimes catch my sweety out in the garage messin' with the goods. Since I never mess with it, I didn't know what kind of results you get when you do that with mercury. Actually, I don't keep my stuff in the garage, but when he gets into it, thats where he takes it. (even though he knows I don't like it) -Y-


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## Irons (May 4, 2008)

Digesting Mercury in Nitric Acid forms Mercuric Nitrate, a very soluble and very toxic salt of Mercury.
If you were to pour that down the drain, the people at the treatment plant would be tracking it back through the sewer system to hand you a cleanup bill that you would never be able to pay off.
If you pour it in a septic system it will contaminate the water table and poison anyone drinking the water from nearby wells.


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## yvonbug (May 4, 2008)

Wow, and thats a serious wow. I didn't know that. Thank you for letting me know.-Y-


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## Lino1406 (May 7, 2008)

Take some of the white stuff, see if it
dissolves in dil HNO3.


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## eagle2 (May 8, 2008)

This is serious POISON. It can be absorbed right through the skin!!


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## Lou (May 8, 2008)

Yes and it will give you renal failure since it accumulates in your kidneys. There are plenty of serious poisons out there. This is just another one. 

Easiest solution: don't make it, or any other mercury salts if you can avoid it.
Next solution: if you have to make it, make sure you make it in a *closed* system so to avoid breathing the fine aerosol produced by dissolving metals (also carried up into your waiting nostrils by a plume of nitrogen oxide gases)
Another solution: if you have to transfer it from one container to another, or filter from one container to another, be sure to be wearing a gas tight mask, heavy butyl rubber gloves (latex is notoriously bad with mercury), and an apron.

If you spill any, get a heap of clean zinc powder. This reduces it to mercury, which amalgamates the zinc into a puttyish material, which you can scoop up and dispose of properly. 

While mercury metal is hardly skin absorbent, that is not true of its salts!


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## eagle2 (May 8, 2008)

Mercury metal (is liquid at room temp) is the least dangerous form to keep. BUT, it also slowly vaporizes if its not bottled. The vapors are poisonous to breathe. 

I think the bottle should also have water or something kept on top of the Mercury.


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## Lino1406 (May 9, 2008)

Does nothing


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## eagle2 (May 9, 2008)

If the bottle is not full, then the air inside will be full of vapor.


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## Lino1406 (May 9, 2008)

However, I use sulfur
for reducing mercury
vapor


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## Irons (May 9, 2008)

Lino1406 said:


> However, I use sulfur
> for reducing mercury
> vapor



You can add Sodium Sulfide to the Mercuric Nitrate solution and the mercury will precipitate out as Mercuric Sulfide, a very insoluble compound.

Solubility of Hg2S = 1x10-47


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## Lou (May 9, 2008)

Ah yes, but if you have a large volume of acidic solution then when you add that sodium sulfide you will produce a ridiculous amount of hydrogen sulfide. H2S is every bit as bad as HCN, it just stinks a whole lot worse but it will kill you just as quick if you inhale the straight stuff for even a few breaths.


*CHECK THE pH FIRST.*

Even at pH of six, it will still make lots of stink. Wear a respirator at the minimum, even if you do it outside and make sure the neighbors aren't home, or are well away. Also should mention that it's quite flammable, treat it like you would propane.


Lou


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## Irons (May 9, 2008)

Just add enough Sodium Sulfide to precipitate the Mercury as a Sulfide. That will limit H2S.

When I took Qualitative Analysis, we used H2S all the time in the procedures. The only down side that I saw was getting used to the smell that would stick to my clothes and going out in public and wondering why people were looking at me askance.


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## eagle2 (May 9, 2008)

Amazingly, H2S is a class 1 poison,and HCN is a class 2 poison.


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## goldsilverpro (May 9, 2008)

When I took qual. anal., in the early '60s, we used thioacetamide instead of H2S, since it was less hazardous. Now, it seems that it's quite hazardous also. And carcinogenic.


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## Platdigger (May 9, 2008)

Hydrogen sulfide can be present naturally in well water. In such cases, ozone is often used for its removal. An alternative method uses a filter with manganese dioxide. Both methods oxidize sulfides to less toxic sulfates. 

From Wikipedia


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## ChucknC (May 9, 2008)

Eagle,
H2S is toxic whether or not it is acidic or alkaline and is harder to neutralize. CN is extremely more toxic as an acidic gas(HCN) but nowhere near as toxic alkaline. It is also much easier to nuetralize. 

The nuetralizing compounds for each are supposed to be available on truck docks in case of a leak of either. The H2S pack is much larger than the CN pack. That and when it is kepy alkaline, CN is normally stable. H2S is, of course, a gas. This makes transportation a little more difficult than a double sealed bag in a cardboard box.

Back to Hg. The only things I do with it are retort and then take to the recycling center on haz-mat amnesty days. Store it in a Tightly sealed jar under a layer of weak NaOH. This will prevent the Hg from evaporating, especially if it's kept cool.

Chuck


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## eagle2 (May 10, 2008)

Chuck, Very good info! I knew there was a proper compound to keep on top of Mercury.

H2S is even more dangerous than HCN, because of fatigue of your sense of smell. Merck index states: Extremely hazardous. Collapse, coma and death from respiratory failure may come within a few seconds after one or two inspirations. Insidious Poison.

GSP, My basic Chemistry book is: College Chemistry, with qual analysis. sixth ed. copyright 1980. I studied and did all the Qual work and it also used Thioacetimide. I still have some of that chemical, but nowadays I stay away from using it. Don`t need to separate Group II from Group III anymore, anyway! 8)


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## Shaul (May 10, 2008)

eagle2;

"Collapse, coma and death from respiratory failure may come within a few seconds after one or two inspirations."

Did you perhaps mean to say 'inhallations' ?

This forum is extremely 'inspirational' but I'd hardly call it poisonous.

Shaul


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## Irons (May 10, 2008)

Platdigger said:


> Hydrogen sulfide can be present naturally in well water. In such cases, ozone is often used for its removal. An alternative method uses a filter with manganese dioxide. Both methods oxidize sulfides to less toxic sulfates.
> 
> From Wikipedia



Hydrogen Peroxide works well too. When digesting Sulfide ores, it's common to get H2S coming off but the addition of some Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the H2S.


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## eagle2 (May 10, 2008)

Shaul, that`s a direct quote. 

Also, my dictionary has inspiration as the 6th definition: The act of drawing in the breathe; inhalation: opposed to expiration. 

The English language is nuts anyway! rightoe! :lol:

Irons. Great; H2O2 seems useful in many many reactions.


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## Irons (May 10, 2008)

A number of years ago I read about someone who was killed when they opened the valve on a cylinder of H2S and just happened to take a breath. 

The smell is usually so bad that people don't stick around long enough to get ill.


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## Lou (May 10, 2008)

I took the time to look through some books and found that HCN is actually worse than H2S, by several times. 

Both are gases Chuck, HCN is just easier to liquefy than H2S.
H2S does deaden smell, but that is a good indication that you are in trouble. I'm fairly certain that HCN also deadens your sense of smell for an obvious reason--it kills the cells in your nasal passages responsible for registering the odour.


I've smelled both of them, and if I had to pick one to smell, it would probably be H2S because if I can still smell it, then I'm not above the hazard limits. One lungful of HCN that's around 300ppm will kill you in less than a minute. 

. 
Soon I will take the time to put a proper discourse on safety terms on this forum.


As for mercury, the vapour pressure at STP is actually quite small (probably several thousand times less than water) but its toxicity threshold is exceeded by its vapour pressure! So not much Hg is needed to poison you.

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/mercury.htm#Pois


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## Shaul (May 11, 2008)

eagle2;

Crazy as it sounds, my dictionary reads the same as yours. :shock: 

You've been vindicated.   


Shaul


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## eagle2 (May 11, 2008)

A good ol` Funk and Wagnalls


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## yvonbug (May 12, 2008)

I'm just letting you guys know that I'm reading all this, and though some of it is beyond me, I've definitely gotten the fear of mercury now. Now I've got to grind it into my husbands brain. Thanks, all of you, we needed that -Y-


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## Absolutsecurity (May 12, 2008)

Your husband should research and build a retort for mercury contaminated gold - the only way I remove mercury from gold is with a mercury retort and I make sure all the joints are sealed and the condenser is properly cooled as well as the end shrouded/cloaked in cheese cloth emersed in ice water. after the retort does its job then you have clean mercury to start over again with out contaminating the enviroment. After the retort you can use conventional wet refining to finish.

We have to make refining safe and the safest way is the best way!!

Glynn


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