# Skarn: Best Methods for PM/PGM Extraction



## DarkspARCS (Jan 2, 2011)

Greetings!

I coudn't locate much info here on Gold Refiners in the way of working with Skarn, particularly skarn bearing Cinnabar - element mineral of Mercury.

Can Cinnabar be chemicaly processed?

Does it first have to be treated by roasting?

What are the best practices in extracting the metals, particularly the PM/PGM content?

Can copper values be found within Cinnabar?

What can Iron and Lead found within Cinnabar be used for?

It's going to be my mission here to find this out, and document my discoveries. I also am asking the community here to provide any useful information to support the success of not only this post...




But my successful accomplishment of the same here at home!

Right now I'm reading up on a few documents I found online related to skarn and cinnabar. Mercury, although an amalgam of gold, is highly toxic and when worked with (or around) should be respected. That means that at the very least I'll need a respirator bearing chemically rated cartrages. 

Well, lol... it's off to Abatix (safety products distributor) I go!...

More soon... Please, if you are knowledgeable in this regard please share.

Thanks! See ya soon!


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## DarkspARCS (Jan 2, 2011)

Here are a few documents I downloaded related to Skarn:

View attachment CU, AU, AND ZN-PB SKARN.pdf


View attachment Descriptive Model of Fe Skarn Deposits.pdf


View attachment Descriptive Model of Zn-Pb Skarn Deposits.pdf


View attachment FORSTER_Skarn_and_porphyry_deposits_EITH2009.pdf


View attachment Skarn_and_porphyry_deposits.pdf


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 2, 2011)

DarkspARCS,

This is a PM *SCRAP* forum and not a mining forum. For ANY discussion involving ANY mining material or ANYTHING associated with ANY type of mining, in ANY way, fashion, or form, post it in the Prospecting, Mining, Ore Concentrates, and Geochemical category. I will shortly move this thread to that category. From now on, I will delete any mining threads posted in any other category.

Chris


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## DarkspARCS (Jan 2, 2011)

Darn, sorry Chris! My questions were based on chemical extraction techniques but you're right, this is about the ore. Can you possibly move the thread to mining? Thank you for your help!


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## DarkspARCS (Jan 2, 2011)

View attachment skarn gold deposits.pdf


View attachment Skarn Mineralization.pdf


View attachment skarn-hosted copper .pdf


View attachment skarn.pdf


View attachment Skarns.pdf


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## DarkspARCS (Jan 2, 2011)

Here are some related documents about Mercury and Porphyry Deposites:

View attachment Arsenate and Arsenite Sorption on Carbonate Hosted Precious Metals Ore.pdf


View attachment mercurygold.pdf


View attachment ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY OF SKARN AND POLYMETALLIC CARBONATE.pdf


View attachment Geodynamic settings and tectonic model of skarn gold deposits.pdf


These and other documents are what I'm reading now. Hope they help you too!


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## DarkspARCS (Jan 24, 2011)

Dang, the info so far only deals with mercury safety, mercury deposites, mercury inthe environment, Processing mercury... Does anyone know any formulas for working with mercury rich, pm bearing ores?

Granted, mercury safety is the focus while extracting gold, including the necessity of enclosing a working environment to capture evaporated mercury from a pyrometallurgical process.

Should the ore simply just be roasted, washed, soaked in sulfuric to remove irons, washed, placed in hcl 30%, mixed with bleach during 5 hour pocessing, dropped using Sodium Metabisufate (or Sodium Bisulfite), solution checked with stanous, releached until gold free, powders filtered, powders washed, powders filtered, powders dried in filter, spent solution neutralised with Sodium Thiosulphite and discarded, process repeated until ore is depleated, then pm bearing filters placed in smelter or crucible and melted into buttons with borax flux?

I'll need to discover a method for atmospheric mercury containment...


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