Gold Miner Dies Among Chemicals

Here is an article in this mornings paper, New Year's Day 2015. This person paid with his life, probably ignored basic safety precautions. RIP.

kadriver

It just occurred to me that this may have been one our members here. I hope not

Or he watched Youtube too much.

Let's all hope it remains a local story. That's definitely not the kind of publicity we need as refiners. The next thing you know, they'll be further restricting sales of these dangerous chemicals to protect us from ourselves. :roll:

I do feel very sorry for him and his family.

I've added a link to this thread in my Why Can't I Ask a Simple Question and Get a Simple Answer? thread.

Dave

Gold fever runs deep with many people and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially with the chemicals needed to recover and refine gold.
My sympathies are with his family but I hope this serves as a warning to others to study before attempting any form of chemical recoveries!

FrugalRefiner said:

Let's all hope it remains a local story. That's definitely not the kind of publicity we need as refiners. The next thing you know, they'll be further restricting sales of these dangerous chemicals to protect us from ourselves. :roll:

I do feel very sorry for him and his family.

Dave

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I 100% agree,

i feel sorry for his friends & family.

this only enforces the reasons why every experienced member here puts great emphasis on safety & learning the craft well before using chemicals.

this could have been much worse !! please see this as a warning.

for everyone reading this, 1 ounce or 1,000 pounds of gold is not worth your life :!:

nickvc said:

Gold fever runs deep with many people and a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially with the chemicals needed to recover and refine gold.
My sympathies are with his family but I hope this serves as a warning to others to study before attempting any form of chemical recoveries!

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That's key here isn't it? A little knowledge! That's all it takes to set people out on this journey, maybe if they had all the info in front of them at once they would look at it and say "Wow, that's too much work and too dangerous...heck with that", instead they hear about gold being in computers then watch some youtube and go nuts bugging us because they screwed up.

If I would have to guess, I would say that he was using cyanide.

patnor1011 said:

If I would have to guess, I would say that he was using cyanide.

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& probably acid - if they got mixed (by accident or intent) that would certainly be fatal :!:

Kurt

It could be many things, ores contain many toxic elements and some deadly ones if you treat them the wrong way which is why acid recovery is so dangerous unless you know exactly what the make up of your ores are or have the necessary safety equipment and scrubbers to allow treatment.

Until now I do not see any evidence of intoxication. He could have got a heart attack or died of a thousand other reasons. A splashed liquid beside a bottle of acid can still be pure water. Remembers me to one of my hazmat mentors: "Are you sure to know? Are you really sure?" This echoes again whenever I am in an equal situation.

Poisoning very rarely has no observable indicators.
If it had of been cyanide poisoning the hole aria would have been cordoned off and all responders would have been in full hazmat Kit.
I am sure the journalist would have made a big point of describing the scene if that had happened.
Even the slightest hint of a situation get's a full roll out as it can come out of the training fund if it is found to be benign.
The word is "possible" and if we add all the less interesting possibility's as well as the one that would sell news papers it is not such an interesting story.
Man die's of natural causes while undertaking his hobby is not as good for selling new's papers as "Gold Miner Dies Among Chemicals"
Moment of quiet contemplation for a lost sole,I have a feeling the situation was not as simple as the new's paper would like it's readers to believe.

Agree.

Though the first people who arrive there, first responder and police, wouldn't have any or too weak protection. They would explore the situation, probably crash-rescueing him and then call for the hazmat team. The hazmat team in fact would expect the highest danger and run the whole program.

solar_plasma said:

Agree.

Though the first people who arrive there, first responder and police, wouldn't have any or too weak protection. They would explore the situation, probably crash-rescueing him and then call for the hazmat team. The hazmat team in fact would expect the highest danger and run the whole program.

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The way such things are handled over here are a little bit different.
Out rescue service's are not aloud to go out side there particular remits.
There have been several instances where Police have stood by while people drown right in front of them.There explanation was it is against regulations for them to put them self's in danger to rescue the individual.
If there was any sign of a pathogen of any kind the responders should have simply dropped every thing and retired to a safe distance.The fact that they did not leads me to concluded they did not observe any warning indicators.possibly bitter almond odor on breath, bright red venous blood,severe acidosis, seizure
Evacuating a victim with out suitable decontamination would potentially affect to great a number of people to be considered.
Not to upset any Deputies but I do not think they should be available for comment let alone giving an opinion on an extremely specialist subject.
If that had happened during any of the situation's I over see there would have been quite a stink and a reprimand for discussing an active case.
The family have a case for abuse of office.

'Partly it's the same here. The problem with a house is, you see the chemicals first when it's too late. Further most people underestimate the dangers. If they would see the hazmat signs on a damaged transporter, they aren't allowed to start crash-rescueing without the minimal fire man's protection inclusively respiration gear.

On the other side everyone has to try to rescue someone who is drowning, if the risk of getting harmed is reasonable, also the police.

and we are not 100% sure on the size of this town or city, who found the body or the rest of the story.

the printed story was very short. and we all know (pending on our jobs & safety training)
"lives are to be saved only after it is safe for the first responder to do so". but that is not always the case. i have had done some things to help save a person that were not safe, but that person is still alive, it's been 10 years or so, i will never forget it & i am sure i would do it again without regard for my personal safety. things are very different when you are in the middle of the fray.

i do await the update to this story.

From The home office hand book on appropriate situational response.:
First Responders at the Awareness Level are expected to
recognize the presence of hazardous materials, protect
themselves appropriately, call for help, and secure the area.
Several clues can provide assistance in establishing the
presence and identity of a hazardous material. Use your
senses, but with caution. Many hazardous materials have
odors
or produce visible clouds. Even though the presence
of some materials can be detected by smell at very low and
even nontoxic levels, this is not a reliable indicator of potential
toxicity. Other materials can be fatal without any detectable
odor. If an odor is detectable, you may already be too close
and need to retreat.
Your first responsibility is not to become extra work for the people who arrive next.The example I gave about the police not rescuing people are part of an ongoing debate about the health and safety legislation that has taken hold in Europe. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104358/Simon-Burgess-drowned-firemen-refused-wade-3ft-deep-lake-health-safety-rules.html
It has included nurses not lifting fallen elderly as they where over the recommended weight for a person to lift.
I can under stand the caution as I have had some one I tried to pull out of the drink turn and try to climb up me.Nothing I could do but swim away and go back when he had half drowned.
He came back once we got him back on board with one or two inflation's,but some time's you have to guard your own position.

I can attest to the level of caution that emergency services go to.

Once when I was a firefighter we were called to a chemical spill at a local tile factory. A 20 litre drum of hydrochloric acid had dropped off the back of a truck. The spill was in a large open concreted area. It was 3pm on a January day in Melbourne.

We responded with a pumper, tanker and breathing apparatus van. The next suburb responded with a pumper and HAZMAT van. Dressed in splash suits, which are like heavy all-over raincoats but wearing SCBA underneath, two at a time we went in and spread 15kg bags of lime, which the company had on hand, in lines around it to contain the spill. It was 38 degrees in the shade, not that there was any. So any work is tiring as your air supply is quite regulated and you cannot breath heavily when you need. After a few minutes, another two would go in and the first pair would come out and go through the HAZMAT shower, then be scrubbed down in the portable bath, then hosed off again. Standard HAZMAT procedure.

I don't know how many bags of lime were used, but I'll guess about 20. That's ~300kg of what I assume was Ca(OH)₂ for 10-15 l of HCl, percentage unknown.

I was the last to go in, solo. I spread half a dozen bags and shovelled a heap of others' stuff about on direction from the captain nearby. (Officers are immune to chemicals.) While the second last pair out were going through the shower, the driveway drain clogged and they had to turn the water off because it was reaching the line of lime. Exhausted already, I then had to try to unclog a 2 foot deep drain in full splash gear. There was no taking off of even the mask permitted, despite the fact that I was about 20m from the now mostly soaked up or evaporated HCl spill. I couldn't unclog it properly but managed to get a dribble to release. No one could come to assist because they all "been through the shower". Or something. I'm not sure.

Three of us had to wait an extra 10 minutes to be scrubbed. As soon my mask came off and I gasped in the beautifully cool 38 degree outside air, I vomited a little.

I hate to think what would happen if I called today (41°C) to say I dropped half a litre jar of AP in a residential area.

Since most acidic vapors are considered noxious, I doubt he would have died of an immediate exposure. He was found among chemicals used to refine. There are cumulative toxins that could have killed him slowly but at an exceedingly faster rate as the toxins accumulated. Arsenic is naturally occurring. The USGS has pin pointed some areas in Alabama as having abnormally high amounts of arsenic in the pyrites. 4.5 grains of arsenic is considered a lethal dose in an otherwise healthy adult. Hidden dangers in mining and prospecting will undoubtedly keep claiming the uneducated.

i have been looking for updates to this story.