twangin4u said:
Apologies..
The pictures above came from this stuff. It was in a coffee can that my grandpa had saved... he saved it for a reason I'm sure. It had a little silver in it. I'm Just curious what it is
Although I could certainly be wrong - the pics of the ore in that post look an awful lot like "cinnabar" to me
Cinnabar is the ore that contains mercury & mined for the mercury in it
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Cinnabar - Wikipedia
Like any ore - cinnabar can contain other metals other then the "target" metal the ore is being mined for (the target metal in the case of cinnabar being mercury) the other metals in the ore are therefor "by products" of the target metal
Therefore - cinnabar can contain gold &/or silver (as well as other metals)
Here is an article about silver
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Silver: A native element, mineral, alloy, and byproduct.
About half way down on that article it says ---------
Silver also forms a natural alloy with mercury. This silver amalgam is sometimes found in the oxidation zones of silver deposits and is occasionally associated with
cinnabar.
Here is an article about mercury being a by product of gold mining
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https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/web/pdf/id4-merc.pdf
Again - in this article it talks about cinnabar ------------
Recovering mercury from gold ore is shown in Exhibit 3, and is similar to recovery from cinnabar ore. If the
gold ore is a sulfide ore, it is typically sent to a roasting step prior to leaching. This roasting operation is similar to primary mercury ore roasting, in that the mercury and sulfide are both volatilized.
The point I am making is that IF (the BIG IF) that ore is cinnabar (which it looks like to me) --- when you did your smelt on that ore it would have vaporized the mercury which you likely then breathed in --- then IF (the BIG IF again) there was also silver (&/or gold) in the cinnabar the lead in the smelt would have collected that - which would result in the button in your cupel
Therefor - because you smelted that ore - you should get tested for mercury in your body as a result of "possibly" breathing mercury vapor during the smelting
Also - if you still have more of that ore - before smelting more of it - I would put some of it in a retort & retort it to see if it produces mercury
For what it is worth - I spent 2 years living on 500 acers in Guerneville California (I was there to log red wood) that was one of the largest cinnabar mines the the U.S. --- The floor of the old retort/furnace room was literally covered with mercury- you could scoop up the inch thick layer of dirt off the floor - pan the dirt off & end up with a "large" bead of mercury in you pan
Kurt