Mercury contamination HELP!!

[smcg924]

Hello I’m new to all of this just a little over a month but hitting it hard day and night as I’m trying to make a living prospecting but yet to see any dollars so bear with me please as I am not yet a supportive member,

I was broke when I started and worse off now that I put the last month+ into this but I know it will pay as I’ve seen so much fine Gold in this material but couldn’t seem to process it into pure gold flour or at least somewhere above 50% purity as I could tell it was only around 20-30% observing under magnification.

I just kept looking for new spots to test and gather concentrates as well as nice mineral specimens and a few nuggets but the fine material is sure pay eventually

So last week I finally got the blue bowl to clean my gold only to discover mercury on some rocks I had been soaking which i’m guessing contaminated my whole inventory from around 40 gallons of solid concentrates all the way up to rocks
I’m screening my material super fine mesh probably around 150 I’m guessing

I took pictures to show it because every single time I get to the end of cleanout it’s mainly black sand and these big white balls of material.

I’m scared as hell of whats happening to my heath because I have my hands in this solutions of what I thought was just water when I’m classifying my material without a respirator or gloves unaware that there’s probably mercury all over it

Anyone have some advice or suggestions that would be deeply appreciated I know I’m a dumbass but I really need to get paid should I throw it all out and just go get more and wash all my stuff or try to extractive by burning off the mercury or take my ass to the hospital? am I gonna die soon?

 

[orvi]

Isn´t it lead pellets from buckshot ?
I do not say there is no mercury in your cons, but it seems like bits of oxidized lead to me. Pretty common where I live and pan for gold.

 

[Biom]

Don't do any thing till you get more proper response from other refiners . Don't burn nothing .dealing with mercury is very dengerous if you heated . Personally I don't think you have to worry for time been .just keep it a side .tell you get proper response .and don't heated .

 

[kurtak]

Isn´t it lead pellets from buckshot ?
I do not say there is no mercury in your cons, but it seems like bits of oxidized lead to me. Pretty common where I live and pan for gold.

I agree with Orvi - looks like lead shot to me --- mercury if a liquid

Kurt

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Keep it under water. Are all the balls hard? I agree it looks like you have lead. Mercury is nothing to mess with but as stated it’s mostly when heated or through immense amounts of skin contact.

If it weee me I would out some in a glass vial, be sure the vial has some of your flower gold in it. If your flower gold remains after a few days of contact with the silver balls I’d guess it’s not mercury.

 

[kurtak]

I’m screening my material super fine mesh probably around 150 I’m guessing

your screen is most certainly not 150 mesh - more like 32 mesh (I count 32 holes per inch) 150 mesh would be so fine you would hardly be able to see the holes between the wires

Kurt

 

[orvi]

I agree with Orvi - looks like lead shot to me --- mercury if a liquid

Kurt

I personally seen "saturated" mercury amalgam in one location here, which was heavily mined from medieval times to 19.th century. Gold here is on the boarderline of visibility, majority of flakes under 0.2 mm big. They heavily used mercury to amalgamate the cons either from placer mining or hard rock mining. Lots of mercury get into the stream - and how centuries passed, it traveled in the gravels slowly down the stream - and "catched" all gold flakes it encountered. In the end, droplet of Hg soaked that much flakes, that it formed quite solid round granules, which could be panned here to this day - if you are lucky Sometimes they weigh even more than 0,1g, but majority is much smaller.
But these are bright silver coloured and still shiny. Not oxidized on the surface like pieces in the pan. And white coating resemble lead to me - plentiful anywhere, where humans stepped their foot
When I go panning here, mainly to the bigger streams or rivers, it is quite sad how much toxic junk you can pan out. Not only lead shot, but so many times even lead acid batteries remains.... Broken to the small pieces. Humans can make such a mess...

 

[smcg924]

Thanks everyone, does lead gather other metals like that? Also my screen holes are 16th of an inch according to the photo I took would that not make it 196 per square inch? I really need proper information regarding what mesh I’m running for future reference as I have so little experience in this field. I just know that the balls that are forming are consistently up to 10x the size of the added material. I’d say around 8-10 different runs in the blue bowl with about 4-5 water changes. I hope you are right about the lead as I absolutely have a wild imagination that can swing all the way from from miraculous awe back down to imminent doom as I experienced when zooming into the surface of the rocks I gathered from a new location.
My wishful thinking that they may be a platinum ore as some were mettallic and heavy with tiny bright shiny beads that didn’t resemble anything I have researched about silver or pyrite but as I was looking under magnifying lens on my IPhone (yes iPhone nothing scientific here) I could see several little conglomerates of tiny particles “swimming” around the tub gathering and growing bigger every few minutes and seemed to move quickly or change direction when hit with UV light. Thats when I looked up images of mercury in nature and thought what was on my rocks looked like a match.
Ever since my awareness has been working overtime and originally started as someone here had mentioned respirator importance due to the danger of arsenic and mercury fumes when refining. So I dont know if hearing that planted a seed in my head that the paranoid side of my imagination took over or if I have something to worry about but since I’ve been on the lookout for close to a week I have seen quite a few small rocks and pebbles (approx 1cm) gathered more than usual and reposition after I had stopped scooping or pushing to a pile etc. like something magnetic which I understand is also a simple explanation. Thanks everyone for your input

 

[smcg924]

I’m absolutely terrible about proofreading after I have sent replies lol. Upon looking again looks like 2 holes per 16th inch. My understanding is that would be close to 400 mesh?? I am a dumbass though I’ll be the first to let you know that

 

[orvi]

Thanks everyone, does lead gather other metals like that? Also my screen holes are 16th of an inch according to the photo I took would that not make it 196 per square inch? I really need proper information regarding what mesh I’m running for future reference as I have so little experience in this field. I just know that the balls that are forming are consistently up to 10x the size of the added material. I’d say around 8-10 different runs in the blue bowl with about 4-5 water changes. I hope you are right about the lead as I absolutely have a wild imagination that can swing all the way from from miraculous awe back down to imminent doom as I experienced when zooming into the surface of the rocks I gathered from a new location.
My wishful thinking that they may be a platinum ore as some were mettallic and heavy with tiny bright shiny beads that didn’t resemble anything I have researched about silver or pyrite but as I was looking under magnifying lens on my IPhone (yes iPhone nothing scientific here) I could see several little conglomerates of tiny particles “swimming” around the tub gathering and growing bigger every few minutes and seemed to move quickly or change direction when hit with UV light. Thats when I looked up images of mercury in nature and thought what was on my rocks looked like a match.
Ever since my awareness has been working overtime and originally started as someone here had mentioned respirator importance due to the danger of arsenic and mercury fumes when refining. So I dont know if hearing that planted a seed in my head that the paranoid side of my imagination took over or if I have something to worry about but since I’ve been on the lookout for close to a week I have seen quite a few small rocks and pebbles (approx 1cm) gathered more than usual and reposition after I had stopped scooping or pushing to a pile etc. like something magnetic which I understand is also a simple explanation. Thanks everyone for your input

You can stay calm. Unless you doesn´t heat the cons or worse smelt them, you will be perfectly fine. Even arsenic minerasl like realgar or arsenopyrite are quite stable substances in normal conditions - room temperature, no acids or bases... Lead metal and also lead minerals the same.
Only thing that is just a little concerning is when you have oxidized lead - that white coating on the pieces of metal are oxides and hydroxides of lead. Altough quite insoluble, after drying, the possible dust created is not the best to inhale, to say at least
So I will be maybe rationally cautious, and wear some respirator (I think FFP2 would be greatly sufficient - and everybody has these in hand since COVID emerged) and comfortable rubber gloves - just as precaution, not to soak your hands into heavy metal containing suspensions

 

[smcg924]

You can stay calm. Unless you doesn´t heat the cons or worse smelt them, you will be perfectly fine. Even arsenic minerasl like realgar or arsenopyrite are quite stable substances in normal conditions - room temperature, no acids or bases... Lead metal and also lead minerals the same.
Only thing that is just a little concerning is when you have oxidized lead - that white coating on the pieces of metal are oxides and hydroxides of lead. Altough quite insoluble, after drying, the possible dust created is not the best to inhale, to say at least
So I will be maybe rationally cautious, and wear some respirator (I think FFP2 would be greatly sufficient - and everybody has these in hand since COVID emerged) and comfortable rubber gloves - just as precaution, not to soak your hands into heavy metal containing suspensions

Thanks man that’s good news other than there could be some lingering alkaline material as I had used baking soda to neutralize some AR that I wasn’t sure was completely rinsed out of my waters or tubs from the first week I started. I ph tested the water came back a littlehigh at 8.4

 

[Golddigger76]

I have dredged plenty of gold coated with mercury over the years. It is very stable if you store it in a snuffer bottle filled with water. Yes mercury is poisonous if you breathe fumes, swallow it ect.
It is no different than the chemicals we use for refining. Educate yourself about how to safely deal with it if it is in fact mercury, don't dump it back into the water. You can build or buy a retort to separate your gold and mercury but until you learn how to properly do these things keep it stored under water somewhere safe so it will not be spilled. Not in your house because if spilled in there as your house warms up it will go from a liquid metal to a vapor and if you breathe it your body cannot get rid of it and you can start having medical problems.
It is something that you have to deal with from time to time as a prospector just learn to deal with it responsibly and everything will be fine.

 

[Ag and Au]

If you are concerned about mercury or lead fumes inhalation (which you should be), get a "heavy metal blood test" from your doctor and a "24 hour urine sample" (they will know what that means). I had elevated mercury and arsenic levels and, after extensive drinking water and gold recovery precipitant sample-testing, I concluded it was NOT from my refining hobby. It appears to be from my affinity to sushi, rice and vegetables. How's that for a surprise?

 

[olawlor]

Dental amalgam is about 50% metallic mercury, and has been used around the world for over a century, including inside my mouth, so I wouldn't be concerned at all about occasionally handling tiny dots of metal amalgam.

The ionic form, like after dissolving in acid, is *much* more toxic, but almost all metal salts should be treated as highly toxic.

FYI, a "32 mesh screen" has wires on a 1/32 of an inch spacing.

 

[smcg924]

Dental amalgam is about 50% metallic mercury, and has been used around the world for over a century, including inside my mouth, so I wouldn't be concerned at all about occasionally handling tiny dots of metal amalgam.

The ionic form, like after dissolving in acid, is *much* more toxic, but almost all metal salts should be treated as highly toxic.

FYI, a "32 mesh screen" has wires on a 1/32 of an inch spacing.

Thanks olawlor, The scary thing is I used some acids on these rocks in the beginning and living where I live trying to conserve water I reused a lot of my waters for cleaning rocks and for classifying material which ended up in some of my cons I’m sure it seems to be in everything I had some of the material in my house working on it at night and things like that too so I don’t know but I think I will get that heavy metal test

 

[smcg924]

If you are concerned about mercury or lead fumes inhalation (which you should be), get a "heavy metal blood test" from your doctor and a "24 hour urine sample" (they will know what that means). I had elevated mercury and arsenic levels and, after extensive drinking water and gold recovery precipitant sample-testing, I concluded it was NOT from my refining hobby. It appears to be from my affinity to sushi, rice and vegetables. How's that for a surprise?

Yes I really need to do this

 

[smcg924]

your screen is most certainly not 150 mesh - more like 32 mesh (I count 32 holes per inch) 150 mesh would be so fine you would hardly be able to see the holes between the wires

Kurt

I stand corrected thanks kurtak, by the way my eyes are bad so I already have a hard time seeing the holes

 

[swaminair]

If you are concerned about mercury or lead fumes inhalation (which you should be), get a "heavy metal blood test" from your doctor and a "24 hour urine sample" (they will know what that means). I had elevated mercury and arsenic levels and, after extensive drinking water and gold recovery precipitant sample-testing, I concluded it was NOT from my refining hobby. It appears to be from my affinity to sushi, rice and vegetables. How's that for a surprise?

If concerned about intoxication, learn the Homeopathic drugs, that can help clear the intoxication. I have learned about metal intoxication and drugs that help remove them from cells,so we can make use of some drugs for refiners reference "Arsenicum album, mercurious solublis, plumbum metallicum " are such drugs that help eliminate metal intoxication from our body,especially professional/occupational refiners.
If you haven't crossed this medical system you can read through the drugs in google or entire homeopathy.
If you can't get digesting the method of Homeopathy,you can also try herbals that clear those metals from body.
My little sharing to my fellow members,if you don't believe in Homeopathy no offence leave the message,if you do this may help.
one small note Intoxication arising from rice and other foods usually contain Arsenic to an extent.But not that of refiners level mostly refiners use masks to filter these sort of lead intoxication.
regards
swami nair

 

[smcg924]

If concerned about intoxication, learn the Homeopathic drugs, that can help clear the intoxication. I have learned about metal intoxication and drugs that help remove them from cells,so we can make use of some drugs for refiners reference "Arsenicum album, mercurious solublis, plumbum metallicum " are such drugs that help eliminate metal intoxication from our body,especially professional/occupational refiners.
If you haven't crossed this medical system you can read through the drugs in google or entire homeopathy.
If you can't get digesting the method of Homeopathy,you can also try herbals that clear those metals from body.
My little sharing to my fellow members,if you don't believe in Homeopathy no offence leave the message,if you do this may help.
one small note Intoxication arising from rice and other foods usually contain Arsenic to an extent.But not that of refiners level mostly refiners use masks to filter these sort of lead intoxication.
regards
swami nair

Thanks

If concerned about intoxication, learn the Homeopathic drugs, that can help clear the intoxication. I have learned about metal intoxication and drugs that help remove them from cells,so we can make use of some drugs for refiners reference "Arsenicum album, mercurious solublis, plumbum metallicum " are such drugs that help eliminate metal intoxication from our body,especially professional/occupational refiners.
If you haven't crossed this medical system you can read through the drugs in google or entire homeopathy.
If you can't get digesting the method of Homeopathy,you can also try herbals that clear those metals from body.
My little sharing to my fellow members,if you don't believe in Homeopathy no offence leave the message,if you do this may help.
one small note Intoxication arising from rice and other foods usually contain Arsenic to an extent.But not that of refiners level mostly refiners use masks to filter these sort of lead intoxication.
regards
swami nair

thanks swami, I’m totally checking that out and prefer a natural approach whenever possible

 

[smcg924]

Hello I’m new to all of this just a little over a month but hitting it hard day and night as I’m trying to make a living prospecting but yet to see any dollars so bear with me please as I am not yet a supportive member,

I was broke when I started and worse off now that I put the last month+ into this but I know it will pay as I’ve seen so much fine Gold in this material but couldn’t seem to process it into pure gold flour or at least somewhere above 50% purity as I could tell it was only around 20-30% observing under magnification.

I just kept looking for new spots to test and gather concentrates as well as nice mineral specimens and a few nuggets but the fine material is sure pay eventually

So last week I finally got the blue bowl to clean my gold only to discover mercury on some rocks I had been soaking which i’m guessing contaminated my whole inventory from around 40 gallons of solid concentrates all the way up to rocks
I’m screening my material super fine mesh probably around 150 I’m guessing
View attachment 51947View attachment 51948
I took pictures to show it because every single time I get to the end of cleanout it’s mainly black sand and these big white balls of material.

I’m scared as hell of whats happening to my heath because I have my hands in this solutions of what I thought was just water when I’m classifying my material without a respirator or gloves unaware that there’s probably mercury all over it

Anyone have some advice or suggestions that would be deeply appreciated I know I’m a dumbass but I really need to get paid should I throw it all out and just go get more and wash all my stuff or try to extractive by burning off the mercury or take my ass to the hospital? am I gonna die soon?

Update!! This is embarrassing Told y’all I’m a dumbass and hopefully this may explain my initial fear of the “white balls” that kept growing in my blue bowl cleanout. Could it be Borax? I at one point dumped quite a bit into my water solutions that passed through all or at least most of my material