mercury

[geonorts]

I thought this warranted its own thread,
I would like to bring up the M word (mercury) if Cyanide can be safely used why does everyone dislike mercury so much I have seen it safely used and every milligram recovered from correct use in Au recovery. I don't see how it could possibly be worse than cyanide and yes the C word also scares me. That brings me to my next question what will mercury amalgamate with I know Au and I assume Ag, I know it reacts with Al to form AlO, from what I have seen it won't with Cu, but what about; Sn, Zn, Fe, Pb?

 

[goldsilverpro]

This is basically a PM scrap forum. In order to truly profit, dollarwise, from processing gold plated scrap, cyanide is indispensable, in my opinion. There is nothing that works as well or even comes close. I would never set up a refinery for doing E-scrap without it. On things like pins and fingers, why dissolve the base metals and generate all that waste, when you can simply strip the gold and have it the next day? Also, unlike heavy metal wastes, you can destroy the cyanide. I used cyanide daily, in large quantities, for at least 20 years, and I know how to use it safely. The main safety rules are, you don't get it in your mouth, you keep it away from acids, and you don't pollute the environment. There are several other rules to consider, which I've covered several times on this forum.

Please note that, in the above, I am speaking as a refining professional and not as a hobbyist. Cyanide is not for the novice. It requires a lot of understanding, knowledge, and proper equipment in order to use it efficiently and safely.

On the other hand, I know of NO PM scrap applications where mercury would be the method of choice - zero. I guarantee you, if the use of mercury were as good or better than other known methods, every PM scrap refiner would be using it. However, in my 45 years of doing this, I have never heard of it being used in this industry - not once.

Mercury is used by miners and, in this respect, it can have its advantages. We have some miners on the forum and I would welcome mercury being discussed intelligently, for their sakes. If you want you discuss it, however, please confine your discussion to the Prospecting, Mining, Ore Concentrates, & Geochemical category ONLY! That is the only category available for mining discussions - all others are for scrap. I don't want anyone coming to the false conclusion that mercury is a viable alternative for processing scrap - ever!

This thread has been locked.

Chris