Using Mercury to capture gold

[sandhog]

I wanted to know if anyone is using Mercury to capture gold from their solutions. I know this is probably not a common practice here but I have a pretty good quantity of mercury and if I understand it's characteristics correctly it is reusable. Any thoughts or info would be great.

-Bill

 

[lazersteve]

Bill,

It is possible, but I've never done it.

The main reason for me not even considering doing it are the hazards associated with mercury. Mercury (Hg) is a deadly poison. I have read about the process and it involves heating the mercury and gold together. This action produces a very hazardous form of vaporized Hg which is not to be fouled around with. I would strongly advise against the use of Hg in your refining efforts.

Just my friendly advice.

Steve

 

[socorban]

I 2nd that big time, no gold is worth your life, mercury is very dangerous and should not be used by anyone who has not been trained to use it.

Its use is in the process of being cut down due to death rates and hazards involved with using it. even in open areas with ventilation you can still be poisened even killed by it, is a grams or two of gold worth your life?

 

[sandhog]

Nope, not worth my life. The method I was reading about involves extracting the gold from the mercury by using a syringe and putting cotton balls inside of it. Pushing down on the plunger...out comes clean mercury and the gold is trapped in the cotton. I was under the impression that gold and mercury naturally will adhere to each other. Does this sound correct?

Here's a link the site:
http://www.prospectorsparadise.com/html/mercury.html

-Bill

 

[Noxx]

I tried once last year at my school with a Chemist.
But we ended up with something that wasn't gold :roll:

 

[Harold_V]

Nope, not worth my life. The method I was reading about involves extracting the gold from the mercury by using a syringe and putting cotton balls inside of it. Pushing down on the plunger...out comes clean mercury and the gold is trapped in the cotton. I was under the impression that gold and mercury naturally will adhere to each other. Does this sound correct?

The best way to understand this is to consider dental amalgam.

Mercury is a strong solvent of both silver and gold. Gold that is introduced to mercury quickly is coated, but it doesn't stop there. The mercury has the capacity to absorb something like 18% of its volume in gold, so, in a sense, the mercury would hold some of your gold captive, and would do so until it became a solid, much like a filling. You get the mercury back by retorting-----which can be safely done---but can also be deadly. I'm not up to speed on the current legality of retorting mercury, but I did a great deal of it years ago, reclaiming silver from dental amalgam.

For your information----mercury is not used to recover gold from solutions. There are many reagents that will do that without contaminating the gold----so even if it would work (and it probably would), it wouldn't be a smart thing to do.

Harold

 

[jmelson]

I wanted to know if anyone is using Mercury to capture gold from their solutions. I know this is probably not a common practice here but I have a pretty good quantity of mercury and if I understand it's characteristics correctly it is reusable. Any thoughts or info would be great.

-Bill

Hey, we are accustomed to using really dangerous stuff in this art. Cyanide, Aqua Regia and lead are child's play compared to mercury! Don't even think of using it, as the way you get the gold and the mercury to separate is to BOIL the mercury off! I can't imagine a more dangeous approach!

If you still think about it, check out the story of the kids who broke a water-bath thermometer (contains maybe 8 Oz of Hg) in their parent's homes. Two family homes were knocked down by the EPA, and the families were billed something like $2 million EACH for the hazmat cleanup and disposal! You want some guys with bulldozers knocking your house down and then billing you to have it buried somewhere?

Jon

 

[sandhog]

I'm not gonna use it. Thank you all for your concern and warnings. I hope everyone understands that lead and lead vapors are very dangerous also! You will get just as sick if you are poisoned by Lead.

I agree with everyone here, lets all use care when handling these metals and the chemicals.

 

[Anonymous]

There are other chemistry sane ways of separating the two besides boiling off Hg, Jon. I hate all hysteria about Hg, and partial information even worse.

 

[lazersteve]

Welcome to the forum Sue,

I couldn't help but notice your strong feelings about the use of Hg. Please share your knowledge on the subject with the forum. I for one am very interested in what you have to say. I'm always open to new ideas.

Thank you for the post.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Mercury is a metal. Just another one, God made. It exists as a solid, a liquid or a gas.

=============================
Chemistry is about logic not hysteria. Whenever I see hysterical reactions about any substance, I know I'm not talking to logical thinkers or chemists which is fine. Even chemists weren't chemists once upon a time. Doesn't explain the lack of logic on non-chemists' parts.

Getting hysterical over mercury is illogical. That's what environuts have done to chemistry. Makes me see red.

Mercury is a fascinating topic. Would you believe the major giant telescopic mirrors in Palo Alto are composed of pools if absolutely pure, perfectly level, unmoveable Hg? Someone human has to take care of
them, and they don't dress up in hazmat suits when they do so.

P.S.
ALSO, MERCURY DOES NOT DIGEST ANY METAL, Harold. Sorry, but that is a stubborn myth that was disproven about 50 years ago. Scientifically!
Like chicken and the egg---that is an old debate that I see is still alive and kicking.

Strange what survives and what AND who the environuts infect with their infectious hysteria routine.

a man named Sue

 

[Anonymous]

I wanted to know if anyone is using Mercury to capture gold from their solutions. I know this is probably not a common practice here but I have a pretty good quantity of mercury and if I understand it's characteristics correctly it is reusable. Any thoughts or info would be great.

-Bill

Sandhog, your answer is this: adding the metal Mercury to an acidic solution which dissolves the Hg. is adding either a benefit or a contaminant. It depends upon the solution.

Reducing Hg by acid digestion to ITS ionic form in a solution in which there are other metal ions present does not aid the precipitation of the desired prior metal by ionic exchange with the Hg ions.

Hg in its non-dissolved state works best with metals which are also not dissolved state. Gold is just one of them.

Many metals hang out with Gold in the real world. Copper. Iron. Arsenic. Antimony. Lead. Silver, just to name a few.

Spend some time on Google learning to understand what an Ion is, and what a metallic particle is, their similarities and their differences. Then you will be scientifically informed and subjected less to hysteria.

 

[Harold_V]

Mercury is a metal. ALSO, MERCURY DOES NOT DIGEST ANY METAL, Harold.

Perhaps you can offer an explanation of the amalgamation process that excludes the solution of the involved elements.

Sorry, but that is a stubborn myth that was disproven about 50 years ago. Scientifically!

Cites, please! I'm not convinced.

Like chicken and the egg---that is an old debate that I see is still alive and kicking.

Perhaps because it deserves life?

Strange what survives and what AND who the environuts infect with their infectious hysteria routine.

Indeed! And that can also be said about those that refuse to see the light of opposing views.

Harold

 

[sandhog]

Thank you for your input on this "controversial" subject sue. I think my first question was stated wrong. I wanted to reverse electroplate the gold and then dilute and filter this solution. After that I wanted to see if just rolling some mercury on these filters would pick up the gold. Once the mercury is saturated I wanted to try and filter out the gold by putting some cotton in a syringe and squeezing the mercury out the other side. I wanted to use this method because I don't feel comfortable retorting mercury at this time.

P.S.

Don't we use Mercurochrome(mercury) on wounds.
I'm probably already have mercury poisoning anyway I eat about 5 cans of Tuna a week :lol:

 

[sandhog]

Sue,

I think everyone on this forum is very helpful and most importantly concerned about each others safety. So, I just wanted to say that I appreciate your statements about this topic but I also appreciate the concerns for mine and others personal safety.

Thank you all!

-Bill

 

[Anonymous]

P.S.

Don't we use Mercurochrome(mercury) on wounds.
I'm probably already have mercury poisoning anyway I eat about 5 cans of Tuna a week :lol:

====================
As a kid I ALWAYS chose Merrochrome over Merthiolate, because it stung less and my Mom always made faces with the glass wand and the red antiseptic.
====================

Yes, safety is important. I like those who practice responsible safety in their everyday life, and not just on special projects. The only way to get to safety is to get to the information first.

To answer your follow-up question...if you've done your personal homework, you will now know if the impure gold on your filterpaper is metallic gold or ionic gold.

You'll also learn to clean and recharge your mercury by studying this subject.

Sounds like you have the makings of a fine scientific experimental approach, whose outcome will either prove or disprove your hypothesis.

As I said earlier, there is science and there are anecdotal experience sharing, and there are opinions. Some of us guys would never have been permitted to play football if cautious worry wort Mom had her way. :?

A man named Sue

 

[lazersteve]

Sue,

I can see that you are a very passionate person. That is a great trait.

I for one am not in fear or hysterics of any chemical element or compound. I am cautious and aware of what others may do with the obviously toxic substances either intentionally or unintentionally. You are correct in that any substance is safe when handled properly. That is indeed the catch here.

I'm not a tree hugging environmentalist, but I don't want our children to grow up in world more polluted than the one that I had to grow up in. For this reason I will not advise others to use these type of chemicals just because they are readily available as in Sandhog's case with the mercury, or just because they are facinating. I for one know many other more mundane ways to recovery and purify gold without putting my life or his in too much danger. I would much rather help him learn these safer, yet not without danger, methods-- The lesser of two evils if you will.

I don't think that anyone replying to this topic intended on jumping Sandhog about mercury, more than likely we all just wanted him to be aware of the risks associated with mercury if not properly handled. In your example of Pepto-Bismol, try drinking a bottle of liquid mercury and see if you still think metals should not be duely respected. The point is that all chemicals should be handled with the proper precautions for each.

In closing, I for one would like to know the real answer to Sandhog's question. Please reference, explain, or provide a demonstration of the process of using mercury to purify gold. I'm pretty sure that it happens everyday somewhere in the world. I have never had the privilage of knowing what the exact process is. You obviously have a good grasp on Chemistry. I sincerely feel you may have the final answer to the question. Put aside your emotions about the previous posts and please share with us your knowledge on the chemistry of gold and mercury.

Here's one link that I found with very little effort:

http://www.blm.gov/education/going_4_the_gold/mining.html

It is superficial, but explains the overall process.

It would be a great contribution to the forum to have a tutorial for this process.

Great post! Keep up the good work.

Steve

 

[AgAuPtRh]

Sandhog,

There are numerous folks employing Mercury to capture Gold. If I can find it, I have a CD of a guy down in So. Cal. who uses Mercury on Black Sands.

The basic idea is that he captures deposits of Black Sands on a sluice. Uses a magnet to remove the iron deposits then recovers the gold from the left overs using mercury.

He puts his black sand deposits in a rock tumbler--adds a little mercury at a time until it has captured all the Gold it can.

He then uses a syringe type tool to force the mercury through a filter--the gold is inside the syringe.

Most of the people I have seen that work with Mercury use a tumbler of some sort.

Like some have said here it is pretty dangerous. Mercury evaporates at room temperature.

Because there are so many ways to recover precious metals that are easier and safer and purify the metals----(Mercury doesn't purify the gold it captures)----the happy weekend warrior gold hounds are avoiding Mercury.

I'm going to look for the CD I mentioned above. If I find it Sandhog---I'll let you know. Just don't hold your breath because it might have been discarded sometime back when I relocated.

 

[lazersteve]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for the great post. This is just the type of stuff I've been looking for, good information that is to the point!


Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Sue,


In closing, I for one would like to know the real answer to Sandhog's question. Please reference, explain, or provide a demonstration of the process of using mercury to purify gold.

You obviously have a good grasp on Chemistry. I sincerely feel you may have the final answer to the question.

Great post! Keep up the good work.

Steve

Lazer, I DID give the real answer to Sandhog's question. Mercury is never used to purify gold. Gather metallic gold particles yes, purify,never. That's the final answer and same one I've already posted.