Mercury Use and Recovering Gold from Amalgam information and questions

20 years teaching chemistry, I'm pretty well read on such things. Again alarmist claptrap.

Nitrogen tri iodide being my favorite

Nitric is cheap and there is no problem buying big bottles of it. Yes you need to give your ID. It boils copper into solution in seconds. It turns Mercury into gas leaving the gold if it was gold/mercury amalgam but the mercury is gone. Dangerous stuff! If you don't understand what your doing don't use it.

https://books.google.com.au/books?i...rce=bl&ots=ZO-UQIIN6B&sig=ACfU3U0nBhhXtJdFSVo

Old timers potato retort.

Oh Dear, as I said its nasty stuff is Nitric Acid but most of the above posts are a bit wide of the mark regards the actual chemical reactions / equations and end products. I
have a couple of books here that detail the general process. ill try and post some of the content of these books.

Yeah your right about the copper this guy does it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsnAM2jeFuM

Hi Jethro, g'day others

As stated - extremely dangerous in many many ways. Every metal in salt (acid) form is toxic. Even gold. Many precautions, proper workspace, fume hood, PPE etc.. really, no one should be playing with it, especially not a tato-tort.

Don't play with amalgam and mercury! Seek a proffessional! Do not attempt any of below - a lot of information is intentionally missing- I am not responsible if you attempt to throw acids and amalgam together. This is information about the science and safety, not the process.-
If you did ( or have) however, keep everything the amalgam touches, contained, and seperate from non-hg material. Store all the items you may have used, into an air tight container or ziplock bag, with a small amount of sulfur in bottom to soak up any possible vapours from natural heat. It will be contaminated forever, but can be reused for further amalgam works. Keep a confined workspace. Don't play with it any more, seek advice at gold meets.

Disposal-
Amalgam / Hg should always be contained within a larger vessel as you work- in case of spills and to stop it going everywhere on the floor. Google your closest heavy metal disposal recyclers to find where to dispose contaminated items. Last case scenario is bag and bin moist - still really not reccomended at all, dont be an enviro fiend!

An understanding-
As for the science, i'll keep it brief so no one can repeat the process from this text.a lot is missing. As stated, nitric and sulfuric can be used. Both very, very dangerous to work with, especially the sulfuric, being extremely corrosive to our skin/body/eyes.

Both will dissolve the Hg from the amalgam, leaving the gold behind as a brown or grey-black powder. Gold decanted, filtered, washed and is smelted.

Hg recovery
The mercury now left in either acid, must be recovered by reactive metal, adding iron or aluminium. The mercury will cement or drop out. Mercury will not dissolve / amalgamate either of these two metals, so adding excess is never an issue and will recover 98% - 99% or so. Mercury is to be disposed to correct locations of heavy waste disposal- or stored in vessel, within another vessel, containing sulfur again for any spills / leaked vapours.

(Copper can be used, but aluminium and iron is cheaper, and you wont need to recover further metals after the drop. However if copper is somehow already in the solution, it will drop mecury+copper at the same time (messy/dirty mercury) when you add Al or Iron. If copper is in solution.. just keep adding more copper.)

--
Note to admins - Hello! If it's too much - delete. No one has enough info there to copy process, but totally understand as the 'been there done that' issues prior It's more a safety note, than an instructional note. Only those who know the safety, will understand the text. I have tripple checked, but see how it goes.

While I agree stay away from using acids and yep I sure wouldn't recommend a potato retort, Mercury and Amalgam if handled with due care and common sense and with a properly constructed retort poses no danger to yourself or the environment.
You don't need a professional, you don't need a degree in chemistry, you need common sense, you need to take care and you need a bit of PPE.

A well constructed retort is the key to reclaiming your Mercury. I have the same kg of mercury I've had for years and no doubt will for many years to come.

As for disposing of Mercury, yes if you no longer want it, but the stuff is too damn hard to come by.

Heya madtuna! Yep, didnt mention the retort use at all, and just hinting to tell those who may be attempting it, but have no clue, to stop immediately and seek (sorry i should have said experienced help, not professional) help to learn the safety and process correctly. Or spend a heck of a lot of time on groups learning all the safety and science of whats happening, before even thinking of purchasing a retort.

Just noticed this is a new member post so most likely short lived anyway

Yeah....remember when we used to roll it around in our palm during science lessons in high school? Maybe that wasn't a really bright idea back then....but damn it was fun!

If the OP is still viewing this thread or anyone else remember to
always add acid to water, not the other way round, and always
wear rubber gloves when handling mercury or acids. Well ventilated
work area is the safest work space.

RockRat said:

If the OP is still viewing this thread or anyone else remember to
always add acid to water, not the other way round, and always
wear rubber gloves when handling mercury or acids. Well ventilated
work area is the safest work space.

Click to expand...

When I was at science lesson at school eons ago, we used to put mercury in the palm of out hands and watch it roll around.

"When I was at science lesson at school eons ago, we used to put mercury in the palm of out hands and watch it roll around. "

Same here. Liquid silver. Our school had loads of it.
Mind you those were the days we wrapped asbestos around the fuel intake on the old holden to stop vaporizing the fuel.
Maybe not the best idea thinking about it now. Things do change.

HH

Heard of the term, MAD AS A HATTER.
Yes, we know a lot more now, and can protect ourselves.
The Hatters in the 17th-18th century came down with a lot of
ills from using mercurous nitrate to cure felt for hat making. Working in confined areas
and breathing in the fumes. Camels piss was used to remove hair from
furry critters to make the hats. :awful:



https://corrosion-doctors.org/Elements-Toxic/Mercury-mad-hatter.htm

RockRat said:

Heard of the term, MAD AS A HATTER.
Yes, we know a lot more now, and can protect ourselves.
The Hatters in the 17th-18th century came down with a lot of
ills from using mercurous nitrate to cure felt for hat making. Working in confined areas
and breathing in the fumes. Camels piss was used to remove hair from
furry critters to make the hats. :awful:



https://corrosion-doctors.org/Elements-Toxic/Mercury-mad-hatter.htm

Click to expand...

And dog turds were used to tan leather during the industrial revolution, fermented dog turd was used to soak the hides before scraping to remove any tissue, fats and hair.

Glad we dont do that now, although my shoes have been known to attract the occasional turd. oop:

I would look at Cody's Lab on Youtube - He does various experiments & explains the risk of mercury in pure form. This includes it being in his mouth with minimal danger :lol:
Actually Youtube pulled that video down a while ago now I had a look for the link (Did anyone else see it?). He was just making a fair point that as long it was not consumed things were pretty safe. There is a good reason why everyone who played with it as a kid are still healthy many years later.

I cant comment on acids but as everyone else has said the fumes are very dangerous to you and the environment.

PS: please don't put it in your mouth if you were planning too.

Goldpin Prospecting said:

I would look at Cody's Lab on Youtube - He does various experiments & explains the risk of mercury in pure form. This includes it being in his mouth with minimal danger :lol:
Actually Youtube pulled that video down a while ago now I had a look for the link (Did anyone else see it?). He was just making a fair point that as long it was not consumed things were pretty safe. There is a good reason why everyone who played with it as a kid are still healthy many years later.

I cant comment on acids but as everyone else has said the fumes are very dangerous to you and the environment.

PS: please don't put it in your mouth if you were planning too.

Click to expand...

Something that is skipped over in that video he made, was that he is talking about clean elemental mercury. Quite different to what we may pan out a creek or even find in a thermostat. So yes, elemental mercury is safe, but not quite so when its certain amalgamates or has impurities.

In the safety world of using retorts, they should still be used within a fume hood as any small leaking vapours, will condense and drop somewhere within the room. (As cody explains in mercury spill/cleanup vid). Outdoors is just the next closest option- so those vapours don't stay inside your house/shed, revapourising and condensing forever. Only way to know if you had pure clean mercury, would be buying lab grade.

But yes, certainly it has safer uses like dental amalgams, or mercurochrome

And for shits and giggles

Broken calibration thermometer - opps catch the silver stuff in ones hands. Why did my wedding ring turn silver.. All good, back to gold after a week...

Restricted hazardous chemicals/dangerous goods use or discussion isn't endorsed by Forum Management. Individuals using any hazardous chemicals/dangerous goods do so at their own risk/s and need to ensure their own legislative compliance.

Click to expand...

Well I made the mistake of putting all my pan tailings in some mercury hearing it was a good idea. Not! Now looking at how to remove it and looks like I'll lose some brain cells in the process and I cant afford that!

Anyone in the Warwick Qld currently use any safe way of removing the mercury?

I've included some photos of some of the gold stuff I found.

You will need to burn off the Mercury to recover the gold. Mercury can be pretty dangerous stuff so be careful around it. Probably the safest way is to use a retort, this allows you to recover the mercury rather than burn it off to the atmosphere.

https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/mercury-retorting