Mercury!!!

SO! your out dredging and at the end of the day you have 3.9g of gold.You have some with little bits of mercury on them.What would you do?

Welcome to dredging!If you dont keep it separate from your clean gold you will have about a  4.5 gram amalgam!!!I am not going to offer advice on removing it,be careful

 

last trip i had ,hit a lot of mercury.it was floured and was all thru my cons.when i pulled it all together i had a lot more than i thought .it got on the whole run.at least it was really loaded.definantly keep it separate. and use caution when dealling with it.don't wan't to loose your hair and teeth.

   So thats whats causing that!!!I miss them though.........my hair and teeth!!!

last trip i had ,hit a lot of mercury.it was floured and was all thru my cons.when i pulled it all together i had a lot more than i thought .it got on the whole run.at least it was really loaded.definantly keep it separate. and use caution when dealling with it.don't wan't to loose your hair and teeth.

That's right, be very careful with this stuff.  To remove mercury from gold, put it in a metal pan and set it over a heated surface (hot plate, Coleman stove, campfire)...... OUTSIDE!  Make sure the wind is blowing away from you, and please make sure no one else is around when you do this. The fumes from mercury are very toxic and you will die instantly if you inhale them. Mercury will begin to "cook off" at room temperature and the fumes can be breathed in before you ever put it on the heating source, this is why the others are very reluctant to share this information with you. Mercury is very deadly stuff to fool with if you don't know what you are doing. It's best to ask around and find someone who does this sort of thing all the time, and ask if they will clean your gold for you.

You will need to wear rubber gloves when handling any of the concentrates, mercury will absorb through your skin.

Also, if you do decide and cook off the mercury yourself,  any metal pan you use, you can never use it to eat out of. Once it is used for mercury, it is ruined as an eating utensil and it must remain as a mercury removal pan for as long as you own it. If you ever decide to use something else, destroy that pan, and make sure no one else ever gets a hold of it to use for cooking.  Like Strickman says....  "use common sense".  Mercury is no joke!


Update:  Jog,  I just read a previous post of yours where you had removed the mercury by going over it with a torch,  I don't recommend this!  Even with a fan blowing behind you, you are still sitting way too close to the mercury fumes. You better get a good distance from these fumes, all it takes is for that fan to tip, or a stronger gust of wind to blow back on you at the wrong moment of you taking a breath, and it will be your last. Get some distance!

   The mercury will coat the coleman stove and you will contaminate it forever. What ever you do always have DESIGNATED MERCURY PROCESSING EQUIPMENT that is sealed up and not used for anything else. I've never had trouble but I can point to a case,Butler Labs in Costa Mesa, where a gent with 30+ years of chemistry died almost instantly when the fume hood stopped for a second. Or the Idjet at Union Flats on the Yuba who decided to burn off some mercury in his rv whilst the wifey and kids slept---ALL DEAD--- now that sure sucked bigtime the next morning!! Use caution and stay upwind, no fun being mad as a hatter with green teeth,no fingernails  and no st. pattys day parade to show them off-John

Just wash it with some Nitric Acid and be done with it!   

  same rules apply-fumaric mercury ---tons a au 2 u 2-John 

Lades and gentlemen:  This business of Mercury is a bit overdone.  As a child we played with mercury plating copper pennies.

During the war we adjusted and calibrated our Nordan bombsights with open pools of mercury in a 'completely closed' Quonset hut @ about 130*  F.  We shot at flies with hypodermic syringes full of mercury.

In short, there were pools and globules of mercury everywhere, the air prob was 'saturated' with mercury fumes, yet 'none' of us ever came down with the horriblies that are publically proclaimed today.

Later, I owned a Mercury mine and we had 4 large home made distillation retorts.  I still have 10# of Mercury on my desk as a paperweight.  The container is often opened so that visitors can see what Mercury actually looks like.

Given this short resume' of exposure to Mercury in all forms, with no known bad effects to any of us, makes me wonder why such a fuss is made over a broken Thermometer??  A max of one drop?

To add to the horrors, we had open buckets of Carbon tetrachloride  everywhere that we used to wash the bombsight parts with.  The air was saturated with the fumes of this and Mercury.

Like even the 'gasoline' that you use for your gold recovery equipment, yes they can be dangerous,  but I believe that this danger is greatly over emphasized.  

Just read any old prospectors handbook on retorting of Mercury and follow their
instructions.  

The same goes for Cyanide.  As an assayer I was careless and was hit with cyanide poisoning, and later, Arsenic poisoning.  Obviously I survived, but am now sensitized to Cyanide, I can smell an open drum of it up to 50 meters.  A sickly sweet odor for me.  I have won a few bets this way he he he

Incidentally, for those that may get careless, Massive doses of Vit 'C' will pull out the heavy metals from your system, including  Mercury.  Prob the best Chelating agent known, but not normally utilized.  I used this to eliminate the Arsenic poisoning.

The gold ore that we were processing, ran 33% As, raised hell with my carbon columns and zinc recovery system.

Don Jose de La Mancha

p.s.  Do what is known as DD,  'due diligence' and research, don't take my, or another's word.  Research.

p.p.s. will post pictures of the retort system that we had if wished.

For experienced folks mercury is no problem but for newbies it's easy to do a dumb thing. I've done the same with mercury as a kid, and whether we know it or not, we DID pay a price for our ignorance. I'd hate like LL to read about some guys death from following ill advised advice on my conscience. I used TONS of cyanide in the electroplating field and that all encompassing almond taste was lived with for years BUT it don't make it right either. This ol' ride called life has only 1 ticket--1 way--and a little ignorance can cut it tooooo short-- caution--common sense to ya all-John

p.p.s. will post pictures of the retort system that we had if wished.

i would like to see the pictures of the retort.

i have one but it only handles about 5 lbs at a time(kinda small lol)

Good evening Beaks, You would ask  sheesh:  I have just spent 2 hrs going through boxes of old pictures without success.  I did find three of the working area, but you can't see the retorts.  

They were constructed of 3 10" x 10 ft. iron pipes with a door on the feed side, and a 45*  elbow on the exit side which almost dipped into the recovery tank. The final connection was with canvas which when wet was impermeable. yet did not let any water return to the retort tubes.  In effect they were just giant mercury retorts to collect Mercury from the ore which was walnut sized.      

We had  a local gal handle them.  She was extremely careful and efficient.  
  
Somewhere I have posted a story of sleeping by the retorts one night  snicker.  

Don Jose de La Mancha

p.s  If I can find the other photos tomorrow, I will post them  

p.p.s. My apologies to those that first viewed the pictures.  For some reason they wouldn't size correctly. 


                                                                                                                                                      

my pipe runs from the iron cooking pot through an icewater bath and into the collector(dont have to worry about sucking water)

r.d.t.-i remember reading the story of you sleeping by the retorts    oink oink!

You got my buddy strickman.  he he he  Gracias.


Don Jose de La Mancha   

I ALWAYS wrap the discharge end of the retort thats underwater with a fine cotton cloth as the retort BUBBLES and the rising air also carries mercury vapors. Just a little extra caution to a many 100's of years old process. tons a au 2 u2 -John   

 

When I was 11 years old I had 10 Mercury Amalgam filling put in my face.

I'm 52 now and shake like a leaf in a force 9 Gail when in uncomfortable surrounding. Other times I am fine.

Is it the Mercury or something else.

I have handled it, Played with it and until someone tells me other wise I think I am still alive.

If Mercury is so EVAL why do they put it in all the Fluorescent Light bulbs that replace the Incandescent type to save energy?

Have you ever broken a Florence type bulb in your home?

If so according to the Hype your suppose to Bulldoze the home down, Decontaminate the Soil and Rebuild.

Did you Know that a Injection of Mercury was the prescribed cure for Syphilis back in the 1800's?

People lived through it and lived on. Mind you in a man certain glands no longer worked.

When you was a kid and scraped your knee, did you mother ever put mecuricrome on it? Salts of Mercury!

What is mercuricome? - Yahoo! Answers


Did you Know the until recently almost all Vaccines you received had Mercury in it used as a Preservative?


Just like Co2 is the Scurage of the Earth, It has a bum wrap.

Did you know CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.0383% of the atmosphere That feeds the Plants supplying the Oxygen you breath.

Excellent post my friend home fires.

Don Jose de La Mancha

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging.  We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally.  We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury.  Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek.  Still have some of it.  But most of it pops sold it off to various people.  

Hi my long time friend Hoser john:  I suggest that you do NOT immerse the exit of your retort in the water. Under certain conditions the retort can suck water back into the system, then you have a minature atomic bomb on your hnds. 

Please check on this as I want to have you as a friend for a long time to come.

Don Jose de La Mancha

Hi montgomery  an excellent post  let's go back there to see if any more remains hehhe

When I was a kiddie i lived in Grass Valley, Calif.  Just below the home on E. Main st, was the creek from the Idaho Maryland mine.  It was milky from the discharge of the mine and globules of Mercury and amalgam were every where, most carrying some gold as they had escaped fom the Stamps.  I hate to think of the free Cyanide that may have been in there, but I lived to bug you in here

I have often wondered if it would pay to go back and work that creek bed?.

Don Jose de La Mancha

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging.  We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally.  We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury.  Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek.  Still have some of it.  But most of it pops sold it off to various people. 

                thats a lot!was this in virginia?

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging.  We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally.  We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury.  Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek.  Still have some of it.  But most of it pops sold it off to various people. 

                thats a lot!was this in virginia?

Good ol' homestate of GA. 

Thanks for the heads up Don---never had a problem yet--but---why chance it?? When in Grass Valley did ya get into gold as a kid?? Can't think of a better place than SF Yuba-purdone crossing to Edwards--righteous--simply righteous river of gold river crossing!!  tons a au 2 u 2 -John   

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging.  We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally.  We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury.  Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek.  Still have some of it.  But most of it pops sold it off to various people. 

                thats a lot!was this in virginia?

     i would love to hit that creek!

Well back when I was a teenager with my dad out dredging.  We found the remains of an old stamp mill somewhat accicentally.  We had found over 6 ounces of gold in one day but all of it was covered in Mercury.  Over the course of the next few weeks we found over 300 pounds of that stuff, and other pockets weighing anywhere from 10-15 pounds during the rest of the years dredging this creek.  Still have some of it.  But most of it pops sold it off to various people. 

                thats a lot!was this in virginia?

     i would love to hit that creek!

Hell I am trying to get back there one day.  There is a lot more there I am sure of it.

Hopefully my new 4" dredge will be ready this week, so if anyone needs/wants help with that creek let me know!
We'll go clean it out!

Hopefully my new 4" dredge will be ready this week, so if anyone needs/wants help with that creek let me know!
We'll go clean it out!

If only it was that easy!!Trust me you are going to want a 5 or 6 next!

One of the comments in this topic was "Danger of Mercury way overstated".  In the early sixties my Uncle's owned a mine in Fallon, Nevada.  They were going to corner the quicksilver market, brought home incredible amounts of it and stored it underneath their house in Central California.  Withing two years, my uncle died of Melanoma, 8 months later my aunt died of Melanoma, both of my cousins have had testicular cancer.

I am in gold country and am fortunate I have a couple of old timers that help me out.  Don't listen to idiots who say the dangers of mercury are overstated.

One of the comments in this topic was "Danger of Mercury way overstated".  In the early sixties my Uncle's owned a mine in Fallon, Nevada.  They were going to corner the quicksilver market, brought home incredible amounts of it and stored it underneath their house in Central California.  Withing two years, my uncle died of Melanoma, 8 months later my aunt died of Melanoma, both of my cousins have had testicular cancer.

I am in gold country and am fortunate I have a couple of old timers that help me out.  Don't listen to idiots who say the dangers of mercury are overstated.

That's a New One!

Mercury linked to Cancer!

HI:  To a point you are correct Bucky boy.  I was 17 and was exposed daily to saturated Mercury and Carbon tetrachloride air and physical contact for months.  The Ctet is now  considered as very carcinogenic.  Yet here I am at 86 and still kicking.   I can also guarantee that many others in here in their 70's also played with raw Mercury, coating pennies etc and just playing with it.

Mercury's effect,  if it is in a certain chemical state, generally not raw Mercury, is primarily in your brain.  In it's metallic state it is not in itself normally cancerous / carcinogenic. But then everything today is considered carcinogenic, including, horrors  SEX! sigh.   

Mercury's primary effect lies in children, they are extremely susceptible to many chemical effects. 

I can only guess that one of the myriads of other factors effected the family.  Nevada sun for the parents, diet or uncertain habits for the sons shall we say canned soft drinks in aluminum cans exposed to Nevada's summer climate...

I rate equate it to Global Warning.  hmmmm


Don Jose de La Mancha

Regarding water receptacle at discharge end of retort. As long as discharge pipe runs downhill from retort on a good angle, and volume of water in receptacle only ever equals half the volume of the pipe to retort ( just half of the pipe volume not not not including retort ) it cannot be sucked back into retort as it cools, as there is not enough water to reach it. I used this method with no incidents.
However giving advice on such volatile substances to some of the walking accidents that don't bother to fully read and research things worries me. Every year people use a propane gas stove in an unventilated area and expire, walk into a mine and get gassed or walk just out of sight of their car and get hopelessly lost needing to be found and rescued. Don't know why these fools don't just stick to their usual occupations in gov'ment and politics and leave mining the LL alone.

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving  the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury??? 

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving  the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury??? 

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

LOL!



Were all going to die from the Fluorescent Bulbs there selling us too.

Hmmmmmm. I apreciate the cooler heads in the thread. Especially since I usually don't like to tell some one they're full of malarky "in public". Sometimes I guess I'm just too sensitive.

In any case, while in grade school, as mentioned, I coated dimes and pennies with mercury and carried the coins around in my pockets until I spent them. (Usually for a couple of hours.)
Then, we only got rid of the clothes when they were too ragged to wear any longer.

When I was about 16, I accidently broke a thermometer and after reintegrating all of the thousands of tiny beads into a single ball, I put it ("YIKES") in my mouth so I wouldn't lose it. It felt cool rolling it around under my tongue.

And then, (I really become a bad boy) I came to CA and got interested in prospecting. (With a 4 year hiatus for the military,) after my discharge, I continued with my wild ways. Course it got worse when I began dredging and finding gold with (gasp!) MERCURY on it. Hey, you couldn't sell or even possess it. It could only be sold to the Gov. So, what to do, what to do?? Ahhh, Mr. Hogel would know. So I went to the Gov. Assayers office and asked how to get mercury off of gold. He said, "Using nitric acid is the easiest way". So, I went to the drug store and bought a quart of nitric acid.

After disolving  the mercury in the acid, I poured the acid (with mercury in suspension,) into another glass, then dropped a bead of zinc into the acid, then stood there watching, totally entranced, while the acid disolved the zinc and the mercury started appearing on the "shrinking" bead of zinc. I only took my eyes off of it for a moment while I learned that; if you breath the fumes, you're going to cough.............A LOT!!

I believe I handled at least 150 pounds of mercury over the years, both in recovery and collecting gold.

Now, since I'll turn 75 this January, at what age do you think I might start suffering the effects of my death defying tactics while handling mercury??? 

(Incidently, I WAS cautious to a degree. I never did any of my processing inside.)

Eagle

Yep,I use the Nitric too......and I can tell ya what vaporized Merc smells like      Burnt almonds!I know I know,but even being cautious do it enough,....and you go blind...oops different ailment,sorry!I did get scared a couple years ago,started suffering extreme joint pain(still have it)and my hair did fall out,but that was when I was 24,so I got all the Heavy metals testing.........nothing notta....so still dont know what the joint pain is from but Merc hasnt got me yet!

The reason they made it manditory that we switch to fluorescent lights. You'll go blind, if the mercury doesn't kill you first. Population reduction??

Yeah, right, I still have a full head of hair. And, if you look real close, some of it is still dark.

Eagle

Quite a discussion here--most interesting. Thanks to all,

Lanny

I love this thread. Does anyone remember the genius who had the bright idea of putting mercury into children's shoes with a mercury switch and a light? I remember when it seemed that all of the kids in town wore those darn shoes. I wonder how much mercury ended up in our landfills. 

Ed T 

I wonder how much mercury ended up in our landfills.

Frankly, I wonder if it really matters. Cinnabar (mercury ore) occurs throughout the world. There have even been stories of finds in the U.S. where pure mercury was running down the side of a vein when the sun/rock temperature was hot enough to vaporize the mercury in the ore. I believe the explanation was; "The intense heat of the sun on the cinnabar caused the mercury to vaporize. As the vapor leaves the ore body proper, it immediately cools and condenses back, but into a pure state i.e.; liquid mercury.

Now surely, since this has been occurring over the past several millions of years, don't you think the planet Earth should be in its "Death Throws".

Hmmm, come to think of it, with all that's going on worldwide, maybe it is.

Eagle...........................(I'd rather joke than cry:-)

Hi guys, Great thread this one & I would have to say that most people who play with finding gold will also at some stage play with mercury. I wont add any more to the warnings that have already been gone over here. But on a lighter & good humour note.....Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp (bloody hell thats a handful) you say you are now 86 tears of age & still fighting fit & dangerous after all your exposer to mercury & other nasties through out your life.....didnt some one say in an earlier post on here that mercury was used as a preserative......... You are doing very well & thank you for your comments.
I have myself come across mercury coated gold & amalgam lost in the streams from old processing plants & in abandond berdans. I think most dredgers will come across this at some stage.

 

I cleaned out 1.5 oz's of amalgam from this berdan




JW 

JW--you've got me on this one--what's a berdan?

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Lanny, I'm jumping in on the question you asked JW here, but he might be busy and I can't stand seeing it going unanswered, LOL.
A Berdan panner is a cast iron or steel? rotating bowl that has water running into it and usually a "shoe" or adjustable for clearance, grinding iron matching the internal profile of the Berdan. They were used here in hard rock operations in conjunction with a stamping battery.
The battery had mercury tables, and a trap or several riffles, corduroy etc, after the mercury coated copper plates, which caught a mixture of amalgam and incompletely crushed ore, usually sulphides containing au, as well floured mercury and partially amalgamated gold etc. All of this, and any slime from stamper box etc was processed in the Berdan. The processed ore is flushed out by incoming water as it becomes more finely ground, while heavies stay in the bottom of bowl. Basically a Blue Bowl and a rock grinder in one, the grinding helps amalgamation occur in the Berdan bowl.
The local ones are heavy cast items, the whole assembly of a small one must be around a ton, danged if I know how they got them into some of the out of the way, isolated spots I used to see them.
I have seen one in operation, the owner processed a whole lot of accumulated old broken crucibles, floured mercury and "might be gold in it's" that I had stored up. I was impressed by it's ability to deal with all this stuff, but not so much with the small amount of gold we got out of my collection. Hope that's a good enough answer. Nuggy

I have never heard of one either .thanks for the answer nuggy.

Thanks Nuggy. Now I really feel stupid!!

The "Lost Mine" I told about in an ealier story had 3 of these mounted in a row. (Or as I thought, in series.) When I later asked a knowledgable person about them, (after describing them,) he called them Pelton Wheels. But, he also said pretty much the same thing as you about usage. I'm not concerned about the local usage of terminology, but with all of the gold I took out of the old flotation tank (and left there,) I now feel I was stupid for not looking in the cast iron Bernans. Now, I HAVE to get back up there to check it out, since obviously the mill shut down while still in full operation.  

Eagle

Thanks Nuggy. Now I really feel stupid!!

The "Lost Mine" I told about in an ealier story had 3 of these mounted in a row. (Or as I thought, in series.) When I later asked a knowledgable person about them, (after describing them,) he called them Pelton Wheels. But, he also said pretty much the same thing as you about usage. I'm not concerned about the local usage of terminology, but with all of the gold I took out of the old flotation tank (and left there,) I now feel I was stupid for not looking in the cast iron Bernans. Now, I HAVE to get back up there to check it out, since obviously the mill shut down while still in full operation.  

Eagle

Hi Eagle, thanks. You have probably already done this sort of thing, but if so others may be able to use this knowledge. If no one else has done a thorough clean up of the mill site you mention, you could be onto a really good thing. There was a lot of amalgam lost around the old batteries; mercury splashes from the stamper box and careless handling of amalgam when scraping plates.
Also try to find where they smelted the gold and did their retorting, there will be a lot of ash residue and burnt rubbish. I have found old broken crucibles with visible gold adhering to them, prills of gold from molds that spat because they weren't warm enough, careless pouring of molten gold and lots of borax slag also with visible gold, I dolly this up and pan it. Around the feed area for the stampers is always a great spot to look for gold in quartz specimens too.
I would shovel up all around the battery down at least six inches into a wheelbarrow if possible, wheel it to somewhere you can set up a pump and highbanker and put it through gently. do the same with all around the smelting area, you will end up with some ugly looking slag-gold etc some of it will need to be crushed, dollied, retorted and melted but it sounds like you are well able and equipped to do that.
Some guys who did this in Australia got some great results, unfortunately all the known sites in this part of the world were done many years ago, but if not done really well there will still be gold there. Nuggy

Thanks Nuggy.

Hopefully, I can put this information to good use. I don't really know that much about hard-rock mining so I wasn't even aware of these possibilities. I'm going to copy and paste your post and put a paper copy in with my metal detector manual. I'm sure it will come in handy.

Thanks again!!

Eagle

Hi guys, I have been a bit, lot, slack lately, Thanks Nuggy you answered that really well. Not much I can add to that except maybe a few pics to show an old derelict stamper set up that was powered by a pelton wheel, thing in the metal housing below the berdan, that drove the main cam shaft via a large belt from the pelton wheel on to a large steel fly wheel pully. On the other end of the main cam shaft was another pully, wooden, with a belt that went to the berdan, sitting in the wooden frame struture, to power & rotate it. Photo also shows the wooden table where the crushed ore passed over the table that would have had the mercury copper plates on it. From there fines where put into the berdan which as has been said had mercury in & was ground finer by a shoe or drag that was inside the berdan. Some times a large steel ball that would sit in the bottom end of the tilted bedan & just rotate & roll on the spot doing the grinding.

 







Here we have a berdan showing the shoe or drag sitting inside it



Here is a working example



http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/west-coast-region/9/3

Happy hunting & a very merry xmas to you all

JW  

Halito my Friend Kiwi,

Hey, great to have you back! You've been so "slack", I was beginning to think you had hit the big one and forgot about us peons here in Tn.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing them with me. Oh, you were sharing them with all of us?? Oh well, maybe I saw them first.

I discovered one thing in the pictures; the Berdans shown here, show very little resemblance to the ones in the old mill I found. Well, I'll have to wait until the snow melts, but if the mill is still sitting, unused, I'll get back up there to take some picts and maybe salvage some ore out of the old bins.

Again, thanks for the pictures!!

Eagle

Hi there Eagle, I have hit the big one 



I havnt been out much since being back from the south island but I have had the dredge out a couple of times. Found 18 grams all up including the specimen bits. The big brown one to the right I found with my detector. The rest with my 4" dredge. Pretty ugly gold though. Very rough & not water worn. Hasnt traveled very far. Has a high silver content. The surrounding country is having the pine tree plantation cut down & when done will be good to go over the ground with the detector as in the early days a lot of rich specimen stone was found that lead the old timers to a few rich pockets of ore. There will have to be some specimens that they didnt find. So I cant wait until the forestry guys have been through. They are cutting roads in as I tap the keys.



Close up of the specimen found with the detector





Other speci's











Oddly though I found no mercury.

Hope you have a great xmas

JW 

Yikes!! Beautiful specimens! A couple of them would have to suffer my eternal infernal(?) experimenting though. As I looked at them, I couldn't help but wonder what they would look like if I immersed them in Hydrofloric acid and dissolved the quartz. Of course, it would be hard to say if it would increase the value of the gold as a specimen or not, until the deed was done.

Thanks for the pictures my Friend! So nice to see on a Christmas Eve morning.

Happy holidays to you!!

Eagle

i look at the bergan and it reminds me of the electric arrastra they use here in costa rica for the grinding and recovery using mercury

an other one, these are spread all around the hard rock mining areas

hope i get to dredge this year so i can use my retort on the amalgam i find <- chk spl

  Always use caution with retorts as they make - WORD REMOVED - Some people (parents of hadicapped children for example) find this word offensive.  Please don't use denigrating terms here at TreasureNet.  Thanks.s---   John

 
Hello, I am new to this page. Your comments on Mercury drew me in. I have been working with mercury for many years now. Allot of information is out there, much seems to contradic itself. I am looking for the temperature that mercury starts to condense. I know that it vaporizes between 18-22c or room temperature. But I have seen it condense at much higher temperature. Would any of you know at what temperature the vapor can start condensing?

Thank you

Hoser
maybe that explains why i continue to dredge
i have to be a - WORD REMOVED - Some people (parents of hadicapped children for example) find this word offensive.  Please don't use denigrating terms here at TreasureNet.  Thanks. to put up with the BS of environmentalist, bad science, politicians, and the media

elemental mercury is no more dangerous then gun powder, its when you have a flame next to em that you need to be concern, Both will vaporize and kill
I was always baffled when the media and environmentalist were touting how environmetal friendly these CFLs curly bulbs are, ( at the same time screaming how deadly mercury was for the planet & people) the same goes for electric cars. Both have mercury in some amount. so if mercury and gun powder are responsible for the deaths of people know that it took a person, human involvement to kill these people

so don't use it, if your guessing, beside's thhiere a lot of fine gold recovery types of equipment at low cost

  Always use caution with retorts as they make - WORD REMOVED - Some people (parents of hadicapped children for example) find this word offensive.  Please don't use denigrating terms here at TreasureNet.  Thanks.s---   John

What if yer born that way??

guess there are a lot of forest gumps in california

guess there are a lot of forest gumps in california

Yea,there is,just trying to find excuses for them!!!

Yup, Yup, Yup
They keep them at the capital 

Yup, Yup, Yup
They keep them at the capital 

Eapecially since they closed the State Mental Institutions.