Mercury Help Needed |
Mercury Help Needed |
May 31 2011, 04:13 PM
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#1
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Moderator Group: Members Posts: 4,459 Joined: 25-August 09 From: way on up thar Member No.: 6,983 |
I collected three sluice samples this weekend and one of the concentrates contains a LOT of liquid Mercury. I noticed a good sized ball in my #20 mesh, and much more in my #30.
Needless to say... I stopped processing at that point and quarantined this bag of concentrate. I realize that the Mercury is probably holding all of the Gold from that sample and don't care to recover it. Not sure whether I hit a naturally occurring deposit or if it was residual from something else. This was in the lower reaches of Kaufman Creek, so miners beware. Thankfully my other two samples were taken elsewhere and have no Mercury. All samples were taken from pristine NF lands which were never commercially mined. Question: Now that I have removed it from the environment I would like to dispose of this properly, what is the safest and best method? Thanks. -------------------- /l ,[____], l---L-OlllllllO- ()_) ()_)--o-)_) BLACK SANDS MATTER! Very Happy CP Lifetime Member CP CORE TEAM Referral Code CE213 |
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Jun 14 2011, 08:16 AM
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#2
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Master Mucker! Group: Admin Posts: 4,149 Joined: 7-October 03 From: Colorado Member No.: 3 |
Mercury isn't all that scary to have or deal with really. You can seperate it from the cons rather easily too.
Jesse down at Vic's gave me some tips on how he seperates it and recovers it from the cons he has done. Set up a stainless steel cooking tray with the 2 inch sides in a sunny spot. Make one corner lower than the rest just a little. Spread out the cons in the try to dry them out. As they are drying gently roll them over keeping the lowest corner empty of cons. If there is enough merc in the cons they it pool up in the low spot when dry since the merc isn't going to adhere to anything else in the sands, just the gold it touches. Mercury doesn't evaporate at that low of a temp either so that won't be a concern for sun drying the cons. You may not get much to pool if it's a small sample so this may not work for seperation at the sample levels, just thought it was worth a mention. I've got loads of mercury around from grand dad's old stuff, I keep it in the bottles he had it in.....heavy glass, dark brown and not full. Good luck out there everyone and be safe. CP -------------------- CP-Owner/Administrator
www.ColoradoProspector.com IF YOU USE IT, THE GROUND PRODUCED IT! MINERS MAKE "IT" HAPPEN!! |
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