@gavin Mercury was separate. I could see the gold in the top of the sluice. But didn’t think to look for mercury in there somewhere. After I finished the end of day pan all the gold had gone - and I was left with those gold covered mercury.
its better to see gold rather than mercury I think however it would have been a great historic specimen of when they separated gold from ore or minerals with mercury ,perhaps.
some warnings ,
mercury is volatile at room temperature apparently risk not to be inhaled, as you alert us too,
what a find ! merc. coated gold !! cheers for posting that ,.
S
Mercury is good stuff. At school we were given a charcoal block, bunsen burner and blowpipe then a pile of mercury oxide and we would reduce the Mercury oxide by heating it to 500 dègrees plus to burn the oxygen off and reduce the mercury oxide to liquid mercury.
Of course continued heat would evaporate the mercury so we were all breathing mercury vapour.
They say that mercury vapour gets into the brain, into the brain, into the brain and you become quite mad, become quite mad, become quite mad…thank goodness it didnt affect me, affect me, affect me.
Mercury was used in the manufacture of hats and the hatters became quite mad, quite mad, quite mad as the mercury accumulated in their brain, in their brain, in their brain, hence the saying as ‘mad as a hatter.’
In the 1980s gold fossicking in Deep Stream which is Dunedins water reserve l found a lot of mercury in a certain area. I guess this could account for why many Dunedinites could get leading roles in ‘The Walking Dead.’
From this l could safely conclude that many DCC bosses are immune as mercury only affects brains and not arseholes.
So did the mercury come pre coated on some of the gold you found?
