PYRITE and MERCURY

[Sierra Sam]

It's bad enough when I find myself getting tired of going slow with my panning, especially when I've got a week's worth of cons to work. Next thing your know I'm speed panning.
Now I have to deal with mercury contaminated gold and pyrite that is heavy enough to hang in there till the last of the black sands are being worked.

When the sun hits the pyrite it glistens like gold. Sometimes it's crystalline form resembles the texture of gold, and when the sun reflects off it it REALLY makes me examine the specimen. Sometimes it will hang in there just like a fleck of gold and when there's a lot of it it drives me nuts!

Now throw in mercury. When there's a thin coating of mercury on a flake of gold it begins to look like the pyrite in color. If it is only partially covered with mercury it REALLY starts looking like a piece of tarnished pyrite.

My new dig site is producing color, it's just the color is getting harder and harder to disseminate mercury contaminated gold and pyrite.

If anyone out there has any, and I mean ANY suggestions for dealing with this dilemma, please feel free to chime in.

[Hoser John]

Nitric acid - --get'r done both at the same time as all ferrous metals disappear and some non ferrous too-John

[Sierra Sam]

Thanks John -
So where does the mercury go?
Is the nitric acid recoverable to use again?
Strength? Availability?
Will the fumes from this process cause my left testie shrink and what hair I have left on my head fall out?

[Aurum_Flake]

My suggestion is to tap the pan more and for longer durration to get the heavies to get to the bottem. Patients in panning to equal great recovery.

The Hg is in solution (dissolved) of the Nitric.

Shelf life of Nitric that has been exposed to the elements is short, BUT the elements dissolved in it CAN be recovered. The internet is a great tool.

The nitric is NOT good to breath (bad if you have fillings in your teeth to breath and so is HCl for that mattter) and is bad for your nasal passages and pretty much ANY flesh/bone it comes in contact with.

Availability is hit and miss as to geographic local, it is a controled substance. IF you are chemist savy, its not that difficult to make/recover.

Best of luck.

[Bonaro]

Hoser was right about the nitric but you will need a bunch to deal with the quanity of cons you have. Fumes will be a real hazard since you already have HG in the mix. Unless you are competent in the use of strong acids I would encourage a different although more time consuming way.

1. Classify all of the cons to eliminate the large material you know is waste, check it befor you toss it to make sure there is not a big picker in there
2. Have a beer
3. Use a magnet to remove the magnetite, hematite and some of the pyrite.
4. Have a beer
3. build a gutter sluice or poop tube mini sluice to process the rest.
5. Have a beer

Whatever remains should be 10% of what you started with, pan that slowly.

[Sierra Sam]

Bonaro - Like your train of thought and "Process".

Flake - Way too much for this kid. Way too involved, and would be swinging towards work side of life... and I'm at a point in my life where there is no need for work in one's life, and definitely a lack of desire to work. Just need of the right tool, or the right person to do the work instead of me. Of course the latter could come at a price "one" cannot afford at the time required so, there begins the google time, scrapped knuckles and newly ordained, "Work Clothes".

[russau]

Work ...........................why do peole use "that" word? its disgusting! if it aint fun, go get another cold drink! theres always tommorrow!