[SEL] what is it? OT

[R & M Ingold]

Hmm, serious health worries with this getting rich thing!!
Reg & Marg Ingold.
Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
randmingold at hotkey.net.au
http://www.oldengine.org/members/randmingold

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rob Skinner" <rskinner at rustyiron.com>
To: "'The SEL email discussion list'" <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 12:51 PM
Subject: RE: [SEL] what is it? OT


>
>> Enlightening knowledge but, I still am as ignorant about its
>> function as I was before!!
>
> Assuming the amalgamation is in regards to the recovery of precious metal 
> using
> mercury, it was a common practice in the old days, but I've never seen 
> tools to
> do it on a small scale.
>
> The process depends on a characteristic of mercury that makes it combine 
> with
> other metals.
>
> In some large scale operations for milling gold, ore goes through a stamp 
> mill.
> Water washes the powdered ore down over an amalgamation table.  It's a big 
> flat
> sheet, sometimes galvanized steel with strips of wood or copper riffles 
> crossing
> it.  Mercury covers the amalgamation table.  As the slurry of powdered 
> gold ore
> washes over the table, the gold particles combine with the mercury.
>
> Eventually the mercury/gold amalgam is removed from the table.   It is 
> placed in
> a vessel, heated, and the mercury boils off, leaving the gold.
>
> Eventually the process was replaced with the use of cyanide, which is more
> efficient.  I don't know the dates of changeover, but mercury amalgamation 
> was
> used in the mid to late 1800's in this area.  By the time of WW2 when many 
> of
> our mines were shut down, cyanide was being used.
>
> Rob
>
>
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