I have struggled with this myself and we have discussed this many times on this forum.

I have a 5 gallon bucket of material that the gold is too fine to be able to pan well, it is literally 1/4th the size of a grain of salt. I can back pan, pan, or use a wheel and it will not remove it. I am thinking of buying a Black Magic or making a Miller Table, but I think the Black Magic will be my best choice. I have been slow this year on choice of equipment because we have spent the year sampling, but now that I know what we are dealing with next year will be very different.

I am also welcome to other members suggestions on how to remove this really fine gold from our materials. It will help us in extracting gold from lode materials we find.

I know I risk opening a huge can of worms here....but

Ever look into a retort?

If done properly (read: safety measures in place), with normal IQ range - I think this could be a viable option.

Thought I might throw that in here. And I realize by doing so, I am probably going to get a bunch of hate mail! 

Please Note: I have not personally used this method but I have ( and still am ) considered  it.

 

Jim

 

Didn't know what a retort was checked youtube.

That's some mad scientist stuff right there.

Hey James, not really MAD....lol

Please for the sake of everyone involved - pretty much everybody on earth..... do the research and BE SAFE if thinking about that option. "Stuff Happens" and you don't want to be the one it happens to.
The process does work however.

Jim

I am trying to prevent working with Mercury, but I do recognize this technique. Mercury has always been the best means of stripping fine gold, but it is highly toxic.

Speaking of Mercury, where can anybody obtain it these days, I didn't think you could buy it anymore?

Let me add a Mercury Horror Story.

I am a Nuclear Medicine Tech and when I took the director job at a large medical facility years ago I had to inventory our long term isotopes in long term storage. I learned that the storage room was behind the cooling facility for the hospital and had my staff join me on a Saturday to help me inventory everything in the facility.

When I opened the door the room was over 140 degrees F. I let it breath a bit but it didn't cool so I would go in and grab one container at a time and bring it to my staff to inventory the level of radiation and also inventory our long lived sources. We cleared the room out and most should have been disposed years prior, some sources like Cs137 and Gd were still hot and needed to remain in storage.

But there was this 30 gallon bucket on the floor in the corner that was too heavy to lift, and it had a trashbag hanging over the edge like a normal trashcan. This monster was bulging at the sides from the weight and it was not marked, labeled, nor had any hazard stickers on it. Because this is in a radioactive long term storage decay room I survey it to make sure it is not radioactive but I have a duty to determine what it is because I am responsible for what is in this room. At this point I have already found decaying human remains, I had a lab full of blood samples that the freezer had gone out and grew their own new fungus/bacteria because the lab had been closed off for 3 years, so I don't know what I am going to find this time?

I pop the lid to the trashcan not knowing what I am going to find and look down at a trashcan full of Mercury, and HOT Mercury at that. I told my staff to run, I quit breathing and closed the lid and then sealed the door.

I later reported this to our facility, to include the rotting human body parts in the lab that nobody had entered in three years, and nobody cared. I am willing to bet this facility still has hundreds of pounds of mercury that they don't even know that is there, honestly they don't want to know it is there.

Had a friend and coworker of mine not died from Mercury poisoning and suffered from years of "Mad Hatters Disease" I would not know the difference just like most people, I just recommend everybody to stay away from mercury unless you have it in a vacuum hood and even then you are exposing those that breath the air outside the vent.

I agree completely with what you are saying. It is a hazardous material for a reason. I will leave it at that.
As to your other question, I believe that A&B Prospecting has mercury.....would probably cost an arm and leg to ship I am guessing. Let alone I would not even try to have it shipped here to California.
My guess is someone could also locate enough old thermostats to do the job.

Jim

Mercury is not hazardous in liquid form .The damage is when it vaporizes.That is were the problems get to you .I worked with it for years in gages .Any chance of it vaporizing stay away from it .As many don't know is those new light bulbs the government make you use today is full of mercury .That is why if you break one do not vacuum it up .It goes to vapor.

As in mercury vapor lights?

My friend that had Mercury Poisoning "Mad Hatters Disease" was just goofy to say the least, yet still very intelligent. He would burst out in laughter for no reason at all, was slow in a conversation, and just strange enough he didn't interact well. One day over lunch he was telling me about the mine he used to be a Chemist at and everyday to enter and exit the mine they had to push a small boat across a pool of mercury to gain access, sometimes even wade through.

I too played with mercury as a kid and did not understand the dangers, luckily I only did it a few times, some science teachers would even poor it out for the kids to play with.

Do y'all remember the Uranium dishes, glasses, and marbles? At the time we didn't think they were dangerous either. I actually still have 6 Uranium Shooter Marbles, and yes, they are still radioactive. I can't believe as kids we carried these around in our pockets, lets just say I am glad my daughter and grandchild don't have horns and three arms and legs.

I occasionally have issues with light headness, loss of appetite, vision issues, inability to concentrate, walking straight....but I attribute that more to a different type of bottled liquid, sometimes in metallic can also.

To make sure this Mercury scare does not get out of hand lets just say if you see it, report it. In the Medical Field we still have BP cuffs with mercury tubes, and when they get knocked over and break there is a spill. The best way to clean it up is to sprinkle kitty litter on it and then sweep it up and dispose of it to a facility that deals with hazardous materials, the main thing is just get it out of your surroundings. A little exposure will not hurt you, you just don't want to ingest it or breath the fumes.

Back in History a teaspoon of Mercury was used to treat Syphilis, many people that received the treatment were never the same again. Most of us that have fillings these days have been exposed to Mercury through the Amalgam that was used.

Speaking of heavy metal toxicity, I was talking to a Doctor I know recently that treats heavy metal toxicity and he told me the largest growing toxic metal he is detecting these days is Antimony. It turns out it is used in the production of plastic bottles and storage containers for food. I told him I never heat up my food in those plastics because the chemicals leach out and then he told me that the worst culprit is the acidic drinks in a plastic bottle like cola's and soft drinks, they add phosphoric acid to them.

Food for thought.

Now that we got started on this, didn't that orange liquid we used to put on cuts and skin abrasions......have mercury in it? Mercurochrome I think we called it? I remember turning pennies to a  silver color, by putting them in a piece of aluminum foil, cover them with baking soda and pour a little bit of mercurochrome on it, and then heat it up. Turned a penny into silver looking penny.......Now I think that was a mercury coating that covered the penny. Anyone remember that stuff....Sure dont see it being sold anymore/ 

Don't want to change subject(yes I do), anyone use the blue bowl? Or something simular?

I have read in the past where in the old days that syphilis caused people to go "mad" or crazy...... but I bet it was from the mercury more so...

Sorry James, I was afraid it might become a discussion on mercury. I just wanted to mention it, in response to your original question.
Again....sorry it ended up taking your thread elsewhere!
Jim