Mercury, AKA Quicksilver, has garnered itself a reputation as a toxic killer. Much of it's reputation is a wise precautionary measure, but if handled responsibly, and respected, it is perfectly safe to use in the amalgamation of Gold and other metals in concentrates. HOWEVER... Due to liabilities, I must include this Disclaimer:
"You acknowledge that in no way shape or form is the author of this blog recommending or instructing you to use Mercury. You further hold the author free of any liabilities arising from your use or misuse of the substance. The material presented here is as is, and should be taken in it's historical, and scientifical capacities for the purpose of education, and correction of disinformation."
Mercury is liquid at room temperature. It will evaporate and escape from many containers. If you leave a bowl of mercury out for a period of time, it will be empty, as it has gone into the air. It is when it is a vapor that it is the most dangerous to the human body. It is then inhaled, and every breath takes in more and more of it into the blood stream. It passes through the brains barriers that normally prevent toxins from getting up there, and it lodges as droplets in the brain itself. This causes neurons to short out and all kinds of havoc. Not to mention it proabably puts pressure on the brain while it's accumulating.
Mercury causes insanity, hairloss, toothloss... Symptoms of heavy metals poisoning include lethargy, memory loss, and it would be logical to assume that it would affect your heart, pulse, and bloodpressure as well. It basically effects the entire nervous system. It can even affect breathing patterns.
THE GOOD NEWS is, nature has built in many safeguards that we can thank God for... See, it's mostly the people who reject God who do not understand that there are in fact safety measures that protect the average person from heavy metals poisoning. God knows that Lead and Mercury are "all natural"... That they can be present in any number of waterways in the world, not from man introducing them, but they are in fact naturally occuring in the mountains and streams, and the very rocks themselves. There are numerous ways of detoxifying... The easiest of which is a healthy diet, some foods such as baked beans contain sulfated amino acids that help collect and remove lead and mercury from our bodies...
Interesting is it not that the main staple of the gold prospector in the past has always been Beans? I do find that interesting. You do not hear of gold miners going crazy from mercury. Only the hatters that gone mad. But miners generally cooked off enough mercury that if they did it in their cabins, the concentration of it was sufficient to kill them in one night! But the ones that were smart enough not to, didn't have much trouble with toxicity. That, and they probably took in more lead from the low grade whiskey they drank than they did mercury from mining and amalgamating. But I believe though I cannot prove it, that their diet allowed them to be exposed to the metals with little negative effect.
Mercury is less dangerous in it's metallic form, since it's high surface tension makes it harder to be absorbed into your skin, but not impossible of course. Though promptly washing your hands after coming into contact with it should be sufficient to prevent it entering your system. When handling you should use protective gloves... And if you are worried about the vapors, you should wear a respirator that utilizes active carbon filters.
Cyanide in my opinion is worse than mercury. It is usually dissolved in water. Water and very thin liquids are more readily absorbed by your skin. Also, because such solutions are for the most part colorless, it is hard to tell what water has been contaminated by the cyanide without testing it somehow. Cyanide bonds with your hemoglobin in your blood preventing your red blood cells from picking up oxygen from your lungs. It literally can kill you in a matter of minutes if you are exposed to enough of it. You basically suffocate even though you can breathe all the air you want.
It takes far more mercury eposure to be fatal... It even took the hatters years before they went insane, and they handled it every day, large amounts of it. The average prospector only needs to handle it once in a while, giving the body time to cleanse itself through proper supplementation and dieting. There are things like green clay that I have used that work wonderfully well in cleansing the body of toxins, and there are also activated charcoal capsules that do the same job. If you notice, when a dog isn't feeling well, if there is a firepit outside, it will often go and eat charcoal from the firepit. You can also see deer and other animals eating charcoal in areas that have been subjected to forest fire. It is because it heals and cleanses the things that make illness. Nature has indeed numerous safeguards built into itself to handle the toxins. Along with responsible and careful handling of dangerous substances, they are not likely to cause harm.
In the 1800's, it was common practice to use mercury in the riffle traps of a sluice box. Problem was, the mercury would eventually run out of the sluice, taking sometimes gold with it... But when the old timers cleaned up, they may have baseball size globs of gold amalgam... Though thousands of pounds of mercury in some cases have entered waterways. Which, by the way, is where suction dredging helps... I know some dredgers who have pulled a lot of mercury out of their waterways... Do you know anyone else that is willing to not charge the taxpayers for doing it? :)
It is against the law in all states to use mercury within a certain distance of a stream, and in many states to use mercury at all. Now, the only time it is used is when there is a large amount of concentrates with super fine flour gold, that a prospector saves up, and say, during the winter, decides to amalgamate his concentrates. A couple times a year is all that you need to really handle the stuff, and if done with proper ventilation, and safety gear, it is without consequence.
Instead of burning off the mercury like the old timers did, it is better to use even a dilute nitric acid to dissolve away the mercury. Not only does it dissolve the mercury, but impurities in the gold... And then you can precipitate the mercury back out... Nothing is really lost in this manner. I have found also that keeping water with your mercury prevents it from evaporating... So all my containers of mercury are sealed, but also have a good amount of water... The premise here is the water will have to evaporate before the mercury, and worst case, a small amount of mercury will go into solution with the water, but it is miniscule.
I don't see anything wrong with using mercury in a responsible manner... But I do not advocate doing so. I have the utmost care and respect while handling it when I DO have to handle it. But one things for sure, it is far less toxic than tobacco and alcohol, those are pollutants that people voluntarily consume as a recreation. Mercury is a workhorse. It allows productivity. It provides usefulness. If you have ever broken a compact fluorescent light bulb, or even a standard fluorescent, then you have probably inhaled more mercury vapor than I ever have :) Just think...
When you throw a CFL away... And it goes to the land fill... What do you think happens when those big D9 Caterpillars push and crush the garbage into the landfills? The bulbs break and the mercury in them goes into the environment. So I maintain that under the guise of "saving the environment", you environmentalists who are trying to take my mercury away from me, are doing far more harm than I am. You will have millions of CFL bulbs entering our landfills... It is a shame. I started out with 1 pound of mercury... And I still have a pound of mercury. But think of how many pounds of mercury you environmental commies are releasing into the environment under the pretense of saving it? Give me my Edison Incandescent and the environmental impact is no where near as bad as you say it is.
I am going to get off of my soapbox now... But please understand, there is a political agenda behind the mercury fear mongering. It is not to be feared, but like guns, it needs to be respected. Only those who disrespect things, whether it be chemicals, drugs, alcohol, animals, people, run into problems. ALL things must be respected, or they will be your undoing, somehow. Which brings me to the point of: Always reclaim your worksites so that we may show our good track record as a defense of our landrights... There is no one more caring of the environment than the Gold Prospector.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention something... It is imperitive I inform my readers of this. The amounts of mercury we worry about ingesting are miniscule, compared to the number one source of the toxin. No, it is not tap water, fish from the oceans and streams, nor is it from any other source, but the deadliest: The flu vaccine. Thimerosol is a Mercury based ingredient that is used in vaccines. In fact, it is 50% mercury by weight, and comprises the majority of the shots themselves. If you think that mercury should be banned from gold mining, think again. Very few people are suffering from the effects of mercury contamination due to mining in the environment, as compared to the hundreds of millions in the world WHO VOLUNTARILY, and sometimes involuntarily take these shots, year after year. Mercury is bioaccumulative. The mercury in next years vaccine, adds to the mercury from past years vaccines that you have taken. Until such point that you develop all kinds of nervous system failures. Perhaps neuropathy, chest pains, kidney and liver problems, and you know what else? Guillane Barre syndrome can be caused by flu shots, and it is most likely due to the Mercury content of the shots.
I will continue to process my concentrates as I see fit. I know how to do it safely and without harm. But by God, I will never take a flu shot as long as I live. Oh, and you know what? I have only gotten the flu once every couple or few years, and when I did, it was over in a day or two. Big deal. I am not suffering like those who take the flu shots, for days at a time, nor am I poisoning myself just to avoid something that nature gives us... See, the flu is more or less necessary. It is seldom powerful enough to kill, but it does make one miserable. What happens is, it causes your body to exercise the immune system and keep it strong. But again, is this not what a vaccine does? It makes you sick so that way your defenses against that sickness are built up. IT IS SOMETHING YOU WILL CATCH ANYWAY WITHOUT NEEDING TO TAKE MERCURY BASED VACCINES!
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