Subject: Removing mercury from gold, diamond

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Morooney)
Date: 16 Jan 1995 17:50:07 GMT

I looked pretty hard to figure out a place to ask this question.
I'll apologize in advance if I'm nowhere near where I should be.

A friend has spilled mercury on her engagement ring and can't remove 
it.  Does anyone have any ideas as to how she could do this ?

Please email responses direct and I'll post to summarize if desired.
Thank you.

Kevin Morooney
Penn State

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From: [email-masked] (Erik Halberstadt)
Date: 16 Jan 1995 16:49:47 -0800

Kevin Morooney ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I looked pretty hard to figure out a place to ask this question.
: I'll apologize in advance if I'm nowhere near where I should be.

: A friend has spilled mercury on her engagement ring and can't remove 
: it.  Does anyone have any ideas as to how she could do this ?

: Please email responses direct and I'll post to summarize if desired.
: Thank you.

: Kevin Morooney
: Penn State

Brazilian gold miners use heat for the purpose. Unfortunately, this can 
be rather toxic. R. Allen Hardy's "Jewelry Repair Manual" specifies 
nitric acid left on for a few seconds, then rinsed thoroughly, or gentle 
heat and polishing will sometimes work...

G'luck

Erik

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From: [email-masked] (Daryl Bender)
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 17:40:19 -0500

> heat and polishing will sometimes work...

This sounds interesting. What is the problem here? Is it chemically
bonding?
Daryl
-- 
Working, but not speaking for BNR.

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From: [email-masked] (Barry Workman)
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 04:32:42 GMT

>This sounds interesting. What is the problem here? Is it chemically

Gold has an afinity for mercury.  In fact, one of the old "standard"
placer mining techniques was to coat copper plates with mercury.
The plates were then staked down on the bottom of a river below where
miners were washing gold.  At the end of the day/week/month, the miner
would pull up the copper plate.  The small bits of gold that had washed
>from  upstream would have collected on the plates. 
The mercury/gold amalgam would drop off into a crucible when heated,
the heat of melting gold would vaporize the mercury.  
Yeah, mercury vapor is very dangerous but they didn't know that.  
The same process is used today in Africa where
the women will work the dredge platforms in the evening/weekends for
the small dust that cannot be otherwise collected.
-- 
    - Barry Workman

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 22:04:14 GMT

: Kevin Morooney
: Penn State

Don't laugh, but I have some vague memory of a potatoe and heat being used
for this.   My uncle (now dead--not from mercury poisoning) described some
process used by miners in the field for extracting gold ore.  First by
crushing the ore, then using mecury to leach the gold out, and finally 
heating the mercury/gold amalgam in a hollowed out potato.  Evidently the
mercury would vaporize a a very low temp, and be absorbed by the potato,
leaving the gold.  Probably left the gold in a molten state, so would not 
be ideal for jewellry.  I'm sure someone else out there is more knowledgable
on this, and my innaccuracies will spur them to respond.  :.]

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From: [email-masked] (J. Kimberlin)
Date: 23 Jan 1995 18:19:29 -0800

>on this, and my innaccuracies will spur them to respond.  :.]  

Not laughing, but it is amusing to see what people come up with.  In the 
laboratory, we use flowers of sulfur to take mercury out of the cracks in 
asphalt floor tile.  Would this work on a gold ring?

JerryK

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From: [email-masked] (James Foster x2912)
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 15:40:20 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (J. Kimberlin) writes:

|> 
|> Not laughing, but it is amusing to see what people come up with.  In the 
|> laboratory, we use flowers of sulfur to take mercury out of the cracks in 
|> asphalt floor tile.  Would this work on a gold ring?
|> 
|> JerryK
|> 

What the heck is the mechanism behind this?  Do the mercuric sulfides 
form that easily, or is there some mechanical basis to the technique?