Mercury gold from

Pfeiffer, W. C., L. D. Lacerda, W. Salomons, and O. Malm. 1993. "Environmental fate of mercury from gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon." Environmental Review 1 26-37. 

Lacerda L. D. and Salomons W. (1998) Mercury from Gold and Silver Mining a Chemical Time Bomb Springer, New York, 146pp. 

Volatilization of mercury from gold and silver amalgams. 

De Laceeda L and Salomons W (1998) Mercury from gold and silver mining a chemical time bomb Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg, Germany. 

Labrenz M, Draschel GK, Thomsen-Ebert T, Gilbert B, Welch SA, Kemner KM, Logan GA, Summons RE, De Stasio G, Bond PL, Lai B, Kelly SD, Banfield JF (2000) Formation of sphalerite (ZnS) deposits in natural biofilms of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Science 290 1744-1747 Lacerda LD, Salomons W (1998) Mercury from gold and silver mining a chemical time bomb Springer, Berlin... 

Comparatively high mercury concentrations of 5.7 mg/kg FW in crayfish abdominal muscle from Lahontan Reservoir, Nevada, an area heavily contaminated with mercury from gold mining operations some decades earlier, and... 

The use of mercury for extracting precious metals by amalgamation has a long history and was extensively used by Spain in the sixteenth century when her fleet carried mercury from Almaden to Mexico and returned with silver. However, environmental concerns have resulted in falling demand and excess production capacity. It is still used in the extraction of gold and in the Castner-Kellner process for manufacturing chlorine and NaOH (p. 72), and a further major use is in the manufacture of batteries. It is also used in street lamps and AC rectifiers, while its small-scale use in thermometers, barometers and gauges of different kinds, are familiar in many laboratories. 

Munthe J, Xiao Z, Schroeder WH, Lindqvist O. 1991. Removal of gaseous mercury from air using a gold coated denuder. Atmos Environ 24A 2271-2274. 

Figure 1.173. Relationship between mercury and gold contents of mercurian gold from the Tsugu gold-antimony deposit (Shikazono and Shimizu, 1988b).

Figure 3.44 Analysis of chronopotcntiograms for the reduction of C02 in dimethyl sulpho-xide at mercury and gold electrodes. The solutions were saturated with l"u C02 (by volume in N2), the current was 17pA (Au) or 35 pA Hg), the electrode areas were 0.225 cm2 (Au) and 0.222cm2 (Hg). From Haynes and Sawyer (1967). Copyright 1967 by the American Chemical Society. Reprinted with permission.

Half of the participants preconcentrated mercury from the seawater prior to determination, eleven by amalgamation on gold, one by amalgamation on silver, two by collection into oxidising solutions, one by organic extraction, and one by ion exchange chromatography. 

Wrembel and Pajak [486] evaporated mercury from natural water samples with argon and amalgamated the mercury with a gold foil. The mercury was excited in a ring-discharge plasma and determined by atomic emission spectroscopy. The method was applied to the determination of mercury in seawater in the range 0.01-1.0 xg/l. 

In lakes and streams, mercury can collect in the bottom sediments, where it may remain for long periods of time. It is difficult to release the mercury from these matrices for analysis. Several investigators have liberated mercury from soil and sediment samples by the application of heat to the samples and the collection of the released mercury on gold surfaces. The mercury was then released from the gold by application of heat or by absorption in a solution containing oxidizing agents as discussed below [35, 49],... 

Brandes and Stoehr14 (see Table IV) added potassium hydroxide to each reaction mixture before distilling it, and added sodium hydroxide to the distillate, liberating an oil which was separated and purified, and from which pyridine and four pyrazines were separated by means of their mercury and gold salts. 

Mercury is mined predominantly as HgS in cinnabar ore and is then converted commercially to a variety of chemical forms. Key industrial and commercial applications of mercury are found in the electrolytic production of chlorine and caustic soda the manufacture of electrical equipment, thermometers, and other instruments fluorescent lamps dental amalgam and artisanal gold production. Use in pharmaceuticals and in biocides has declined substantially in recent years, but occasional use in antiseptics and folk medicines is still encountered. Thimerosal, an organomercurial preservative that is metabolized in part to ethylmercury, has been removed from almost all the vaccines in which it was formerly present. Environmental exposure to mercury from the burning of fossil fuels, or the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in fish, remains a concern in some regions of the world. Low-level exposure to mercury released from dental amalgam fillings occurs, but systemic toxicity from this source has not been established. 

The separation of the elements from metals is a process in which you should provide yourself with good apparatus, and with experienced manipulation and workmanship. First make an aqua fortis thus take of alum, vitriol, sal-nitri, equal parts, distil to a strong aqua fortis, return that to the residue and distil a second time in a glass flask. Dissolve in this silver and afterwards dissolve in it sal ammoniac. After this is done take the metal in thin plates and dissolve it in the water. When that has taken place separate it in the water bath (balneo mar is), pour it over again until an oil is found at the bottom from gold almost brown, from silver almost bluish, from iron red to almost black, from mercury quite white, from lead lead-colored, from copper quite green, from tin, yellow. 

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