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Old 2009-04-07, 8:12am
NMLinda NMLinda is offline
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Join Date: Nov 21, 2008
Location: Herndon, VA
Posts: 867
Default Any concerns about mercury in gold for fuming?

Don't know if anyone is still worried about this or not, but some of the old hands like Kevin O'Grady would only use vintage gold coins because they felt that gold wire and other common gold sources carried a risk of residual mercury from the manufacturing process. I asked him about it once, and he said he was personally worried about getting "Mad Hatter's disease" (mercury poisoning).

I don't know anything about how gold is refined and if this is a real concern or not, but I've looked at Rio Grande's casting grains in the past and noticed that they have other constituents besides pure gold (other metals that make sense for jewelry strength and durability). Anyone know if there are any health hazards with these other metals during fuming?

Linda
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