[Mr. Smiley]

Originally Posted by AVC-Ed

Mercury is used only in 3rd world countries, places where the gold is "mined" through very ecologically destructive methods.

"Old" gold, such as from vintage coins and jewelry made prior to the 1900's probably has a higher risk of mercury contamination than modern gold purchased from a dealer. If you think about it, gold on a ring, in constant contact with your skin, is much more likely to get mercury into your system than a couple of grains being fumed every couple of days.

In the mercury process, gold and mining debris is poured into a vat of mercury. The gold floats because it is lighter than the mercury, but all the debris drops out because it is heavier than mercury. The gold picks up minute amounts of mercury through contact, and when the gold is later processed, the mercury contaminates the gold.

Modern gold processing eliminates the mercury bath by adding lime and cyanide to leach the metal into a slurry. Carbon is then added to remove the metal from the slurry. The carbon is then stripped from the slurry by adding caustic cyanide, and then the remaining metal is precipitated out by electro-winnowing. It is then smelted into bars for further processing. The gold at this point is 99% pure.

Kinda leaves me scratching my head too... I'd really like to know how gold floats on mercury... I have some mercury here... shall we do a test?