[kbinkster]

Mercury is also used to dissolve gold in a process called amalgamation. Mercury dissolves a lot of other types of precious metals, too. With gold, the mercury is removed. They mix silver and mercury to get a mush to fill teeth. This is why I am slowly getting my metal fillings replaced by composite ones. The mercury and silver are left together and the mercury slowly leaches out into your body.

When gold comes into contact with mercury, it bonds to it. Then, instead of being that liquid rolling ball of mercury we're all familiar with, it becomes a slurry slush. That slush can be distilled either chemically or cooked out where the mercury is vaporized off and the gold metal is left behind. Because the mercury also dissoves other metals, that metal left behind has to be processed further.

Mercury amalgamation for gold is really only used any more when seperating out really fine gold dust from black sand. If you've ever gone gold panning, you'll know what I'm talking about.