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Post by cassilis on Jan 19, 2017 12:51:08 GMT 10
Looking for education on mercury presence in creeks.
Panned a creek in the old Tanjil goldfields of West Gippsland recently and found what appeared to be tiny droplets of mercury in my pan. The creek was panned during the gold rush days and there are extensive diggings in the vicinity of the creek.
Wondering if the mercury is a result of gold extraction processes at the site, or if its naturally found in waterways, or if its dragged up and out of the ground by mining activities ?
The nearby Blue Rock Dam (which flooded much of the Tanjil goldfields when constructed in the 1980's) has a health warning re. possible contamination of trout by mercury.
Any help most appreciated.
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Post by shivan on Jan 19, 2017 13:45:41 GMT 10
There is a chance elemental mercury could naturally find its way into water systems, but if you are in a known gold area where mining took place then it is more likely the mercury is related to the mining in some way.
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Post by cassilis on Feb 1, 2017 7:58:08 GMT 10
Thanks Shivan (been away a couple of weeks hence late reply to you). Wondering what it is about the mining that results in the mercury working its way into the creeks ? Looking fwd to some panning up Omeo/Swifts Creek way this weekend...shall post a note if I snare me some gold !
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Post by shivan on Feb 1, 2017 8:48:24 GMT 10
I guess there would be a few ways the mercury would get deposited in the creek. The most common would be carelessness, back then not much was known about the stuff so not much care was taken. Jars or containers dropped and not cleaned up, spillage from pans and sluices containing mercury.
Another way i believe, is when the mercury was cooked off the gold and not retorted. The vapor can travel very far before being deposited, but it will normally find its way back into the waterways.
Would love to hear how you go.
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Post by cassilis on Feb 2, 2017 9:21:36 GMT 10
Shall post an update next week - going to do some panning and detecting near some old mines (mullock heaps)... stay tuned...
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Post by cassilis on Feb 6, 2017 13:32:14 GMT 10
Back from trip, panned a creek between Swifts Creek and Omeo, and detected around old mine shafts and mullock heaps on Mt Gingee Munjie. Found a few small rusty things around the mines. Panned 20+ specks of gold from 15 pans. The specks are small, some very small, but the thrill was there nevertheless, especially when viewed through the 10X loupe. I used a homemade hand-suction dredge (similar to a yabby pump) to draw material from underwater crevices that I identified with an underwater viewing tube. I filled a bucket with this material, and back at my cabin did the panning thing. Interestingly I noticed that my first few pans yielded nothing - I was using a 10" blue pan. I switched to my 10" green pan, and every subsequent pan yielded gold. So, for me at least, green works much better than blue for spotting those specks. In my late 50's, the eyesight isn't great, and perhaps the contrast between gold and green is better for me than gold and blue. I kept all the panned material, and now that I'm home I'm going to re-pan the lot with the green pan. This was only my third time out panning, and I've scored colour on two of those trips, from the very same spot, measuring about 1m x 1m in area. See the photo - I pan the material drawn from the very base of that whitewater. Over time, I'll extend outwards, but I'm targetting crevices. All good fun !  |
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Post by shivan on Feb 13, 2017 15:39:55 GMT 10
Sounds like you had some fun.
It can make a huge difference the color of the pan, i love my green pans for field work and love my blue pan for cleanup. I hate black pans for panning concentrates, while the gold stands out nicely on black pans the black sand can hide gold really well and blends in too much with the black pan for me.
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Post by Flying Scott on Feb 13, 2017 20:05:56 GMT 10
It is very rare but is possible for mercury to be in the soil and get washed into the creeks.
The mother of mercury is the mineral cinnabar. a chrystelline ranging in colour from dull orange to a bright red.
When I was in RMIT we would melt cinnabar in a test tube and it would produce small amounts of mercury.
Flying Scott
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Post by cassilis on Feb 14, 2017 8:06:54 GMT 10
Got home and classified all the material and re-panned the small stuff and found another 10 or so specks. I retrieved all the fine sands and now making a blue bowl to catch any fine gold I missed in the pan. It'll be painted green as I'm using a beige coloured bowl. No mercury found up in my high country stream. Thanks for the info on the mercury.
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Post by mushmouse on Feb 14, 2017 22:10:25 GMT 10
There is a lot of potential up that way Cassilis - even today there are a few Mineral Search Licenses being submitted due to indicators. Good place to search for gold and a great place to have fun doing it...lots of luck mate. I like the black pans I'm not real good spotting gold on green or blue and for those whom use metal pans...my hats off to you....I'd be washing out nuggets...  |
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Post by cassilis on Feb 15, 2017 6:45:41 GMT 10
G'day Mushmouse - there's at least one old gold mine still being mined, by a local from Swifts Ck. I'm heading back in next week or so, this time going north of Benambra - not panned there before but lots of creeks and historically part of the gold rush...so who knows ! Shall post the results...
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Post by cassilis on Feb 15, 2017 12:58:29 GMT 10
Finished my green blue bowl yesterday and today ran all my panned concentrates through and picked up another 3 pieces...very happy 'cos these 3 were my biggest pieces from that whole batch of material from that trip.
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Post by aussiedigga on Feb 19, 2017 16:37:56 GMT 10
I have been panning around a old mine battery and have been finding what I think is murcury attached to some flakes of gold, yet the murcury is hard , not liquid form, I thought murcury was always liquid or over time dry out  |
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Post by shivan on Feb 19, 2017 18:53:59 GMT 10
Could it be lead? If you scratch a piece do you see gold?
As mercury amalgamates with gold it does loose viscosity as the gold is slowly dissolved i believe.
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Post by marked on Feb 22, 2017 16:05:43 GMT 10
The mercury, if in very small amounts, may also be spread extremely thinly over the gold - giving it the appearance of being hard? As mercury is a liquid at room temperature, it would never "dry out" as you put it ...
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