
plating, anodizing, & finishing Q&As since 1989
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Extracting gold nuggets from mercury
June 5, 2012
Q. I have some gold that has been melted into nuggets and then put in mercury, and I need to know the easiest way to extract them from the mercury. And once I do, are they ready to be sold?
Jessica GomezLearning - Washington, Utah, United States
A. There is a description of the process used to separate silver from mercury in Mark Twain's memoir "Roughing It." The mercury is distilled off.
However, I do not recommend you try this yourself unless you really know what you're doing. You could quite easily get an uncurable case of mercury poisoning.

Dave Wichern
Consultant - The Bronx, New York
