Gold, like most minerals, can be 'dissolved' in mercury to create what's called an amalgam. An amalgam is a physical mixture of metals, or a type of alloy. Using mercury is a pretty ...

Trees nearest the mines had higher concentrations of mercury in their rings. Passive air sampling confirmed the mercury ...

Mining often happens in artisanal and small-scale mining operations that burn gold-mercury amalgams to extract gold particles. Credit: Simon Topp. For hundreds of years, the Amazon has been ...

leaving the rest of the rock behind and forming a gold-mercury alloy called gold amalgam. Next, the crude gold amalgam needs to be separated from any unreacted mercury. This can be done by ...

To do this, the miners use a method that requires adding toxic mercury into the ground and allowing it to bind to any surrounding gold. Because the resulting amalgams have a much lower melting ...

Mercury binds to the gold particles which creates amalgams. Amalgams have a much lower melting point than gold so to extract it, the amalgams are burned. This process releases gaseous mercury into the ...

Sarasota Art Museum commissioned artist Molly Hatch to create the exhibit “Amalgam,” which features 470 ceramic plates ...

Mining often happens in artisanal and small-scale mining operations that burn gold-mercury amalgams to extract gold particles. Credit: Simon Topp. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not ...

Mercury binds to the gold particles which creates amalgams. Amalgams have a much lower melting point than gold, so to extract it, the amalgams are burned. This process releases gaseous mercury ...

Gold, like most minerals, can be 'dissolved' in mercury to create what's called an amalgam. An amalgam is a physical mixture of metals, or a type of alloy. Using mercury is a pretty ...