Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

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Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

Post by gollum »

Paul,

While Circular 609 has been around a long time and is often quoted, it is actually more of a revelation than I had originally thought. Look at how mercury rich the Superstitions are over other well known mining areas.

Table l.--Summary of data for mercury in air
collected by means of aircraft
-------------------------------------------------------
[Results are in nanograms per cubic meter]
-------------------------------------------------------
Area Min Max Avg

Superstition Mountains ...... 58 ..........66......... 62
Dome Rock Mountains ........12 ..........57.5.......37.4
Ajo ................................ 12......... 30......... 18.8
Silver Bell ....................... 18.5........53.2...... 27.6
Colorado River at B1ythe,
Calif., to Quartzsite, Ariz. .. 1.6......... 7.2 ........4..5

1/Background concentration.

Mercury in soil gas collected at the surface has delineated part of the known gold deposits at Cortez,
Nev., through as much as 100 feet of gravel. Mineralized veins and faults are readily detectable by meas-
urement of mercury in soil gas.

If, however, postmineralization overburden is permeable to the passage of mercury vapor, the measurement
of mercury in soil gas or air may be useful in detecting concealed mineral deposits.

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Just one look at the average amount of mercury in the air over the Supers as compared to everywhere else tested says a lot.

Best-Mike
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Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

Post by cubfan64 »

gollum wrote:Paul,

While Circular 609 has been around a long time and is often quoted, it is actually more of a revelation than I had originally thought. Look at how mercury rich the Superstitions are over other well known mining areas.

Table l.--Summary of data for mercury in air
collected by means of aircraft
-------------------------------------------------------
[Results are in nanograms per cubic meter]
-------------------------------------------------------
Area Min Max Avg

Superstition Mountains ...... 58 ..........66......... 62
Dome Rock Mountains ........12 ..........57.5.......37.4
Ajo ................................ 12......... 30......... 18.8
Silver Bell ....................... 18.5........53.2...... 27.6
Colorado River at B1ythe,
Calif., to Quartzsite, Ariz. .. 1.6......... 7.2 ........4..5

1/Background concentration.

Mercury in soil gas collected at the surface has delineated part of the known gold deposits at Cortez,
Nev., through as much as 100 feet of gravel. Mineralized veins and faults are readily detectable by meas-
urement of mercury in soil gas.

If, however, postmineralization overburden is permeable to the passage of mercury vapor, the measurement
of mercury in soil gas or air may be useful in detecting concealed mineral deposits.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just one look at the average amount of mercury in the air over the Supers as compared to everywhere else tested says a lot.

Best-Mike
Mike - I did see that and am currently doing my best to slowly dig up journal and research articles that:

1) Correlate mercury deposits with (specifically) gold ore deposits

2) Further characterize the test procedure (from sampling through analysis, results, interpretation and statistical validation) so I can be comfortable with some of the geoligical conclusions.

I can't help but think back to Jim's experience in finding the cinnabar vein and the interesting rock features nearby that indicated it may have been an area where drill bits were being sharpened. I also know of another person who identified a cinnabar deposit out there.

I'm really curious as to exactly specifically where the USGS did their air testing "One mercury deposit was in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix."

For me, the KEY is to be able to convince myself that mercury is really and truly an indicator for gold deposits - otherwise all the circular tells me is that there's a decent size mercury deposit in the Superstitions.
Jim Hatt

Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

Post by Jim Hatt »

Mike/Paul,

Mercury vapors from the Superstitions is a very interesting subject that I think is worthy of it's own topic. I am going to create a new topic for it and merge the applicable posts into it so they do not get lost in all the other General Discussion stuff in the General Discussion topic.

Back when I first found what Clay and I began to call the "Mercury Mine" and the area where someone had been sharpening drill steel by hand; Story at: http://www.desertusa.com/mb3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1264
We both did a lot of research into the connection between Mercury and Gold deposits. I'll be darned if I can remember how we came to the conclusion, but I do remember that it was decided that there was a strong connection between mercury vapors and gold deposits,

I will see if I can find anything in my notes about it that is worthy of mention.

Best,

Jim
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Re: Mercury vapors from the Superstitions

Post by javaone »

Dreamy Draw - Was a "mercury" mine many years ago, in Phoenix around SR51 & Northern.

JJ
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Re: Mercury vapors from the Superstitions

Post by cubfan64 »

Thanks Jim - It really is an interesting subject and hopefully we can find enough information to make it worthy of a separate topic. Even if not, it's a good idea as it'll make it easy to reference if/when needed.

Paul
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Re: Mercury vapors from the Superstitions

Post by Dirty Dutchman »

Hello,

First i want to say i have done ZERO research into this subject but i did want to ask a question that i think pertains to this topic.

Its ironic that i was thumbing through Corbins Bible last night reading the Bark Notes section and i was specifically reading the Deering/Chunning part. This topic popping up today made me think of some things i was reading in that part.

They were talking about their arrasta and how they used "Quicksilver" to get the gold to "seperate". I'm assuming they were referring to Mercury? Anyone have any idea how much would be used for the size of arrasta they described? Where did they get it?

I probably wont be commenting much more in this topic because like i said, i have ZERO knowledge on this. I'm just curious to hear what anyone has to say about my above questions.

Thanks again,
Travis
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Re: Mercury vapors from the Superstitions

Post by alan m »

Hello Travis
Good memory, the early spanish did use mercury to separate the gold from the quartz.
They also performed the smelting operations at the arrastra site and while many of the larger operations utilized a retort for mercury recovery, some of the smaller operations did not.
This is what could account for the high concentrations of mercury vapors in and around the Superstitions.
Mercury comes from the parent mineral cinnabar and it rarly is found in association with gold bearing veins or thermal vents.
Best Regards
Alan
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Re: Mercury vapors from the Superstitions

Post by Dirty Dutchman »

Alan,

Thanks for the info.

Would it be safe to say then that if Cinnabar can be found in the mountains, that could have been their source for the Mercury as well as account for the high "readings"? (You may have answered this with your statement but i may not be reading it correctly and just want to be sure)

I am too uneducated on the subject to make my own assumptions on whether or not mercury leads to gold so, i cannot comment on that part.

Thanks again,
Travis
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Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

Post by gollum »

If anybody hasn't seen the USGS Circular# 609, I will post it here:

Enjoy-Mike

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Re: Mercury Vapors from the Superstitions

Post by cubfan64 »

Alan - you said...
Mercury comes from the parent mineral cinnabar and it rarly is found in association with gold bearing veins or thermal vents.
I'm definitely not educated in geology, but I've read a number of USGS reports as well as other Geological Journal articles related to mercury associated with gold ore deposits and quite a number of them suggest that it's a more common occurance.

I read a couple articles today about mercury amalgamation with gold and it's not nearly as simple as some of the casual prospecting/mining stories lead one to believe. It's primarily used to collect finer particles of gold that are harder to recover - one of the requirements is that both the mercury and gold surfaces be clean and free from contamination like oils and other things.

Something that strikes me about the relatively high mercury values found in the Supers in the USGS report is that one would think with all the heat that area gets, most mercury close to the surface should have vaporized long ago. That implies to me that the high readings are a result of pretty large deeper deposits of mercury that are vaporizing slowly through rock fractures to reach the surface and evaporate into the air.

I'm still not convinced that mercury is that great of an indicator of gold/silver, etc... ore deposits, but it's mostly because I haven't finished reading all the geology articles that suggest it IS.

I'm looking forward to any other information any of you can provide to continue the discussion and help me learn some things.

Paul
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