Gold Amalgamators

These amalgamators are extent copies of the old Spanish arastras firsts used in Mexico in the 1500s to mill ore. An equipment is used to spin the heavy shoe of the amalgamator at thirty r.p.m. The shoe is not held rigid from over, but is alloyed to rest on the base of the bowl. A splined shaft turns the shoe but is not secure to it. This guarantee that the shoe moves evenly on the face of the bowl and that the weigh of the heavy shoe is continually pressing down on the bowl. This is essential, since, the combination of the gold will take place among the bowl and the moving shoe. The shaft rotating the shoe can be elevated and the shoe detached from the bowl when needed.

The material to be fused is added to the bowl while the shoe is spinning. Water is added until the bowl is about half full .To guarantee the gold being clean and ready to alloy with mercury, this material is ground for twenty minutes before the mercury is added.           

To decide how much mercury is required one must calculate how much gold is in the bowl. Used twice that quantity of mercury. If one is in hesitation as to how much gold is there, an overload of mercury should be used .It is central to have enough mercury present so that after the mixture has taken place, the gold combination and the excess quicksilver form a pond of liquid which can be simply poured. If not enough mercury is used the gold fusion cannot ride in the liquid and will turn  the impurities in the concentrate disperse. It will not be simply divided from them. After the gold has been washed about twenty minutes the mercury is transfer into the amalgamator. The material in the bowl should never come up past the center of the shoe, for any material over that would not be entirely amalgamated .In mainly cases combination will be completed in forty –five minutes.

The motor is then shut off and the shaft that twists the shoe is raised. The shoe is taken out of the bowl and set in a large pan. A gold pan works correctly. In cleaning the amalgamator and separating the mercury and the gold amalgam from the rest of the material, extreme care should be taken. Liquid mercury can simply be spilled or lost without one even knowing it. Always worked over a pan or tub full with water. In this way in case of an accidental spill, the material will not be lost. Anybody who has ever played with mercury knows that one it is spilled on the ground there is no way it can be collected again. The shoe is placed on its side in the pan and cautiously washed off. The bowl is then evacuating into the pan, then lay on its side and any residual material is warily washed into the pan.

All of the material from the amalgamator is sited in a gold pan an the lighter “insul”, or iron and other dirt’s, are panned off by hand. One must be very careful while panning off the lighter materials not to drop any mercury .Again, the panning should be done into another pan to guarantee that if spilled the mercury can be recovered. When sufficient insul has been separated so that the mercury is visible in the base of the pan, the mercury is cautiously transfer into a two cup size Pyrex measuring cup .These are preferable to glass beakers. They are heavier spouts, are not costly and can be by at any hardware store. Check the pan to make sure that all of the mercury is in the measuring cup .If a little mercury what's left in the pan enough insul should be panned off so that the remain mercury can be transfer into the measuring cup.