Gold Processing Ore 

Keep in mind that extracting ore is only a first step. A number of methods of gold extraction were increasingly developed. The more ancient procedures involved water streams and the theory of different precipitation of the lighter and heavier particles used in gold panning. The practical principle of treatment of gold ore in the mining districts of Southern Bohemia in the Middle Ages had to do with heat separation – in this process the ore was first heated and then cooled by water right away, mechanical crushing and succeeding separation or amalgamation was then done. The theory of amalgamation is mining of gold from the pulverized ore by usage of mercury. The ore dust was rubbed with mercury and this amalgamated with the gold. The amalgam that was produced was an alloy of mercury and gold. Gold that used to be separated from the mercury by processes that consisted of either filtering it through leather or by distillation. Since mercury could be used again, its consumption was not very vast. When we contrast these techniques with the treatment of gold ore in this day and age we only see that more mechanization is used and instead of amalgamation, the more efficient cyanidation method is utilized.