Existing comment:
Retort Furnace
Amalgamation is used to recover free gold in both hard-rock and placer mining. A small amount of mercury is poured in a miner's pan, sluice, arrastre or mechanical amalgamator where it combines with gold to form amalgam. This grayish-white pasty mass is collected and cleaned. The gold is then separated from the mercury by heating or retorting and the mercury can be used again. |