How Is Mercury Used to Purify Gold?
Properties of Mercury Mercury is a metal with special properties that give it a wide variety of applications. Most obviously, mercury is a liquid at room temperature and standard air pressure. It is this property that caused it to receive the name hydrargyrum, meaning “watery silver” in Greek, from which its symbol, Hg is derived. Just as water is an effective solvent of many substances because of its chemical composition, mercury’s atomic structure makes it an effective solvent of most metals. This, combined with its low boiling point, make it useful for extracting gold from ore in a process of amalgamation and distillation. Amalgamation and Distillation Since at least the time of the ancient Romans, mercury has been used in the mining of gold and silver. Precious metals are usually found in nature among sand and mud and mixed with other nonmetallic elements like sulfur, a problematic condition for miners to which mercury literally was the solution. Gold dissolves in mercury in a way
