Copper plates for amalgamation (1 reply)

Sachin Prakash
7 years ago
Sachin Prakash 7 years ago

Why were copper plates used historically for mercury amalgamation = rather than other metals?  it's always copper.  Thank you

Hauptsturm
7 years ago
Hauptsturm 7 years ago

Mercury is attracted to copper. The mercury is dispensed down a long copper table, which formed a thin coating of mercury on the whole table. This creates a mercury-wetted copper plate. The gold ore was then transferred down the table, and gold in the ore amalgamated with the mercury. This coating would then be scraped off and refined by evaporation to get rid of the mercury, leaving behind somewhat high-purity gold. No other metal does this. Just copper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdLJ9uBPXL8

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