WHAT BECOMES OF OUR QUICKSILVER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 1294, 18 September 1873, Page 6

WHAT BECOMES OF OUR QUICKSILVER.

Has it ever struck anyone to inquire what becomes of all the quicksilver brought to this colony, and used in our mining industries 1 If no*, it is a matter worthy of receiving the attention of some of our scientists. Quicksilver in large quantities is constantly being brought into the colony, and not an ounce is ever sent away. After it has been used in amalgamating the precious metals contained in the ores operated upon, it is seperated from the metals with which it is combined by retorting, and is again used in the amalgamating pans. Thus it is used over and over until it has disappeared. Whether it floats away with the water used in amalgamating or is lost by evaporation, there must be vast quantities of it collecting somewhere, as it is, a metal not easily destroyed. In case it is lost by evaporation, it must condense and fall to the ground somewhere near the works in which it is used ; and if it floats away in the water it must eventnally find a resting-place on the bottom of the stream on which it floated away. It is an axiom among mill men that " wherever quicksilver is lost, silver is lost;" therefore there must be a great amount of silver lost. The quantity of quicksilver distributed monthly among the mills and used by alluvial claim holders, shows just how much is lost. None is sold or sent out of the country with the bullion ; therefore, if there was no loss, the milla would never want any more quicksilver than enough to give them a start at first, as the same lot cuold be used over and over ad injtnitum. But there is a loss, and a very large one, as is exactly shown by the demand for quicksilver. as it all goes to supply the place of that which is lost. — " Auckland Weekly Herald.' 1