Photos: country: NICARAGUA
Foto: Gold mill in Somotillo, Nicaragua
The process of obtaining gold at the mineros artesanales in Somotillo in NW Nicaragua. The mill is iron embedded in the ground. In the axis is a vertical and is connected to the horizontal axis by a differential discarded from the car, drive shaft by an electric motor through the pulley. The actual process is as follows. Three vertical half-meter blocks of basalt are chained to the vertical shaft, which clatter against the iron bottom of the cylinder and occasionally hit the walls, crushing the ore. Water is fed into the cylinder. The gold-bearing ore must first be crushed to pieces smaller than about 5 cm. About 1 kg of mercury is added. While the mill is constantly rotating, the ore gradually enters and the mash flows through the overflow to the sludge pile. The ore bids gradually, sometimes for hours to keep the mill from overwhelming, then grinds empty to make larger pieces disappear, more water is released to clear. The mercury drops are then removed with a rice brush and a flat bowl. The mercury is cleaned in water and then carefully transferred through a fine cloth in a clean water bucket. Solid grains of gray amalgam of gold remain on the canvas, the remaining liquid mercury goes back to the mill. Amalgam grains are fired directly on a free fire or in a special furnace to separate the mercury and obtain pure gold in the porous form of a “gold sponge” that can be easily remelted. | Žáček, Vladimír | 2015
Base information
Photo localization
WGS84:
13.044209536,
-86.9047287044
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Photo linksThemeSubject© Photo: Vladimír Žáček, 2015Autorská práva k tomuto snímku nevlastní Česká geologická služba. Cite of the archive photo No: 29395ŽÁČEK, V. (2015): Foto - Gold mill in Somotillo, Nicaragua.
In: Fotoarchiv České geologické služby [online databáze]. Praha, Česká geologická služba [cit. 2024-05-25].
Dostupné z URL http://www.geology.cz/foto/29395
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