Artisanal Gold Council Menu
en English▼
X
ar العربيةzh-CN 简体中文zh-TW 繁體中文en Englishtl Filipinofr Françaishi हिन्दीid Bahasa Indonesialo ພາສາລາວmn Монголmy ဗမာစာno Norsk bokmålps پښتوfa فارسیpt Portuguêsru Русскийes Españolsw Kiswahili
DONATE
COVID-19 PORTAL
COVID-19 CALL TO ACTION
Artisanal Gold Council
DONATE
COVID-19 PORTAL
COVID-19 CALL TO ACTION
  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Our Approach
    • Our Services
  • Who We Are
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Our Work
    • Asia
    • South America
    • Africa
    • Global
    • planetGOLD
  • Investments
    • Responsible Artisanal Gold ETF
  • Tools
    • Gold Price Calculator
    • Training Materials
    • Videos
    • Useful Links
  • Library
    • Country Studies
    • Presentations
    • Related Literature
  • News
    • AGC in the Press
    • Events
    • FAQ
    • Videos
  • Blog
    • Blog Subscription
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • en English▼
    X
    ar العربيةzh-CN 简体中文zh-TW 繁體中文en Englishtl Filipinofr Françaishi हिन्दीid Bahasa Indonesialo ພາສາລາວmn Монголmy ဗမာစာno Norsk bokmålps پښتوfa فارسیpt Portuguêsru Русскийes Españolsw Kiswahili
  • Search
  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Our Approach
    • Our Services
  • Who We Are
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Our Work
    • Asia
    • South America
    • Africa
    • Global
    • planetGOLD
  • Investments
    • Responsible Artisanal Gold ETF
  • Tools
    • Gold Price Calculator
    • Training Materials
    • Videos
    • Useful Links
  • Library
    • Country Studies
    • Presentations
    • Related Literature
      • Recent publication on assessing mercury exposure
      • What does a national public health strategy for ASGM look like?
      • The Minamata Convention on Mercury: A Beginner’s Guide
      • A Simple Public Health Strategy for ASGM
      • The Effect of Changing Gold Prices on Artisanal Mining
      • Mercury Recycling in Artisanal Gold Mining: The Good and the Bad
      • Historical and Modern Government Responses to Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining
      • Concentration of Gold Ores – a Key to Reducing Mercury Use in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining
      • Is Borax the Miracle Chemical that Will Replace Mercury in Artisanal Gold Mining?
      • Health and Artisanal Gold Mining
      • Fifty thousand gold shops in the world’s artisanal gold supply chain
      • World Artisanal Gold Production
      • Silver Causes Huge Increase in Mercury Use in Artisanal Gold Mining
      • Price of mercury rising faster than gold
      • 60 Minutes Upcoming Conflict Gold Piece
  • News
    • AGC in the Press
    • Events
    • FAQ
    • Videos
  • Blog
    • Blog Subscription
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • en English▼
    X
    ar العربيةzh-CN 简体中文zh-TW 繁體中文en Englishtl Filipinofr Françaishi हिन्दीid Bahasa Indonesialo ພາສາລາວmn Монголmy ဗမာစာno Norsk bokmålps پښتوfa فارسیpt Portuguêsru Русскийes Españolsw Kiswahili
  • Search

Is Borax the Miracle Chemical that Will Replace Mercury in Artisanal Gold Mining?

Posted 16th May 2012 by Kevin Telmer

The Myth of a Miracle Cure

Can borax replace mercury in artisanal gold mining? – or is it better concentration that can replace mercury? Does Borax really have anything to do with it?

Is Borax a Miracle Chemical?

Those promoting borax as a replacement for mercury in small scale gold mining are overselling it and risk giving the impression that there is a miracle cure. They may be well intentioned but they are misleading the world by claiming that borax is a direct replacement for mercury. This is simply not true.

The bar of gold shown here was entirely produced using borax. It was also entirely produced using mercury. How can that be if the word going around is that borax is a replacement for mercury?

It is not. Borax is used in every Artisanal and Small Scale Mining gold shop in the world and has been for a hundred years. It has been used in pottery glazes for centuries for the same reason. It is a flux.

Background: if a miner has 10 kilograms of sand that contains 10 grams of gold, that is 0.1% gold or 1/1000 th. So she needs to concentrate by 1000 times to end up with the gold. How can she separate the gold from the sand? She adds mercury to the 10 kilograms of sand which dissolves the gold and is then easily separated from the sand as a heavy liquid. Then she evaporates the mercury and is left with the gold plus about 10% impurities – grains of sand for example. It is at this stage that borax is used in gold shops – for melting and removing the impurities in 10 grams of gold – not for concentrating the gold in 10 kilograms of sand by 1000 times. Borax is only used to assist in removing the impurities.

Everybody has always used borax (and other fluxes) to melt gold concentrates. It makes some impurities – tiny bits of other minerals – melt at a lower temperature and become thinner so that the mineral melt, a molten glass slag, and the molten gold can be separated easily. That is what fluxes do.

It doesn’t matter if you have a 25% gold, 75% sand mixture or a 90% pure piece of sponge gold (the porous product of mercury amalgamation), you’re going to use borax to melt it.

Borax does not replace mercury. It is not used at the same stage of the process as mercury.

Mercury is applied to a big pile of sand containing a tiny bit of gold.

Borax is applied to a tiny pile of gold containing a tiny bit of sand.

Therefore, the so-called borax method is nothing more than a method of better concentration that then uses borax as it has always been used. So there is no “borax method”. There is simply better concentration. Just ask any gold shop owner or his grandfather about borax… Its been around for a long time.

Borax is not a miracle chemical that can solve the mercury problem in Artisanal Gold Mining. For the millions of artisanal gold miners and the governments working with them to reduce mercury use, proclamations of borax miracles should be replaced by a proper explanation: If you can make a 25% gold concentrate, you don’t need mercury. It is better concentration that can eliminate mercury, not borax. And better concentration usually requires a higher level of organisation.

Live Gold Price

Subscribe

For updates on the impacts of Covid-19 on artisanal and small-scale gold mining communities and to join the conversation, subscribe to AGC’s blog.


extra news title

Latest Posts

Latest News

Recognizing Women’s Contributions and Challenges in Philippine Small-Scale Mining

Mar 17, 2021

  Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) provides livelihoods for rural communities and facilitates local development, and importantly ASGM…

Read More

Strengthening Local Government in Mongolia via the Minamata Convention on Mercury

Mar 15, 2021

    Over the last 30 years, Mongolia has moved from a centrally planned economy to a market driven economy. This shift, and the reliance on…

Read More

extra twitter title

Latest Tweets

Latest Tweets

3 days ago
ArtisanalGoldCouncil's Twitter avatar
ArtisanalGoldCouncil
@artisanal_gold

We are seeking qualified candidates to apply for the position of Supply Chain Geo-Economist. If you are interested… t.co/S86Jnhtkeh

  • Reply
  • Retweet 1
  • Like 1
4 days ago
planetGOLD Programme's Twitter avatar
planetGOLD Programme
@planetGOLD_org

Carrie George, VP at @everledgerio, shared some great insights about improving supply chains for #responsiblymined… t.co/7UDoVESUHC

Retweeted by ArtisanalGoldCouncil
  • Reply
  • Retweet 1
  • Like 3

All of the documents and data presented by the AGC on this website are subject to copyright. © Copyright 2021

Custom WordPress site by Quadra Street Designs