Development of a new analytical strategy to determine the Hg isotopic composition in gold materials
Résumé
Mercury (Hg) is still widely used for gold extraction in artisanal and small-scale gold mines: to extract it from a lode ore or a gold-bearing sand, miners often resort to amalgamation, which consists of adding Hg. However, Hg can also be present in gold naturally (up to 800 ppm in goldsilver deposits¹), and therefore linked to the gold deposit and its geological origin.