Abstract

CUENTAS ALVARADO, Mario  and  VELARDE OCHOA, Jhon. Mercury use in la Rinconada - Puno. REV. MAMYM [online]. 2019, vol.4, n.1, pp.27-34. ISSN 2519-5352.

Abstract The Rinconada is a mining town that lies at the foot of the imposing snow-capped mountains of the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes of the department of Puno, at 5,400 m.s. in the territorial limit with Bolivia; 50,000 people during the year, in an area of 10 Ha .; It carnes out activities such as the exploitation and processing of the gold ore, obtaining gold as the final product. In the gold recovery process through amalgamation, two equipment is used with great intensity, one of them rudimentary, the "quimbalete" and the other the mill. The technique of amalgamation is used with profusion, due to its simplicity, with maximum efficiency and for the little investment of capital. Mercury is used in the recovery of gold, often without precautions, causing great polluting effect on the atmosphere, water, soil, and on the workers themselves and the families they handle. The inadequate use of mercury in the treatment, the conduction of the production of the high losses, the form of the mercury, the process of the amalgamation, the vapor of Hg and the inorganic compounds during the separation gold -mercury, (refogado). The objective of the present study was to determine the mercury losses in the amalgamation and reimbursement stages. To do this, perform a mass balance of mercury in 5 milis and 6 "quimbaletes", evaluating 6 samples in each equipment. The results indicate that the mercury losses in the milis oscillate between 6 and 9 g of mercury to recover 1 g of gold; and in the case of "quimbaletes" it ranges between 5 and 17 g of mercury to recover 1 g of gold.

Keywords : Mercury; amalgamation; gold; quimbalete; mill; La Rinconada.

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