ELI5: How is Murcury as a metal mined/acquired?

r/

Murcury is in a liquid state at room temperature, so I assume that out in the world, wherever they get it from, its likely not quite cold enough to be a solid, am I right? Or is it like how some metals are found mixed in with so many other types of metals and they have to separate it out? How would they even do that? Or since they say fish contain small trace amounts of murcury, is there any form of process of collecting however much murcury from a ton of fish to get like a few drops of the metal?

Comments

  1. incognito_dk Avatar

    Most mercury is mined in the form of cinnabar, it’s principal sulfide. This followed by chemical processing resulting in elemental mercury.

  2. Madrugada_Eterna Avatar

    By far the vast majority of elements (including mercury} are not found in their elemental form in nature. They are usually in a compound mineral with other elements.

  3. The_Flying_Lunchbox Avatar

    From the ore cinnabar, a mineral composed of the compound mercury sulfide (HgS). When the ore is roasted (heated in a furnace in the presence of oxygen), the sulfur gets released from the compound as sulfur dioxide (SO2), and the now free mercury can be collected.