Guest keninla Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Lamar,Just finished reading an interesting article about small scale mining around San Simon Bolivia. Apparently the miners there use lots of mercury and BURN the amalgam in OPEN AIR to free the gold from mercury.Is San Simon the area that you hang out?I often thought that it would be interesting to visit South America. Just wondering if the pollution is as bad as the article made it sound.Regards,Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garimpo Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 Hi Ken, burning the amalgam off is also the practice here in Brazil. The prospectors can't afford anything else and a little propane torch is the cheapest way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamar Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Dear kenla and garimpo;San Simon is a very inaccessible area in the northeastern part of Bolivia, in the department of Beni. It is situated on the border of Brazil and most of the miners there are in fact Brazilians. I've only been to San Simon via small aircraft and it's mostly alluvial workings there. The area there is extremely remote so there is no real danger of pollution to speak. I reckon that San Simon is about 600 kilometers to the north of Santa Cruz, which is my home base. San Simon is situated in a shallow decomposed mountain range by the same name, Serrania San Simon. I like to beep in an area called San Ramon and around Conception, which are much closer to home and better workings, IMHO. They are also in the department of Beni. I've also beeped around Oruro and within the next week I will be going south to Camiri to see what the diggings around there look like. I am also going to be working in the heart of the Tipuani gold formation outside of LaPaz in the very near future, at a remote site. Talk about throwing the rabbit in the proverbial briar patch! I can't wait to go! I was the only volunteer and everybody thinks I am loco for raising my hand. I already have my coil selection picked out for the Tipuani adventure!Your friend;LAMAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest keninla Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Lamar,what is it that you do in Bolivia? Aside from beeping I mean.Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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