The amalgamation proceeds very slowly, as the sole extraneous heat is that of the sun.
When the ore does not contain any considerable amount of free gold mercury is not, as a rule, used during the crushing, but the amalgamation is carried out in a separate plant.
Since many of the shorter ones are undoubtedly complete in themselves, it is natural to assume that the longer, which are sometimes very comprehensive, have arisen from the amalgamation of various originally distinct revelations.
One of the greatest difficulties in the treatment of gold by amalgamation, and more particularly in the treatment of pyrites, arises from the so-called " sickening " or " flouring " of the mercury; that is, the particles, losing their bright metallic surfaces, are no longer capable of coalescing with or taking up other metals.
Within the empire a very great diversity of nationalities is comprised, due to the amalgamation or absorption by the Slav race of a variety of Ural-Altaic stocks, of Turko-Tatars, Turko-Mongols and various Caucasian races.
