Where does mercury come from, do we mine for it or is it chemically made?

Answer 1

Mercury is an elemental compound and has the chemical symbol Hg. As such, you can not "chemically" make it. The chief source of Mercury is from an ore called cinnbar (HgS) You mine the ore -- Spain and Italy produce about 50% of the world's supply.

Answer 2

I don't know what its natural form is. However, I know you can't "chemically make" it. That term implies that it is synthesized, which would involve some sort of chemical reaction to cause one or more substances to take a different chemical form (i.e. different chemical structure and/or composition). Mercury (Symbol:Hg) is an element and, as such, cannot be synthesized (I don't know how much you know about chemistry, so I 'm sorry if this is too much information). It is as if mercury were the egg in a cake. You can use the egg to make (synthesize) the cake, but you cannot make an egg. Mercury is already in its elemental form and cannot be broken down any further (unless you want to get into the nucleus, etc.) So, chances are, mercury is found in nature combined with other substances and maybe found in rocks, etc. It could then be physically (through sheer force, filtration, etc.) or chemically extracted(using chemicals to separate the mercury from the rest). Note that chemical extraction is different that synthesis (the first, you are separating the components of a molecule, the second, you are combining or recombining components to form a product). Oops, i just realized I didn't really answer your question. But I hope I shed some light on the subject.

Answer 3

Where Does Mercury Come From

Answer 4

Mercury, once known as liquid silver and as quicksilver, was studied in alchemy. It was first distinguished as an element by the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier in his experiment on the composition of air.

Answer 5

Mercury is a naturally occurring metal that can be found at very low levels almost everywhere. Many people are familiar with the silvery liquid form of mercury found in thermometers.

"Mercury is a natural component of the earth, with an average abundance of approximately 0.05 mg/kg in the earth’s crust, with significant local variations. Mercury ores that are mined generally contain about one percent mercury, although the strata mined in Spain typically contain up to 12-14 percent mercury. While about 25 principal mercury minerals are known, virtually the only deposits that have been harvested for the extraction of mercury are cinnabar. Mercury is also present at very low levels throughout the biosphere. Its absorption by plants may account for the presence of mercury within fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, since these fuels are conventionally thought to be formed from geologic transformation of organic residues.

The mercury available on the world market is supplied from a number of different sources, including (not listed in order of importance):

Mine production of primary mercury (meaning extracted from ores within the earth’s crust):
- either as the main product of the mining activity,
- or as by-product of mining or refining of other metals (such as zinc, gold, silver) or minerals;
Recovered primary mercury from refining of natural gas (actually a by-product, when marketed, however, is not marketed in all countries);
Reprocessing or secondary mining of historic mine tailings containing mercury;
Recycled mercury recovered from spent products and waste from industrial production processes. Large amounts ("reservoirs") of mercury are "stored" in society within products still in use and "on the users’ shelves";
Mercury from government reserve stocks, or inventories;
Private stocks (such as mercury in use in chlor-alkali and other industries), some of which may later be returned to the market.
The mining and other mineral extraction of primary mercury constitute the human mobilisation of mercury for intentional use in products and processes. Recycled mercury and mercury from stocks can be regarded as an anthropogenic re-mobilisation of mercury previously extracted from the Earth.

Despite a decline in global mercury consumption (global demand is less than half of 1980 levels), supply from competing sources and low prices, production of mercury from mining is still occurring in a number of countries. Spain, China, Kyrgyzstan and Algeria have dominated this activity in recent years, and several of the mines are state-owned. The table below gives information on recorded global primary production of mercury since 1981. There are also reports of small-scale, artisanal mining of mercury in China, Russia (Siberia), Outer Mongolia, Peru, and Mexico. It is likely that this production serves robust local demand for mercury, often for artisanal mining of gold – whether legal or illegal. Such mercury production would require both accessible mercury ores and low-cost labor in order for it to occur despite low-priced mercury available in the global commodity market."