Gold is one of the heaviest elements on earth. As the slurry slid across the amalgamation table, even the tiniest specks of gold drifted to the bottom of the mix and dropped into the bed of mercury. Gold and mercury’s chemical relationship is nonexistent. Bits of gold simply collected in the mercury until the mercury was utterly laden. Then it was “clean-up time.” The so-called amalgam was scooped into buckets and carried to a retort room. There, it was heated in iron kettles until all the mercury had vaporized, leaving behind gold. Gold captured in this fashion is called doré. Olmsted noticed
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