Is gold, silver and mercury ever found in the same area?

Question

I know of someone who was helping dig a water well when about 20 or 30 feet down they came across some shale looking stone that had simi-liquid silver droplets on the surface. There was also a ledgend that at one time indians took gold out of the same area as well as silver

Can this be true?r

Answer 1

Yes gold and silver are often found together, along with mercury. But just because you find one doesn't mean that the others are present.  

Answer 2

Gold and silver are almost always found together.  The most common form of naturally occurring gold is called electrum, an alloy of gold and silver. Mercury is often in the 'gold suite' a grouping of minerals that tend to be associated with gold (finding one of the members of the suite is close to meaningless, finding 3 or more is very encouraging).

Mercury is often nearby some deposit of gold and silver naturally but that is not necessarily due to the original emplacement.  Lots of gold is found transported far way from where it was originally emplaced and at times ends up nearmercury deposits; if they come in touch the amalgamate.

IN different places I have seen liquid mercury near and with gold.  But this was due to years of mishandling of mercury to processs gold, until recently a widespread and legal procedure.  It is now only widespread.

Answer 3

Yes, heavy metals are often found near one another. Leadville and Telluride in Colorado are named for the metals mined there, an area also known for gold and silver.

I am not aware of mercury existing in elemental form in nature, though. It is typically found in the form of its sulfide, cinnabar. The only cinnibar mines I am aware of in the US are in California.

OTOH, elemental mercury was once used for the extraction of gold and silver. If the area was being mined for gold and silver and if elemental mercury was used for extraction and if you happened to encounter material from that area that had been later covered over by 20 or 30 feet of dirt, then it might actually be mercury that you saw.