[burn13090]

When mercury amalgamates with another metal (i.e. gold, silver, copper) is it possible to retain all of the other metal?

I have a separation of compound project for my chemistry class, but my teacher, upon further research, gave me four elements [mercury and silver (amalgam) and gold and copper (14k gold)] that react with eachother.  I read on a site that once mercury amalgamates with a metal, it is not possible to get all of the other metal(s) back.  In a project where you must retain all original materials, this presents a problem.

I have read that mercury cannot be placed in a glass retort for distillation.  Is there another way to separate these metals?