Sewage sludge contains millions of dollars worth of gold!

Wanna get rich? Get out your waders and gold panning gear and head out to your nearest treatment plant.

www.cbc.ca...

"Researchers at Arizona State University measured levels of metals in sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, collected across the United States using a mass spectrometer and an electron microscope. They found that amounts of the 13 most valuable elements, including silver, copper, gold and platinum, were worth about $280 US ($350 Cdn) per tonne of sludge.

That means about $13 million worth of metals a year could theoretically be mined from the sewage produced by a city of one million people, said Paul Westerhoff, a professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University in an interview with CBC's Quirks & Quarks."

You absolutely have to check out the comments and follow the link for more humour.

Now how many ATS'ers are willing to roll up their sleeves and get right down to it. There's a gold mine (pun intended) just waiting to be exploited.

originally posted by: Kukri
Wanna get rich? Get out your waders and gold panning gear and head out to your nearest treatment plant.

www.cbc.ca...

"Researchers at Arizona State University measured levels of metals in sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, collected across the United States using a mass spectrometer and an electron microscope. They found that amounts of the 13 most valuable elements, including silver, copper, gold and platinum, were worth about $280 US ($350 Cdn) per tonne of sludge.

That means about $13 million worth of metals a year could theoretically be mined from the sewage produced by a city of one million people, said Paul Westerhoff, a professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University in an interview with CBC's Quirks & Quarks."

You absolutely have to check out the comments and follow the link for more humour.

Now how many ATS'ers are willing to roll up their sleeves and get right down to it. There's a gold mine (pun intended) just waiting to be exploited.

Surprised sewage treatment plants are not already aware of this. For a city like Atlanta that would be around $78MM a year.

talk about getting Filthy rich, I wonder where all these exotic and expensive metals are coming from though. Are they in the foods and drinks, and we are the unfortunate or fortunate who have to process and digest this crap out. I can see it now, GOLD RUSH, that series on the discovery channel, and they set up on the outskirts of New York city, with there big equipment, only to find that there machines keep getting clogged up with Sh@t. LOL

a reply to: Kukri

The next big debate will be who owns the gold that comes out of there lol. Pun intended.

originally posted by: Glassbender777
talk about getting Filthy rich, I wonder where all these exotic and expensive metals are coming from though. Are they in the foods and drinks, and we are the unfortunate or fortunate who have to process and digest this crap out. I can see it now, GOLD RUSH, that series on the discovery channel, and they set up on the outskirts of New York city, with there big equipment, only to find that there machines keep getting clogged up with Sh@t. LOL

In the article they theorize it's from manufacturing plants and such. You would think these plants would have a reclamation system of some sort before it hits the public sewer system.

No I would not sift through a TON of sewage for a ...ahem.. gross profit of $280.

That would add up to LESS than minimum wage. That's a s****y job.

People would have to start drinking a LOT more Goldschlager.

a reply to: abe froman

"Gross profit" lol out of all of them that one actually got me laughing, thank you

Don't knock it, it makes a lot of sense to reuse the materials from all sources, as many as we can. Though I doubt the money would go to improving systems or upkeep, it would be interesting.

Not sure if many would be sanitary but with a lot of work I'm sure sewage plants could sort feces and waste and turn it into fertilizer or something. Gross work but don't let anything go to waste. The future belongs to those who can shovel the most ____! S + F

a reply to: Kukri

It actually also makes environmental sense to remove heavy metals from sewage sludge.

It makes the sewage sludge less toxic for use as fertilizer, the heavy metals are able to be separated and re-sold.

It also validates a suspicion that I have long held.. that heavy metal is excrement.

a reply to: chr0naut

Only the modern stuff

And you're right, it makes it more suitable for fertilizer and also allows us to reuse metals, instead of gouging into the earth for it.

So if a city like Atlanta did this and indeed did get 77 million a year, I am sure it would cost a good chunk of that to pay for the miners/equipment and materials needed to successfully mine that. I guess this could create jobs through the private sector, and boost the economy, but I am sure that each individual city would claim ownership and keep the jobs in house. Damn, I would KILL to be the person to come up with the first machine that could sift through the sewage and mine this stuff. That person will be VERY rich if they invented that.

a reply to: Kukri

It is very true that when you find gold in the ground it most often smells like sewage.

I think wading in it might get you sick.

originally posted by: thesmokingman
So if a city like Atlanta did this and indeed did get 77 million a year, I am sure it would cost a good chunk of that to pay for the miners/equipment and materials needed to successfully mine that. I guess this could create jobs through the private sector, and boost the economy, but I am sure that each individual city would claim ownership and keep the jobs in house. Damn, I would KILL to be the person to come up with the first machine that could sift through the sewage and mine this stuff. That person will be VERY rich if they invented that.

I do not think getting it out would be very costly.

It would take empting out the holding area and sifting only a few feet of earth.

The good stuff is on the bottom.

Since their methodology was using a mass spectrometer, I suspect that most of the metals are in some form that would be very difficult to extract without heavy processing. They are basically taking whatever samples and % they got and extrapolating the amounts of "all" of the precious metal types, coming up with a theoretical mass per ton and getting the value $280/ton.

Not saying it isn't feasible, but the metals aren't bits and pieces in "pan-able" form, so chemical processes would likely be needed to precipitate out the desired compounds for even further processing.

Edit: From the source:

However, the metal found in sewage typically comes in the form of very small particles.

"You can't go out and pick out a gold nugget," Westerhoff said

But it appears you can leave one...

a reply to: Halfswede

I bet there ar some reeal smart peeps out there that can make the heavier stuff fall.

I get your point though.

Perhaps some form of electrolsis could work.

"You can't go out and pick out a gold nugget," Westerhoff said

You could however pick out a golden nugget of corn, TheSmokingMan said...

a reply to: Kukri

How does gold get into poops..?

purp..

a reply to: thesmokingman

I know banter comments are frowned upon, but I chuckled pretty hard on that one.

The gold is coming from those select few, who, we all know, 'sheet' gold...

As far as the other rare elements... I'd guess the social strata dictates which element you poop... silver, copper... unfortunately, I believe I excrete zinc.

a reply to: Baddogma

oh yea that is me.

There was a thread posted a while back that showed humans on average have a couple hundred dollars of gold in them.