Sewage sludge contains millions of dollars worth of gold!

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.

That is just what I thought after reading the OP, heck if they break even it means more jobs and less heavy metals returned to the rivers/lakes and so on.

Regards, Iwinder

This is actually common practice on the Ganges (India)

a reply to: purplemer

Apparently they assume the metals aren't coming from bodily wastes but from refineries, factories what have you that work with these metals and they somehow end up in the sewage systems through dumping mop buckets hand washing, laundry whatever might trap these particles and allow them to get disposed of later. Well that and slamming Goldschlager.

Sorry to disillusion you Purp but I'm afraid you won't get rich looking in the toilet bowl.

I'd imagine this is talking about colloidal metals which can't be recovered by conventional means like specific gravity.

The ocean is full of such gold for instance, but it can't be recovered.

The vegetables we eat have traces.

Interesting, but I think that's all it is.

a reply to: Blaine91555

I think you are right.

However 280$ per ton is far above most traces in other things.

With that concentration perhaps there is a benefit for the effort.

I think some form of electrolsis could work just as it works to create such.

There's gold in them thar dooky!
Eureka! I found a nugget!

a reply to: Kukri

Best bet would be centrifuges as they are heavier metals.

Automate it, and its viable, though the energy cost will
be a tad high unless they can find a way to do it without
centrifuges.

Maybe some day nanotech can do it, its possible.

a reply to: Kukri

does this mean we can't call someone dirt poor anymore ?

originally posted by: deadeyedick
a reply to: Blaine91555

I think you are right.

However 280$ per ton is far above most traces in other things.

With that concentration perhaps there is a benefit for the effort.

I think some form of electrolsis could work just as it works to create such.

Well, at the at this very moment prices, gold is $1,243 an ounce.

So, think of how much crap you'd have to go through, literally, to get 1/5 an ounce of gold.

I guarantee you, you will get more than $280 worth of gold if you panned a ton of dirt from your backyard. I promise you. Maybe not much more 9depends on local geology, of course) but definitely more.

a reply to: Kukri

My wife read this story to me last night, all I could think about was whether or not I could CHARGE my septic service now rather than pay them