ZMEThere are millions of dollars in gold and other metals in the sewage sludge in major cities. A new study has found that in a city with 1 million inhabitats, there’s as much as $13 million worth of valuable metals, including gold and silver.
It’s been known for quite a while that sewage sludge contains significant quantities of valuable metals, but this is the first study I could find which quantifies that amount. For every 1 million people, on average, you’ll find over $2.5 million worth of gold and silver, plus other metals worth millions more.
“For a community of 1 million people, metals in biosolids were valued at up to US$13 million annually,” they conclude in a paper published in Environmental Science & Technology. “A model incorporating a parameter to capture the relative potential for economic value from biosolids revealed the identity of the 13 most lucrative elements with a combined value of US $280/ton [907 kg] of sludge.” That equates to about $8 million in a hypothetical city of 1 million people.
Furthermore, these metals are actually costing governments good money; from a point of view, they’re a pollutant. If they reach a high enough quantity, then the sludge can’t be used as a fertilizer and instead has to be deposited as landfill – turning it into a cost, from an asset (60 percent of sludge produced in America ends up feeding its farms).
The amount won’t shake the world markets, but it can be a way for cities to get some extra value. The city of Suwa in Japan is already working on extracting the gold. They installed a treatment plant near a large number of precision equipment manufacturers reportedly collected nearly 2 kilograms of gold in every metric ton of ash left from burning sludge, making it more gold-rich than the ore in many mines.
Still, before we get to excited, it has to be said that there is no practical way of recovering every bit of gold, but still, scientists argue that the extraction of gold and silver from sludge can be quite profitable. Jordan Peccia from Yale University in the US, who was not involved in the study agrees.
“We’re not going to get rid of this sewage sludge. We need to make this push where we stop thinking about it as a liability and instead we think about it as a resource. And anything we can find in sewage sludge that’s valuable, it’s good.”
But gold and silver are not the only things of value from the sludge. A small number of sewage plants are already removing phosphorous and nitrogen, which can be sold as fertilizer. Sweden, which recycles most of its waste is testing the feasibility of making bioplastics from wastewater. A model sewage incinerator that generates electricity and drinking water was just promoted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which helped fund its construction.
All in all, there’s big money in sewage sludge – we just have to find a way to get it.
Scientific Reference: Science| DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa6359
http://www.zmescience.com/science/chemistry/sewage-sludge-gold-21012015/
Get your prospector pans out folks and jump in for the find…. Pretty crappy way to get gold …but……
“Hey Beavis, take this strainer and wade in there for all the gold you want.” Until they find a way to separate the gold and other precious metals from the fecal matter, I’m keeping my hands out of it.
And if you act now, I’ll drop a steaming pile of riches on your carpet for the bargain-basement price of $20
“There’s gold in them there steaming piles.”
” it has to be said that there is no practical way of recovering every bit of gold, but still, scientists argue that the extraction of gold and silver from sludge can be quite profitable”
No practical way but scientist think it could be profitable. ASK A BUSINESSMAN NOT A SCIENTIST about profitability. These ‘scientists’ cant do math apparently.
“I scientifically declare there’s enough “$hit” in that “$hit” to make some money off that “$hit!”
I find gold on my property where I’m retiring at this year. I isn’t going to make me rich by any means but it’s there, and I don’t have to wade through a pile of crap to find it. Besides, what they are talking about is microscopic in size and takes expensive processing to get. The scientists need to take a third grade math class again.
real “black gold”
Forget about the gold BS and follow the Gates part
they want you to drink recycled sewerage
No joke check out dr Wynn Parker he been warning us for years
Sounds like things are so bad now cities are resorting to desperate measures.
. . .
“It’s been known for quite a while that sewage sludge contains significant quantities of valuable metals, but this is the first study I could find which quantifies that amount. For every 1 million people, on average, you’ll find over $2.5 million worth of gold and silver, plus other metals worth millions more.”
Probably millions more if they could ‘re-claim’ all the pharmaceuticals.