A sewage plant in Japan's Nagano prefecture has started mining gold from sludge, earning a cool 5 million yen ($56,000) in its first month of operation.
On January 28, sewage plant operator Nagano Prefecture Suwa Construction Office announced that approximately 1.9 kilograms (4.2 lbs) of gold can be mined from each ton of molten fly ash generated when incinerating sludge at its facility in the town of Suwa.
Located in central Nagano prefecture, the Suwa Basin is home to numerous precision machining companies, metal plating facilities and hot springs, which may explain the high concentration of gold in the wastewater sludge.
Joint research conducted in 2007 by Nagano prefecture and the Japan Sewage Works Agency found that the concentration of gold in the ash was comparable to that of a high-grade ore. But because the cost of extracting the gold outweighed the potential profit, the operator continued treating the ash as an industrial waste material.
However, with the recent rise in the price of gold, Suwa decided to start mining the molten fly ash. Last October, they sold 1.4 tons of the ash to a smelting company. At the end of January, Suwa is scheduled to receive its first payment of 5 million yen ($56,000) for the recovered gold.
By the end of March 2009, Suwa plans to mine a total of 5 tons of ash for a profit of 15 million yen ($167,000). The sewage operator says it will use the revenue to help pay for plant maintenance and operating costs.
The facility treats about 100,000 tons of wastewater each day, generating about 3 tons of ash in the process.
[Sources: Yomiuri, Nagano Nippo]
Timothy
That's pretty insane. Good for them
[]saintneko
Just goes to show that where there's a will, there's a way. Making gold out of pollution is just "fuck-yeah" in my book. If it didn't cost so much money to recover it, all industrial waste would be recovered and re-used. It's just currently cheaper to pollute - once laws are changed and it's expensive to pollute, it'll be cheaper to mine your wasted for re-usable chems.
[]radiofoot
Personally I prefer to climb a tower with my bare hands and then have a bunch of druid like dudes clean me and process my shit using ancient techniques, but I understand that this isn't the most efficient way of doing it.
[]tom
But... but... where does it come from?
[]bruce
Tom, gold is used in circuit boards so I expect the high tech waste from precision instrumentation explains the gold. There will also be silver and other precious metals.
In the UK, we have a saying, "Where there's muck, there's brass!"
In fact, a whole bunch of valuable elements.
Bruce
[]Mike
Just wait till they figure out a way of extracting the Uranium and Plutonium out of the sludge.
[]Cosplay Diary
SUGOI! I love how more and more people are innovating to help the world and develop new economic opportunities. Do you know if people outside of Japan can buy these little golden poos? I want to support the cause!
[]Kurt
Out of all the Comments made. Bruce made the only true comment on where it came from. The poop incinerator is in the middle of circuit city. not on the outskirts of bamboo city... So if you you breath it you will poop it. Ha ha ha. So mine is full of pollutants.
[]marie
where the sewage sludge come from?
[]marie
............yes i know sludge is a semi-solid material left industrial or wastewater .............but the word sewage comes from where?
[]mark
"molten fly ash"? wtf?
[]Robert
Wow! Whatever you can do to make a buck these days, huh...
[]bilisim teknolojileri
wowww... beatiful
[]Jame Meginnes
http://charlotte.bloglines.co.za/
[]the_nthian
Three tons of ash per day, 4.2 POUNDS Au per ton...and they're only getting 10's of thousands of dollars? These numbers don't add up.
[]The output should be more like $350,000 PER DAY...somebody's not telling it all.