95 lbs of gold a year in Swiss waste water system

[Chiltepin]

95lbs of gold end up in Swiss waste water
treatment plants every year.

Swiss watchmakers seem to be the culprit.

Link
Scientists find gold worth $2 million in Swiss sewage - Oct. 11, 2017

 

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[GB1]

start digging in the sewage (just kidding)

 

[Tpmetal]

start digging in the sewage (just kidding)

I seriously thought about it for a minute. haha

 

[Chiltepin]

Start selling incinerator toilets to the watch makers.
Pipe in the plumbing.
Then collect the ashes once a week!

Win!

 

[digger460]

I'd be setting up a sluice under my terlet

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I remember someone in the 70's had a plan to extract gold from seawater. Thirteen billionths of a gram of gold per gallon of seawater.

In the 80's & 90's I worked for a photographic company that had been operating at a site since the 1920's. One of the processes was to dissolve the silver out of old or repurposed film for reuse. But the huge slurry tank had a crack. It turns out 200,000 troy ounces of silver was in the soil below that crack when it was discovered and had to be remediated (hazardous waste). More than paid for the recovery and treatment of the soil. And this was just after the Hunt Brothers has the price of silver up through the roof and it was still around $25/troy ounce.

 

[Nitric]

start digging in the sewage (just kidding)

For 2 million! I'll dig! Where's the shovel?

 

[Nitric]

I remember someone in the 70's had a plan to extract gold from seawater. Thirteen billionths of a gram of gold per gallon of seawater.

In the 80's & 90's I worked for a photographic company that had been operating at a site since the 1920's. One of the processes was to dissolve the silver out of old or repurposed film for reuse. But the huge slurry tank had a crack. It turns out 200,000 troy ounces of silver was in the soil below that crack when it was discovered and had to be remediated (hazardous waste). More than paid for the recovery and treatment of the soil. And this was just after the Hunt Brothers has the price of silver up through the roof and it was still around $25/troy ounce.

This was just explained to me the other night by a friend that knows where one or more of these tanks was left, according to him? The sludge is still in the bottom, sitting in an abandoned building for years!!!

He told me what your saying above. They also dumped x-rays, in these tanks at one time to take the silver off?(according to him) By the truck loads, then drain the tanks after so long, and shovel the sludge out. etc...

Anyhow, Your post hit me....Because A friend was just explaining the same thing to me 2 nights ago, and I thought maybe he may be confused, on a possible "permission for exploring" since he knows the owner of the property, My thought was"ok? Who would leave that behind?" . Hmm, might have to call him back! I guess the warehouse is sitting empty for years, and years, because of the chems and tanks sitting around. No one wants to be responsible for clean up or pointing fingers at someone else etc.... Out of sight out of mind type thing..."It will go away." It wasn't just photographic stuff they did there over the years. Stuff had to be destroyed, and this was a place for some recovery on anything of value, plus the charge of destroying the stuff which was their main income, "the destruction service". Never heard of such places before 2 days ago.

And...Imagine what might have been dumped in the creeks or "out back" when prices were low and things just got dumped where ever? There might be some valuable soil around.

 

[Chiltepin]

I've heard stories of people that made a living
off recovery from Jewelers cleaning solution.

 

[Chiltepin]

For 2 million! I'll dig! Where's the shovel?

The article also states millions in silver plus some other metals.
I'll buy the shovel for a small 20% fee

 

[Nitric]

The article also states millions in silver plus some other metals.
I'll buy the shovel for a small 20% fee

There were stories....Dueber watch case factory in Canton Ohio. Of the cleaning people, and I guess years after it closed someone took up the wood floor to get the Gold dust, from the watch case factory. Or something along those lines.....We always just thought it was local legend type stuff at the time...But I'll bet someone did!

And yes! You buy the shovel, I'll dig!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Yep. X-ray films use the same silver halide and silver bromide compounds. Just remember that in with all that silver was a BUNCH of cadmium (toxic heavy metal), cadmium nitrate, and other fun stuff like silver nitrate (burns skin) and dichloromethane (gets those metals into your skin).

Some of the acids used to dissolve the emulsion/film are also nasty as nasty gets. Hydrogen peroxide - the stuff you put on cuts - is 3% solution in the drug store. We used 98% solution and if it spilled it was like the creature's blood from the Alien movies. I also had my clothes just disintegrate from prolonged exposure to the silver nitrate. I had to inventory it twice monthly and kept a cotton jump-suit for those visits. After a while the cotton would turn to dust. The line workers had to wear wood soled boots because the rubber or leather wouldn't last.

We also used gold in many of the f-stock formulas for dyes and platinum "cages" to hold samples for lab testing. I had to count those every week.

That company was an ancestor of Scoville (then Analine-Scoville, then Ansco, then GAF) - that supplied Mathew Brady for the Civil War images, aerial photos of WWI & WWII, photographed the moon landings. Kodak bought them for a few patents we held and shut down a 140 year old company. What a shame. But by now OSHA would have closed it down. The fumes were uncontrollable. There is also one spot of that 1 acre "campus" that is a NYS Toxic Hot Spot and is too scary to disturb! That and digital cameras killed the industry.

 

[Goldfinger450]

Stinky Gold comes from big city sewers. Stinking rich?

 

[Nitric]

I wonder how much jewelry goes down the drain? I kind of barely remember a story about that and the sewer system..... stuff that gets accidentally flushed or falls down the drain.

 

[Nitric]

Yep. X-ray films use the same silver halide and silver bromide compounds. Just remember that in with all that silver was a BUNCH of cadmium (toxic heavy metal), cadmium nitrate, and other fun stuff like silver nitrate (burns skin) and dichloromethane (gets those metals into your skin).

Some of the acids used to dissolve the emulsion/film are also nasty as nasty gets. Hydrogen peroxide - the stuff you put on cuts - is 3% solution in the drug store. We used 98% solution and if it spilled it was like the creature's blood from the Alien movies. I also had my clothes just disintegrate from prolonged exposure to the silver nitrate. I had to inventory it twice monthly and kept a cotton jump-suit for those visits. After a while the cotton would turn to dust. The line workers had to wear wood soled boots because the rubber or leather wouldn't last.

We also used gold in many of the f-stock formulas for dyes and platinum "cages" to hold samples for lab testing. I had to count those every week.

That company was an ancestor of Scoville (then Analine-Scoville, then Ansco, then GAF) - that supplied Mathew Brady for the Civil War images, aerial photos of WWI & WWII, photographed the moon landings. Kodak bought them for a few patents we held and shut down a 140 year old company. What a shame. But by now OSHA would have closed it down. The fumes were uncontrollable. There is also one spot of that 1 acre "campus" that is a NYS Toxic Hot Spot and is too scary to disturb! That and digital cameras killed the industry.

Part of the story goes....In the late 90's early 2000's, The struggling owner lost his "grants" and/or "contracts" wasn't doing what he was supposed to. He quit paying the lease on the property and bailed leaving the mess for someone else. And at this point? No one wants to touch the property because of what's there. From what you explain above? Doesn't really sound like a place to fool around in and "explore". Unless a lot of research is done on each thing going on there. There are supposedly cyanide tanks too, full of liquid saying..."test for gold content". Which I think you explained that above. Or gave me a reason for why those might be there.

Just really strange how this stuff was just talked about, and I randomly see your post going into the same type of thing.

 

[pepperj]

There was a glass plant that shut down and the demolition company started to take down the tank line that floated the glass on tin. There was a reported 14+ tons of tin under the line that had leaked out over the century it was running. Cash cow for the company "free money".
Had these young guys that did the storm sewers and would bring the gold in for sale, totally trespassing and dangerous on their part.
City workers had a in on the cleaning out of the pits at the sewer plant, it was a highly competitive thing to get a spot on the Sh** dig.

 

[trdking]

start digging in the sewage (just kidding)

For 2 million in gold Id be up to my neck in that poo!

 

[pepperj]

Sewer companies that pump out septic tanks often dump the waste on farmers fields. Just wonder how bits of gold would be in the sludge over the years. Ya you got it, folks eat the crops that are grown on the land...

 

[trdking]

There was a glass plant that shut down and the demolition company started to take down the tank line that floated the glass on tin. There was a reported 14+ tons of tin under the line that had leaked out over the century it was running. Cash cow for the company "free money".
Had these young guys that did the storm sewers and would bring the gold in for sale, totally trespassing and dangerous on their part.
City workers had a in on the cleaning out of the pits at the sewer plant, it was a highly competitive thing to get a spot on the Sh** dig.

Had a buddy that worked for Caltrans The guys would fight over who got to walk in front of the sweeper truck. All of the sweeper contents were washed and refined at someones house. They made a killing in rings watches and fine gold

 

[Mzjavert]

I totally believe it.

I took a tour of a class ring factory. They told us that they had filters in the sink traps to capture gold that washed off their hands.