05 February 2009

There’s gold in them thar shite

According to Reuters a sewage treatment facility in central Japan has proved absolutely that where there’s muck, there;’s brass... or gold. The facility has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity.. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.

That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, which obtains 20-40 grams of the precious metal per tonne of ore.
The prefecture expects to earn about 15 million yen (about £167k) for the current fiscal year from the gold it has retrieved from the ashes of incinerated sludge.

"How much we actually receive will depend on gold prices at the time," the official said.

Hmm I wish I could think of something remotely witty to end this post. Hi ho!

2 comments:

CherryPie said...

I wonder what made them check for it in the first place...

jams o donnell said...

Beats me but I bet they're glad they did!