Tons of gold in sea of slush in Japan!

February 02, 2009

Commodity Online
TOKYO: In India, sweepers pay a fee to sweep floors of jewellery shops and goldsmiths’ premises! Because, the weepers invariably get some gold from the dust they collect from these shops.

But have you ever heard of countries collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth gold from slush? Yes, Japan is now mining gold from garbage in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.

At a time when global economic meltdown is threatening to sink countries, Japan has found this gold mine of sewage a handy tool to reap in some moolah. Gold prices are at its peak now across the globe. In India the metal is at its all time high of above Rs 14,000 per 10 gm.

According to media reports, a sewage treatment facility in central Japan’s Suwa area has reported a yield of gold extracted from sludge to rival production levels at some of the best mines in the world.

Reports said the high percentage of gold Suwa facility was due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal.

The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 gm of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.

That is higher gold content than Japan’s Hishikari Mine, one of the world’s top gold mines, which contains 20-40 gm of yellow metal per tonne of ore.

While the facility has so far received £38,500 for the gold, it is predicting its coffers could swell by £116,000 by the end of the financial year next month as a result of the precious metal.

Sewers are not the only location where resource-poor Japan is seeking its fortunes: the nation’s rubbish dumps are among other unlikely sources of gold and other precious metals.

High-tech rubbish dumps — dubbed “urban mines” — located outside every major city in Japan have emerged as a major source of resources for substances including gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper.

In India's Surat, which is the diamond headquarters of India, sweepers pay money to shop owners to collect dust from their shops' premises. And, the sewages near these shops invariably give the sweepers small diamonds and gold. In tamil Nadu and Kerala, jewellery shop owners get a fee from people who sweep the shop and the premises for collecting the dust, which contains a lot of gold dust also.

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