A truly shitty story!
 

US researchers are investigating ways to extract the gold and precious metals from human faeces.

The group identified gold in waste from American sewage treatment plants at levels which if found in rock could be worth mining.

Details were outlined at the 249th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Denver.

Extracting metals from the waste could also help curb the release of toxic substances into the environment.

"The gold we found was at the level of a minimal mineral deposit," said co-author Dr Kathleen Smith, from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

"
In addition to gold and silver, human waste also contains amounts of rare earth metals such as palladium and vanadium. Note: Vanadium and Palladium are not rare earth metals however they are critical metals.



"We're interested in collecting valuable metals that could be sold, including some of the more technologically important metals, such as vanadium and copper, that are in cell phones, computers and alloys," said Dr Smith."

Read full story

<a href=http://www.australianrareearths.com><img src=http://www.australianrareearths.com/images/metals-criticality-index-for-metals-supply-risk.gif width="650px"></a>